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I’ve been lucky to work with many instructional designers from a variety of backgrounds—each brought a valuable skillset to their work, and some had specific strengths or focus depending on the career path they followed to become an instructional designer. Let me start by saying that I’m a strong advocate for only hiring qualified instructional designers to design training or learning. As most instructional designers and learning consultants come from many backgrounds, some may be more suited for your project than others. Hiring the right one means knowing how to pick the right person based on the skillset your project needs. Ideally, you might successfully hire someone who has combined experience or background in these fields. You can do this by asking them to describe past projects, asking for work samples, or by following my other tips for finding the right learning consultant.  The following list is based on my observations—there will always be exceptions to these! You’ll likely encounter instructional designers from all walks of life, which will only enrich their work! 1. Graphic Designers Graphic designers turned instructional designers will have a solid background in colour theory, composition, and visual design. They will excel at projects requiring rebranding eLearning, modernizing job-aids and creating a consistent look and feel for learning assets. Most instructional designers with a graphics design background work collaboratively with content specialists or more experienced instructional designers who can bring solid learning methodology or cognitive science background to a project.
2. Videographers Skilled at writing impactful scripts and quick at editing, audio, music and composition, videographers can easily branch out into learning videos, interactive video, video tutorials, and YouTube or TED talk videos. They’re effective storytellers that can create an emotional impact in a concise format (and emotions are a key part of the neuroscience behind how the brain learns best).
3. Marketers or Communications Professionals Learning consultants with a background in communication are often the best at tone, voice, narration, and scripting. They’re also well-versed on making large amounts of content consistent, relatable, and on-brand. Many instructional designers are also copy editors. Some even come with a digital marketing background in website content, digital analytics or graphic design, so they have an innate ability to gather, monitor, and use learning analytics to inform their work and meet the organization’s goals too. They are also skilled at measuring ROI. These professionals sometimes benefit from partnering with educators or formally trained instructional designers who can confirm learning objectives and evaluate content using educational principles and adult learning methodologies.
4. Educators IDs with a background in teaching or education tend to have ample experience in designing learning activities, facilitating curriculum, and creating unit and lesson plans for the classroom. Educators come with a solid academic background in education methodologies, and most have a Bachelor of Education as a minimum if they worked in the public school system. Educators are excellent at chunking large concepts, engaging learners, and explaining concepts in ways learners respond to best. Although most educators are trained in pedagogy (children and youth focused methods) they may not necessarily have formal training in andragogy (adult education). Many will find their existing qualification and skills highly transferable to adult learning settings and add adult education to their professional development with certificates, courses, and conferences. Read my other post about why teachers make great IDs.
5. Developers Developers, coders, software students or junior engineers are excellent at configuring learning systems and finding workarounds to common delivery problems. Learning consultants with backgrounds in Software as a Service (SaaS) or general development backgrounds excel at delivering course authoring builds or customized course functionality. They usually collaborate with instructional designers on the content itself or build eLearning courses storyboarded by Instructional Designers who worked with subject matter experts on the content in a previous project phase.
6. Technical Writers Instructional designers with a technical writing background know how to translate complex IT processes into user-friendly steps. They are excellent at developing and maintaining knowledge bases, visualizing information, and are usually thorough, systematic and detail-oriented.
7. Business Analysts Some of my favourite learning colleagues to work with used to be Business Analysts: By definition, all Instructional designers design for behaviour change, and business analysists know a lot about using business intelligence to solve business problems. They’re excellent at conducting audits of your Learning Management System (or learning records in general), evaluating effectiveness or measuring training impact, and providing project management for large learning initiatives or programs. Both Marketers and Business Analysts have deep and practical knowledge of analytics, qualitative and quantitative data, and using data to drive business decisions and map your return on investment. This means they’ll have your goals in mind at every step of the project.
Remember: We can't expect someone to know all and be all— there are no ‘unicorns’ out there! Finding someone with experience relevant to your project’s goals and deliverables will mean looking for that special skillset. The best way to find this is to contact the consultant directly and ask them to provide examples of a client list and samples of recent work similar to your project. Read my other tips on what to look for in an instructional design consultant, or get in touch with me to see if I've got the right skillset for your next project!
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 Bravo! You know you need an instructional designer or learning consultant for your organization—you’re already well on your way to success. This post will help you choose the right learning consultant for your project—because not all instructional designers are created equal.
Instructional Designer (or ID) is one of many titles you’ll encounter if you’re searching for a learning or training consultant. There seem to be more and more for hire every day. The eLearning industry is growing rapidly, and so are the consultant ranks. This means you’ll have more choice, but it also means you might experience more confusion when hiring. Here are 5 things to consider when looking for the most appropriate instructional designer for your needs: 1. Check for project management experience Are you expecting your learning consultant to provide a project management framework s (in addition to designing learning deliverables)? Then you’ll want to look for someone with proven experience in managing projects or coordinating project deliverables. Save yourself a lot of time by choosing someone who can provide the structure needed for your project, or who can easily work within an existing one. 2. Think Goldilocks, not unicorns Too much or too little? You want someone who is just right for your business and your team. As with the project management tip above, choose someone who has a similar working style as your team. Try to avoid looking for the “unicorn” candidate—that non-existent person who would have a magical (but perhaps unrealistic) set of ideal combined qualifications and experience. For an example of what just right might look like, consider how they interact with you through email, over the phone or in-person. Are they long-winded or to-the-point? Are they responsive or do you need to follow-up before hearing back from them? Choose a consultant who will align with your organization’s frequency, amount, and style of communication. 3. Listen carefully—they should ask you these questions The needs analysis stage is an essential one. Nobody can create the perfect learning for you without understanding your objectives. If they seem to zero in on the project details too soon, you may not have found the right person. A good instructional design consultant will build a needs analysis interview (similar to a ‘brief’) into the first steps of the project, and ask questions like this:
4. Analyze samples of their past work Always ask to see samples of their work or their instructional design portfolio. Better yet, ask for 2-3 specific samples that are related to your project. For example, if you’re looking to hire someone to configure or administer your Learning Management System, ask for workflow documentation samples or other operational or strategic work. If you’re looking for an eLearning designer, ask for a variety of eLearning samples. If you’re hiring an ID to create eLearning modules, ask them for project samples and get them to define their contribution to the project (%) and what they would do differently if they had more time and money. This is the best interview question in my opinion, and one of key questions I was asked by Limestone Learning (and they know their stuff—they’ve worked with hundreds of consultants throughout Canada)! Tips for analyzing work samples:
5. Ask them to analyze your work This step is a sure-fire way to identify the best candidate. As some point in the selection process, give the consultant access to one of your current courses (in various stages of completion). Ask them questions like “What would you change? What would you do differently?” and then gauge if their responses align with your needs. Takeaway There’s no single formula for hiring the right consultant, but how well the candidate matches your organization’s culture and their experience designing similar deliverables will indicate if they’re the right fit for your project. All in all, don’t hesitate to ask for proof of the skillsets you’re looking for in a learning consultant—we’re used to it! I always welcome the opportunity to share more about my work. Good luck on the hunt!
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