I design for what people need to do — not just what they need to know
I want to understand what people are being asked to do, what’s getting in their way, and what they need to succeed. That means listening, asking questions, and looking beyond the initial request to understand what’s really happening.
Sometimes that means designing a course. Sometimes it means creating opportunities to practice, providing performance support, or improving a process. And sometimes training isn’t the answer at all.
How I Got Here
My career in learning began long before my title included Instructional Designer.
01
Educator & Instructional Coach
Breaking complexity into learning people can use
My years as an educator taught me how to break complicated ideas into understandable pieces and give learners meaningful opportunities to practice and apply what they learned. As an instructional coach, I learned something equally important: trust, listening, collaboration, and buy-in matter when you're asking people to change how they work.
02
Technical Instructional Design
Learning unfamiliar systems and translating them for others
Designing technical learning for Navy engineering and firefighting systems taught me to research unfamiliar subjects, ask SMEs focused questions, and translate complex information for learners with varied backgrounds.
03
Corporate L&D
Connecting learning to
business goals
Corporate L&D added another dimension: connecting learning needs to organizational goals, collaborating across teams, and designing practical solutions for employees with limited time.
Different learners. Different industries. Different kinds of content.
But the question behind my work has remained remarkably consistent:
What will help this person do this better?
Understand
What is the stakeholder seeing that prompted the request?
01
What solution, or combination of solutions, is most likely to improve performance?
Recommend
05
Diagnose
What's contributing to the performance gap?
04
Investigate
What can we learn from existing resources, the work environment, successful performers, and those who are struggling?
03
Define
What should successful performance look like, and what's happening instead?
02
When someone comes to me and says, “We need training on X,” I don't begin by thinking about what the course should look like. I begin by asking questions to understand the problem behind the request.
My Approach
The answer may be training, but it might also be targeted practice, performance support, better communication, a process change, or something outside L&D altogether.
The goal isn't more training. It's better performance.
How I Work
Good learning design comes from curiosity, collaboration, feedback, and revision. I focus on creating solutions that are useful, practical, and grounded in what people actually need to do.
Ask & Listen
Listen for the need behind the request.
Learn
Research what I don't know and ask focused questions of the people who do.
Collaborate
Work with SMEs, stakeholders, and the people closest to the work.
Iterate
Use feedback, testing, and revision to make the solution better.
Useful beats impressive.