If you’ve been asked to build an eLearning strategy, it can be tempting to jump straight into the solution.

• Which authoring tool should we use?
• What should the course look like?
• Which platform will deliver it?
• How quickly can we build it?

But that’s usually not the best place to start. Before thinking about tools, platforms, or course production, start with something much more fundamental: the business problem and the learner problem.

Why?

Because a good eLearning strategy isn’t really about producing training. It’s about improving performance. Start with the business problem Ask: What does the organization actually need to improve?

Maybe customer escalations are increasing. Product adoption is lower than expected. New employees are taking too long to become productive. Compliance errors are happening too often.

Whatever the challenge, get clear on the outcome the business wants before deciding what learning should look like. Then look at the learner problem

Now ask: What is preventing people from achieving that outcome today?

• Do they lack knowledge?
• Do they understand the concept but need more practice?
• Is the process confusing?
• Can they not find the right information when they need it?
• Or is something in their workflow getting in the way?

That distinction is important because not every performance problem is a training problem.

If employees already know what to do, but the software makes the task unnecessarily difficult, another eLearning course probably won’t solve it.

And if people understand a process but can’t remember every step while doing their job, perhaps they don’t need a 30-minute course. A well-designed job aid or performance support tool might be far more useful.

Here’s a simple example

Imagine customer support resolution times are too high.

• Business problem: Support cases are taking too long to resolve.
• Learner problem: New agents struggle to diagnose common issues quickly.
• Learning solution: Scenario-based practice combined with an on-the-job troubleshooting guide.
• Success measure: Faster resolution times and fewer unnecessary escalations.

Notice what happened here.

We didn’t start by saying, “Let’s build a course.”

We started by asking what needed to change. That led us to a learning solution that actually supports the desired performance. And that’s an important distinction when building an eLearning strategy:

“We need a course” is not a strategy. A course is one possible solution.

So, before asking:

“What should we build?”

Start with:

“What needs to change, for whom, and how will we know it changed?”

Once you can answer those questions clearly, the rest of your eLearning strategy becomes much easier to shape.

And this is just the starting point.

We talk a lot about eLearning strategy for employees. But what happens when your learners are customers and partners? That’s the less-explored side of eLearning strategy I’ll be digging into over the next few posts.

If you’re building, scaling, or rethinking customer or partner education, follow along and bring your experiences to the conversation.

Cheers!
Sharath Ramaswamy
Principal eLearning Evangelist
Adobe Digital Learning