Your Learning Channels

If you use Windows, you might be familiar with the Windows Insider Program. The Insider Program is a community based on testing pre-release versions of Windows, or “flights”, and evaluating them for stability and to provide feedback on features, enhancements, and fixes before they go to the public. Other Microsoft products like Office and more have similar programs, but Windows was the one that started it all.

When I worked at Microsoft and LinkedIn, I was part of the Windows Insider Team. My work focused on connecting the millions of Insiders with LinkedIn tools and learning programs. It was one of the highlights of my career and I developed some life-long friendships while working with the team.

There is a lot that goes into building Windows, and the process of taking work that has gone into the product and bringing them out to users. The process involves “channels” which represent communities or groups that have access to a channel at a certain point of development.

What I started to notice, is that channels represent trust. The more you trust your product, the greater exposure you give it to a wider audience. The more you trust the people around you, the more comfortable you are sharing something you know isn’t perfect yet.

So, what if you swapped the product you were releasing at a channel, and replaced it with a skill you are developing? The same rules, trust, and definition of the purpose of each channel is the same.

Where your skills are on channels is part of their learning journey, but they aren’t the same. There are many skills that we develop that we never bring to our careers and everyday use. Some skills are just meant for our family and friends, and we are totally ok with that. While the channels with Windows were meant to release a product to the world, going through each channel, not all our skills are meant to be released to such a broad group. So, we might be far down the learning journey with a skill—but have no intention of making it available to everyone. That is why I feel it is important to distinguish the difference between the two. It helps you acknowledge that not every skill will play the same purpose in your life. Not every skill will define “value to others” as being everyone—sometimes it might just be your family, or your closest friends.

So, let’s explore what each channel means, and how it applies to your own skill development.

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Dive into the most private channel—the selfhost channel. Reserved only for ourselves to build our confidence for new skills.

Doug Winnie is the Chief Learning Officer at MentorNations a startup focused on fostering digital skills around the globe and Director of Learning Experience and Organizational Effectiveness at H&R Block. Doug previously worked in various digital skills, education and product management roles at Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Adobe. Doug is also a LinkedIn Learning author with multiple courses on digital transformation, product management, and computer science. Doug is also the editor of the LinkedIn newsletter, “Digital Mindset” that publishes weekly on LinkedIn.