What Software Users Wish You Knew About Software Training
Friendly PSA for all the operations, training, enablement, and L&D leaders out there: Your "best-in-class" software will only be as good as your internal software training.?
…and if you polled your end users, you might find there’s a lot of room for improvement. ??
We host 50+ calls each week with knowledge workers who need to navigate various tools to get their work done. Here’s what they wish the people overseeing training understood. ????
1. We’re drowning in tools
Okta's Businesses At Work report estimates the average enterprise company will use over 200 apps this year.?
Doing our jobs means learning dozens of procedures across dozens of disparate tools. But if we spend all that time trying to master new software and processes, there’s little time left over for the jobs we were hired to do.
To be blunt: We want to learn about our craft, our product, our competition, and our customers—not about how to do stuff in (more) software.
2. The Tab Apocalypse is real
Credit to Patrick Monnot for articulating the reality of what it’s like to toggle between 1,200 different websites and applications on an average day. That’s a stat (from HBR)—not an exaggeration.
But we don’t just spend four hours a week context-switching. We also lose five working weeks a year getting back in flow after toggling to a new application.?
The #1 way you can help us be more productive is by helping us stay in the flow of work.
3. We ~really~ don’t like change
Most of us are ambivalent adopters.
Every time you roll out a new tool, it means we have:
? Old habits to unlearn?
? Endless trainings to endure
? New processes to remember?
? Less time to focus on our work
And the truth is…it doesn’t matter how slick the software or how shiny the new process. We really don’t like change. Learning a new tool feels like a distraction from 100 infinitely more valuable things we could be doing to drive our business forward.?
4. Memorizing SOPs isn’t a good use of our time
Yes—we need to know our way around our tech stack. But memorizing every software process and standard operating procedure (SOP) isn’t:
? Physically possible (given the number of tools we use)?
? Very logical (given how quickly software interfaces and business processes evolve)?
? Impactful for our business
Asking us to memorize SOPs is the quickest way to drain our brain power for work that truly matters. ??
5. Just because you can make a video, doesn’t mean you should
Videos are great—but not for software training. We hate to say it, but long videos:
??? Are often full of extra fluff that slows us down
????? Make it hard to skip straight to what’s useful
??? Encourage us to NOT to self-serve and just reach out for help
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We want to learn software while using it—and move on with our day, without wasting time trying to find the knowledge we need. ????
6. We just want to know where to click
When it comes to software training, what’s better than ALL the information and ALL the instructions?
Minimum viable context—or just enough context for us to complete a hyper-relevant, bite-sized process independently.?
Take it from this self-identified ambivalent adopter and software training expert:
7. Knowledge is too far away from where we work
If we’re being 100% honest…if you build it, we probably won’t come.
We know you work really hard on our Learning Management System and Knowledge Base. And those tools are great—for increasing general knowledge.?
But when it comes to software knowledge and training, we want:?
In other words: we want Real-Time Enablement, not traditional software training. ?
8. Our ideal world isn’t all that different from yours
When we don’t have to:
?? Try to memorize hundreds of SOPs across dozens of tools
?? Search through our Knowledge Base, Learning Management System, chat, or ticketing tools?
?? Read or watch boring content that took you forever to make?
?? Interrupt you to be retrained when we give up?
And when we can:?
???? Learn software while we’re using it, without breaking flow?
? Leverage on-screen guidance to know exactly what to do and where to click?
?? Adopt new processes correctly, easily, and autonomously
?? Save time and energy for more meaningful work?
You’ll get:?
?? Fewer interruptions and repetitive questions?
?? Less resistance to change
?? Higher process adoption?
?? More software ROI