Learning Design Philosophy

After 18 years building and marketing educational publications and commercial training products, I've found the key to upskilling and reskilling adult knowledge workers is to engage them as complex humans, each with a unique, often contradictory mix of emotions, behaviors, preferences, talents, and experiences. My most effective programs entertain learners with humor and drama, provide hands-on activities grounded in the real world, and deliver everything within a memorable, learner-centered experience.

I believe that it's not just what you teach or how well you teach it; it's how you package the entire training experience—from invitation through long-term reinforcement—that determines whether new skills and behaviors stick.

Online Training Product Experience

For the past decade, I’ve led product strategy at MarketingProfs, a company specializing in educating marketers. I own the product roadmap for the company’s asynchronous e-learning, live interactive virtual instructor-led training (VILT), and blended learning workshop programs. I also oversee the instructional designers responsible for the day-to-day design, development, and implementation of these programs. This includes the creation and delivery of more than 50 hours of unique modules teaching marketers how to use AI since 2023—like the 10-week “AI for Content Creators” series, which I directly managed; it’s MarketingProfs’ highest-selling training program of the 2020s and received a “world-class” Net Promoter Score (NPS) rating of 80 or higher each week during its live run.

In addition to training programs, my products include proprietary educational technologies like MarketingProfs’ Marketing Skills Gap Assessment SaaS tool, which I developed in 2021 in partnership with our largest client, a Fortune 500 bio-life sciences firm.

Methodology, Approach, and Practice

Knowledge workers come to training for complex reasons. Some seek advancement or security, while others need just-in-time solutions. Many are reluctant participants mandated training by their employers and often interpret such requirements as punishments.

My overall approach integrates constructivist methods with the six core adult learning principles of andragogy, recognizing that it’s best to approach these professionals as autonomous, self-governing people who build knowledge through active engagement and learn best when content directly applies to their real-life experiences.

I take a Learning Experience Design (LxD) approach to developing training content. I put special focus on learner and industry research and analysis to ensure topics, formats, and experiences reflect real-world needs. I then center every design and delivery decision on the human learner, from speaking authentically—using “in group” language, appropriate humor, and everyday colloquialisms—to selecting subject matter experts who are genuinely engaging facilitators.

I consider it my personal mission to design learning experiences for individual transformation and human flourishing, even when employers pay the bills. Workers deserve dignity, empathy, and respect as more than human capital assets. I aim first to fulfill the individual’s learning objectives, like skills development or behavior change; only then do I address organizational metrics, like increased operational efficiencies or revenue.

Training as a Product: Balancing Tensions

Learning design is different when the training itself is a revenue-generating product. I constantly manage the tension between content that attracts buyers and content that effectively employs methods that will help those buyers actually learn. I must often wrap a skill they need to know (for instance, strategic thinking) into lessons about a top-of-mind topic they want to learn (like LLM prompt engineering) to get them interested in participation.

As a third-party training products group, there are only so many factors my team and I can control on the learning design side. For instance, accurate evaluation isn’t always possible because we can't measure long-term behavior change or business outcomes. I designed the MarketingProfs’ assessment software to interpret each individual’s understanding both before and after training, and to pair it with customized learning paths to shore up each learner’s potential weaknesses—during formal training and as post-training reinforcement. Doing so allowed us to add transparency into individual and collective growth across client companies and help learners’ scores remain accurate over time by encouraging them to continue applying their new knowledge through optional targeted lessons.

Technology Integration

Technology is at the heart of what I do as a training and product development professional. I regularly employ the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for educational technology in my live and asynchronous online and blended learning programs, starting with user-friendly learning management systems (LMSs), event delivery platforms, and video presentation tools like Vimeo. I also choose familiar tools my learners already use—like Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, Canva, Figma, or Notion—when building and distributing workbooks, tools, and templates, so they can put what they’ve learned to work right away without having to build their own real-world artifacts from scratch.

Professional Learning and Evolution

As an intellectually curious lifelong learner with an ever-evolving cross-disciplinary career, I’m constantly seeking opportunities to expand my own knowledge and abilities. Formally, I’m currently pursuing graduate studies in HCI and Educational Technology at Iowa State University. My specific area of interest is the accelerating need for knowledge worker reskilling and upskilling spurred by the adoption of AI across the business community, and how we can use educational technology to better meet that need. Informally, I augment this with self-directed learning on user experience (UX), learning experience design (LxD), artificial intelligence (AI), and related topics through the Association for Talent Development (ATD), Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF), and other sources.

Looking Forward

As technological change accelerates, effective upskilling becomes increasingly critical. My philosophy remains flexible enough to incorporate new tools while staying grounded in fundamental learning principles. Whether designing micro-learning modules, managing virtual workshops, or enhancing assessment tools with AI, I maintain focus on the ultimate goal: empowering knowledge workers through experiences that respect their humanity, engage their curiosity, and equip them for meaningful change.

last revised January 2026