Case Study
The answer wasn’t a platform. It was the right questions.
A small business, held to enterprise-grade security standards, asked me to recommend a learning platform. I said no, not yet. Then I helped them become the ones who could choose it.
The client
We are looking for a brand new learning platform, and you came recommended. Can you tell us which LMS we should buy?Me
No. Not yet.The client
That is not the answer we expected from someone we are trying to hire.Me
I know. But I cannot recommend a platform until I understand you. You are a small business, but you have spun out of a much larger organisation, and you still have to meet the same security and standards it did. That rules a lot of platforms out before we even begin. Let me learn about you first.The client
Fair enough. Where do we start?Me
A short discovery. I get to know your learners and the content you want to deliver, then go out to a range of LMS providers to see which can actually meet you where you are, security included.The client
We are going to Learning Technologies next month.Me
Then let me come with you. I will spend the morning there, introduce you to providers I trust, and walk you up to stands neither of us knows, to see what else is out there. And before we go, I will give you a crib sheet: the exact questions to ask to know whether a platform is really right for you.The client
This is so kind of you.Me
Not really. My job was never to choose for you. It was to make you able to choose for yourselves, and then to get out of the way.The outcome
At the first few stands they worked through the crib sheet together, and I nudged them towards anything they had missed. By the fourth or fifth, they did not need me at all, asking the right questions on their own while I stood back and watched their confidence grow. They came away with a shortlist and a set of demos booked, and they are choosing their platform now from real understanding, for where they are today and where they will be in five years. They did not leave with my answer. They left able to find their own.