Not long after publishing my previous post Three ‘Use’ words for L&D, it occurred to me that while these words relate to the learning solutions itself, there’s a fourth ‘use’ word that I neglected to include.

User.

It’s by understanding the context of the user that we can create something useful. Something that has a purpose and solves a problem for them.

It’s by testing with users that we can determine the usability (and make changes from feedback). We can discover if it can be located when needed and if it’s uncomplicated to use.

It’s by collecting and analysing data that we can find out how the solutions are (or are not) being used. Again, making changes where needed. More importantly, we need to measure whether we’ve achieved our intended goal.

For much of my career I’ve been involved in creating “solutions” for end users while working at a distance from them. In recent times, I’ve come to realise that there’s much more value involving end users to create real solutions that they need instead of thinking that we know what’s good for them.