How Do You Customise Your Training Content? Step-1 Of The 3-Tier Structure

When I stress that programs need to be outcome-focussed, I mean this: that programs must be made for the sole purpose of solving the problem at hand; the program must deliver results and rectify gaps in performances. It is thus important to customize your program to the audience in question, who are responsible for achieving the organsation’s goals.

But before getting into ‘HOW’ to customise a program, it’s imperative to recognise ‘WHO’ is the audience. Once you have clearly defined ‘WHO’ is the audience, customisation becomes relatively easy. Knowing your audience is directly proportional to the success of the project.

I use an Audience Tracker that helps me to get to the roots of my audience’s needs.

STEP 1: LEARNER SEGMENTATION

Learner segmentation is Step 1 of the 3-Tier structure of customising your training content. I use it in the initial stages of engagement with a client and sometimes even later- during the learning design process. It acts as a reminder and a reference point. There are 4 buckets in the learner segmentation phase:

-General

-Group specifics

-Work-related specifics

-Individual specifics

General:

It includes demographic factors (from the training design context) of the audience. We need to know about the participant’s background. For example:

• What is their age?
• Are the learners men, women or a mix?
• What is their educational background?
• Are the learners married or single?
• Do they have any professional qualifications/ certifications?
• What is their nationality, ethnicity or cultural background?
• Where do they live?

Group specifics

Group specifics is related to the demographics of a particular training group.To enable a seamless learning experience and ensure every learner in the group is catered to, you must know the group mix. For example,

• How many learners are present in a group?
• What is the men to women ratio?
• What is the average age of the group?
• Do they belong to the same department or different departments?
• Do they belong to the same level in the organisation or different levels?
• What is the married to single ratio?

Work-related specifics

This includes various factors that are related to the learners’ work environment. For example,

• What is the role of the learner in the workplace?
• What is the learner’s job description and KPI?
• What are the competencies required/ expected to do the job efficiently?
• What is the learner’s designation?
• What is the tenure of the learner in the organisation?
• What is the learner’s total work experience- quality & quantity?
• Which industry and sector is the learner working in?
• What is the seniority level, responsibility, or authority of the learner in the organisation?
•  What are the resources & infrastructure available at the learner’s workplace?
• Where is the learner’s workplace?

Individual specifics

It includes parameters that are based on a learner’s attitude and other competencies. For example,

• What is the learner’s expectation from the intervention?
• Does the learner have a positive attitude towards learning, work and the organisation?
• What are the gaps of the learner?
• What measures have been taken on the gaps earlier?
• What is the learner’s current knowledge, skills and competency levels?
• Does the learner have any special learning needs?
• Is the learner highly motivated?
• Are the learner’s performance reports available?

This is about phase 1, i.e. the learner segmentation phase. This will give you a comprehensive interpretation of the background of the audience. While it is extremely important, it is not enough. In the second and the third phase of the Audience Tracker, you will see how to segment learners in a way so as to enable customisation smoothly.

Wrap Up:

Learner segmentation is an important step towards customising a learning design. To enable smooth learning transfers, customisation becomes imperative.

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Over to you!

Write to me about your approach towards understanding your audience. Leave a comment below!