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Do you need to add anything to YouTube to make a good product for learning?

The world loves YouTube for learning stuff. It's probably the most successful learning tool we yet. So why do something similar? What's the additional value?

In general, the barriers to entry in offering a digital product for learning are pretty low. They are falling as time passes, it seems. Making, hosting and publishing content are problems pretty well solved. Packaging and designing that content well for learning purposes takes time and effort but it is a far from insurmountable challenge. Connecting users with those experiences is what the…

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A short personal story of product management for learning

The product management for learning series continues. This time a short personal story of one chapter of my product management for learning experience. Some highs and some not so highs...

Continuing the series of posts about product management in learning and getting a little more personal. The discussion and description of principles and approaches to product management for learning has caused some reflection on my part – when, where and how these have worked well for me and my colleagues and what bloopers and blunders might also be instructive. This post gathers some of those…

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What does a good product manager for learning do?

What does a poduct manager in learning do? Who do they work with and how? Another in a series of posts about the benefits of product management mindset in L&D...what do you think?

Before we start, a quick note on nomenclature, if I may. Product manager for learning and products for learning rather than learning products is a minor but useful clarification in the way we talk about this subject. Linguistic pedantry can be exhausting I realise, but I think we need to avoid the notion that we are making learning in some way. We aren’t and we can’t. We are and should, though,…

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Some things learned in five years of freelancing

I started my own business five years ago. These are some things I have learned or worked out in that time. (One addition here - we don't often need rocket science).

A habit formed over the last year of describing my freelance career as being four years old. In conversation last week, a correction was needed, it is now five years old. I am five years older. Blimey. This anniversary is a traditional moment of self-indulgence and reflection. In the spirit of that tradition I offer this post.  What have I learned over that five years? What do I know, or…

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Good digital products are not (only) due to technology

Product management is on my mind. I wish it were more on the mind of the digital learning world. Good product management is in that simple yet lots of work category...silver bullets miss the mark.

For a variety of reasons the theme of product management is on my mind these days. A range of conversations and threads of work have drawn me to it and held me there. In my experience product management is poorly understood in the learning world. There is a strong tendency to equate products with systems. Compounding this problem, we are often stuck thinking of content publishing and online…

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Welcome to the top table, L&D?

Welcome to the top table, L&D?

I reckon that I have been in the L&D game for about ten years now. In that time, the industry has consistently bemoaned its absence from the top table of organisations. The imperative to bring the people development agenda into the strategic realm of senior decision makers is a constant refrain and a constantly unmet goal.  Maybe that has changed though with the arrival of the thoroughbreds of…

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Time to move beyond digital learning 1.0 and the virtual classroom?

Traditional learning technologies are built on weak digital foundations to help instructors instruct. The brief history of digital shows where the real value lies perhaps.

Ben Thompson is smarter than I. This is made clear to me with almost every post he writes. The good thing is that the ideas he shares tend to jump my thinking forwards. In this piece, about the development of Social Media 2.0, a chord struck in my head about why L&D is stuck in the dim chamber of the virtual classroom. The name of the experience is instructive: we are stuck in the analogue world…

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Meetings as a secondary medium to survive living at work

There is much to ponder about prolonged and enforced remote working. Or rather, a seemingly endless period of enforced working where we live. There was a fair deal of enthusiasm in the early months, as organisations realised what could be achieved, in times of necessity, via Zoom and Teams and similar tools. Not only did the wheels not come off, they actually turned surprisingly smoothly. At that…

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Is digital L&D struggling to develop useful standards?

Is digital L&D struggling to develop useful standards?

My adventures in digital learning over the last many years often feel like a quest to resolve the tension between standardisation and flexibility. Standards are one of the building blocks of technological development and of successful digital products and services. They are important because they allow an audience enough predictability to be confident in the experience; stakeholders enough…

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Is this the end of classroom training?

I was asked this question by a participant in an LPI Open Clinic session last week. (It’s a great format if anyone is thinking of hosting or participating: a themed session, open questions with one host and one lead speaker and a very lively and open chat room). 

So, to the question: Is this the end of classroom training?I don’t know. Of course I don’t. Nobody knows yet (beware of those who…

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Nuking hotdogs in the Pentagon - a story of incomplete data.

Nuking hotdogs in the Pentagon - a story of incomplete data. A single data source might do some real damage.

Ground Zero Cafe: the most dangerous eatery in the world? I like this story, even if the truth is opaque. It illuminates something about how easy it is to accept the face value interpretation of observations. 

In the central courtyard of the Pentagon there was a hotdog stand. It was a very popular eating spot. I imagine the Pentagon being a difficult workplace to wander out for lunch and…

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Anything but normal

"New normal"? No thanks. This is anything but normal.

I don’t think ‘the new normal’ is a helpful turn of phrase. An important feature of normality is that we know what to do when confronted with it. We do normal things. We do them with a casual confidence that we know what is going to happen as a result. I may be alone in this but my sense of casual confidence is fleeting at the very best. My sense of confusion and anxiety is pretty durable,…

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Just in Case or Just in Time?

Just in Case or Just in Time: what will the desire for stability do to our quest for efficiency?

I am trying to avoid speculation about “what happens next?” and “how we adjust to the new normal”. There is too little information about what has happened and even less about any future directions we might see. We knew precious little about actual behaviour in L&D before Covid – the foundations for conjecture remain pretty weak. Treat those who appear certain with caution, their confidence is…

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Pivoting to digital might not solve the problem

In February of 2011, News Corp launched, with some fanfare, The Daily. You are forgiven for missing this. It had a brief trajectory before coming to earth with something of a dull thud. It was an iPad inspired news app. Rupert Murdoch was greatly enthused by the arrival of the iPad and the possibilities it offered. (My recollection of 2010 is of a large number of senior managers arriving at work…

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Popularity does not always win: pondering signals of relevance

Popularity does not always win: pondering signals of relevance

A quick post-omelette thought…

Over lunch today, I spent some time swirling around a YouTube time sink. Having watched a video about the Black Lives Matter protests, I noticed that my YouTube guardians recommended a Featured playlist on my home page. This included some, what seemed to be popular, vidoes on the theme of “Understanding Racial Injustice” (something about that title puts my teeth…

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What is this blog for?

What is this blog for? Trying to get back into wrting again after a long pause.

What is this blog for?

It has been a long time since I have written a blog. I seem to have fallen into a well of introspection caused by this lockdown situation. Down that well I am uncertain and lacking confidence in a clear way forward. Hence the silence. I have been unsure of what to say.

There is no clear way forward, of course. There never was. I am even more deeply suspicious of the…

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What comes next? Possible signals of future value

What comes next? Possible signals of future value. These are some thoughts on what the early days of our new world might tell us about what will be helpful as we emerge. (Maybe).

This is a thinking out loud piece from my experience of the last few weeks. Like most, I have found that it is hard to know what to think yet some thoughts have emerged and lingered long enough to give some form of voice to. So, this is not a white paper or serious position. Neither is it a prediction – I don’t know what comes next any more than anyone else. But, I am wondering whether there are…