Quick guide: How to design a really good program

I know a lot about strategic program design.

Strategic programs can help to launch a product, market a service, support a community or catalyze a mission. I successfully use programming to promote my coaching services and diversify my offerings, and I'm often asked to design custom coaching programs and workshops for company retreats. The feedback I get glows with gratitude because I helped make the team's time together focused, impactful and really memorable.

But I didn't always know what I was doing. Before I was a coach, I worked in a variety of fields (museums, marketing and advertising, and non-profits) in a capacity to get audiences engaged in a new idea or to help them shift the way they thought about something. It took years of trusting my instincts and learning on the job to build (or co-build) first-of-their-kind, ground-breaking programs, creative events and experiential campaigns. I learned how to turn my understanding of what a moment required to organize the right people, ideas, content and environment and create an experience that is truly unique.

It's exciting when I can weave in my program design skills to help even more people, essentially marrying my first career love, programs, with my second career love, coaching. It takes a long time to learn what I know, and I'm often asked how I make this magic happen. So I thought I would pass along a quick guide so you can begin harnessing strategic programs to grow your audience, earn revenue or support your communities in a really impactful way.

Quick Guide: How to create a unique, impactful and memorable program:

Start with your audience first. It's an easy trap to start with your own objective first, because you know how you're hoping to support your own business goals. But that won't resonate as much with the audience you're hoping to capture. It's a bit like the design thinking process in that it starts with a user problem before moving on to the design application. This might seem obvious, but it's so frequently overlooked in favor of centering the product, service or mission that's being promoted.

Step 1: Identify your target audience. Who are they? What problems might they need solved?

Step 2: Identify your audience's needs and pain points by collecting data from them. This can be in conversation with a variety of members of that audience, through a survey, interviews, noticing patterns over a period of time and confirming them with first-hand info, or a combination of these things.

Step 3: Assess the data. What story does it tell you about what they need, what they want to learn, experience or do? What are their hopes and dreams?

Step 4 (the fun part in my opinion): Choose a creative, experiential application to address the need, want, dream or hope and connect that to your product, service or mission. Think about it like a Venn diagram. Your audience's hopes and dreams are in one circle, and the thing you're promoting to them (product, service, idea, mission) is in the second circle. The overlap is where your creative application, a.k.a. your strategic program, lives.

Strategic programs resonate with audiences because of their experiential nature. When something is experiential it's memorable, and that's a good thing for business. It provides a deeper connection to your audience and meets them on a personal, emotional level. You will often attract the super fan/ideal user/target client/etc. this way because they are the ones that will take the time to participate.

Strategic programs should benefit the audience just as much as you. Not only will the program benefit your business, but the program should greatly benefit your audience, meaning they should get more than just time with your product, service or mission. The program takeaways should facilitate some type of learning more about themselves and the world around them. Good programs contribute to the fabric of their lives and make them better.

Center a holistic design process to drive the direction of your program content. Make sure you're aiming for the right tone, offer a diversity of content to appeal to different learning styles, understand environment constraints, align expectations with stakeholders, know what resources are available, and stretch your ideas to make them unique.

Programs like experiential events, workshops, creative learning experiences and community activities can ignite your stakeholders in a way that will have them engaged, excited and coming back for more.

What else would you say should be added here to consider as you're creating a memorable and impactful program?

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?? Hello! I'm Tracy, I'm a leadership and development coach, program designer and workshop facilitator and I run Wavemaker Coaching. Shoot me an email if I can help bring your program to life: [email protected]

?? Through individual coaching, group programs and creative events, I help executives, creative leaders and free-spirits navigate change with more vision, dexterity and purpose and support them in making transformative progress towards their most important goals.

?? My background as an award-winning creative producer for world-renowned museums, global brands and civic non-profits has given me unparalleled insights to help folks thrive through creative, connected learning experiences.

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