What do you do if you're not sure which LMS platform to choose for your online learning needs?

I strongly believe that selecting the right LMS platform for your online learning needs can be overwhelming. As a Digital Renaissance Architect, Here's my advice: Identify your needs: Understand your goals, budget, and the features you require. Research: Look for platforms that align with your needs. Read reviews, check their features, and consider their scalability. Demo: Most platforms offer a free trial or demo. Use this opportunity to test the platform and see if it's user-friendly and meets your expectations. Consult: Reach out to the LMS vendors for any queries or concerns. Take your time, do your research, and choose the platform that best fits your online learning needs.

Identify your specific requirements, such as scalability, user interface, features, and budget constraints. Explore multiple LMS options, comparing their functionalities, user reviews, and customer support services. Consider seeking recommendations from peers or industry experts and testing demos or free trials to assess usability and compatibility with your learning objectives. Choose the LMS platform that best aligns with your needs, offers scalability for future growth, and provides reliable support for implementation and ongoing usage.

It's important to look at your tech stack as a whole and also ensure compatibility and performance with other platforms your LMS will need to be integrated with. Be sure to consider other long-term goals in the ecosystem as well (e.g. tools that you may want to add later) in addition to what currently exists. This will help support a long-term digital learning strategy.

In my experience, I’ve requested a list of other organizations of similar size and structure, that have implemented the software and are open to having a candid conversation about their pre-, during, and post-implementation experience. Ensuring you have a set of predefined questions you’ll ask in each interview will ensure your gathering the same information from each conversation. Asking interviewees what they wished they had known or considered prior to making the decision to buy is always at the top of my list.

Seek out other leaders who may have experience using the LMS in their company and request an open discussion about their successes, pain points, and things to consider. This will help provide additional context to the sentiment of the LMS, which is important since every ecosystem is different and reviews/ratings alone may not tell the whole story relative to your needs.

During any demo or trial, it's important to be very clear on the prerequisite setups required to recreate the demo/trial experience in your company. Sometimes the capabilities of a platform are not necessarily how the platform performs out of the box, and it can be very difficult to change direction after you have contracted and begun implementation if you find out too late that you may need to do things like establish a common taxonomy with another platform or ensure HRIS fields map properly for consistency, as a few examples. Ensure you understand all of the steps required to properly scope and determine effort, time, and resources needed to implement based on your requirements.

When it comes to LMS software, nothing beats test-running it. While testimonials are a great source of unbiased feedback on the platform's capabilities, they were not set in your context. Sign up for a free trial or first month, and have your core team member use it to see where the software falls short and if you're willing to live with its weaknesses or missing features.

In a high stake situation (huge investment from company), besides doing all of the above, it's good to do a pilot test run on the platform. Get a few experienced users to try on the pilot or prototype.