Before You Invest in Another Training Course, Ask This One Question
But first, I need to explain…
I’m not doing it.
I’m not inflicting yet more training on the world that is neither wanted nor used.
We have a world overflowing with courses, guides, videos, and other ‘helpful stuff’.
And there is some fantastic ‘stuff’ out there. I’ve found it, used it and recommended it.
But…. I have had a lot of not-so-great stuff inflicted on me.
Now I’m the boss, I get to dodge that bullet and help others do the same.
I’ve yet to meet a business that doesn’t want the best outcome from the training provided to its workers.
We all want it to work.
“At least they serve a free lunch/coffee.”
“It’s a paid hour just to click ‘Next’.”
“Tick the box, collect your certificate, go back to work.”
No one sets out to accept mediocre.
But yet we still hear those clichés.
“Training is an investment in our people.”
“Everyone must complete the mandatory training.”
“We need to upskill to stay competitive.”
“Knowledge is power.”
“Learning never stops.”
“It’s all about continuous improvement.”
“This will improve performance and productivity.”
“We need to get everyone on the same page.”
I could go on.
They may be clichés, but they’re fundamentally right. The right learning at the right time, in the right place, delivered the right way, delivers.
In Real Life
Seeing the joy and relief from a line manager when we caught up a couple of weeks after his team gained the certifications they needed.
We had pinpointed the exact content they needed, and after stakeholder and supplier conversations, cut through the barriers to provide it.
The knock-on effect? The sales team had a better offer for potential clients. So not only were the employees happier with their newly qualified status, but they were also supporting their clients better, and the sales team were happy because they now met certification requirements for new business.
The current reality was that employees were leaving to seek certification elsewhere. Those who stayed were unhappy at the lack of opportunities and perceived unfairness, especially since new employees were being recruited with the certification they coveted and paid far more.
To use another cliché, time is money.
Investing in training is no different to any other purchase. You want it to bring the desired results.
And there is some exceptional training out there.
But before we get caught up in choosing or designing the most engaging, interactive solution, leveraging what has been proven to work with other companies, we need to go further back. We need to get right back to the learner.
And we need to ask the big question:
What do they need to know and do?
Well, that’s obvious, I hear you say.
But have you asked them?
We think we know what people need to learn. We guess how they prefer to learn it. And we hope that what we design will work for everyone.
The problem? Those assumptions are expensive.
You’ve seen it before: you invest time, money, and goodwill into a new course or onboarding programme, but a few months later the same issues are bubbling up. Performance hasn’t shifted. People forget what they learned. The same mistakes creep back in.
It’s frustrating, especially when you’ve put in the effort to get it right. But here’s the thing: most training doesn’t fail because it’s badly delivered. It fails because it was built on assumptions.
We think we know what people need to learn. We guess how they prefer to learn it. And we hope that what we design will work for everyone.
The problem? Those assumptions are expensive.
The Hidden Cost of Guesswork
When training misses the mark, it’s not just disappointing; it costs you.
Lost time, slower performance, lower engagement, and a frustrating cycle of “didn’t we address this last time?”
A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, 2024) found that less than half of organisations feel confident their learning initiatives actually improve performance. The rest admit they simply don’t have enough evidence to show impact, because they never started with real insight in the first place.
That’s where “knowing your learner” comes in.
Instead of guessing what people need, you can find out directly from them, through a few simple, structured research activities. The difference is transformative.
Know Your Learner: The First Step to Training That Works
At Jessanol, we believe effective training doesn’t start in the design room it starts in discovery.
I probably spend more time in this phase with a client than any other.
I know it’s not the exciting bit. But I’ll come back to that.
You’re really motivated and sometimes anxious to get ‘it’ sorted.
It can feel frustrating when it seems like I’m slowing you down.
And I am.
But because I want you to get the best result.
And when it comes to slowing it down. That’s not actually what happens.
It’s accelerating the desired outcome.
If we really pinpoint what your learners need to know and do, and then how we can get that to them successfully, it’ll bring the results.
But why wait for me?
Our Know Your Learner course shows you how to uncover what your audience really needs and how they want to learn it, using practical research methods that fit your business, not stretch it.
It’s about swapping instinct for evidence. Because when you know your learners, you can:
Design training that solves the right problems, not necessarily the loudest ones.
Save time and resources by focusing only on what matters.
Create lasting change because people actually use what they’ve learned.
This approach isn’t about endless surveys or corporate data collection. It’s about listening, observing, and asking smart questions in everyday ways. Whether that’s a quick chat with a new hire, a focused team discussion, or a short online poll, it’s all about structured curiosity.
And revisiting the common opinion, ‘that’s not the exciting bit’, and the ugh… “this feels like homework” feeling.
Well, that feeling, it goes.
I love the discovery phase, and it’s been a common experience as I’ve worked with line managers and business directors that once they have clarity on what they need to know and the tools to do it, it’s fundamentally just a conversation.
Ask. Listen. Observe.
What “Knowing Your Learner” Looks Like in Practice
Let’s imagine you’re improving onboarding for new starters.
You run a short focus group with employees and managers. Within half an hour, a clear pattern emerges; everyone’s unclear on “what good looks like” in the first month.
It’s causing issues. Some managers are disappointed with their new hire’s performance, some new employees are not waiting around and leaving before they even reach 90 days, and overall, it feels very hit and miss. Managers have spent time and effort hiring great new employees, and something’s not working.
That single insight sparks conversation.
It raises questions about performance management practice.
It probably opened up a can of worms and so many questions.
Questions that could be shared, discussed and answered.
And it identifies that just addressing ‘what good looks like’ could make a big difference.
Addressing attrition,
Increasing morale,
And enabling managers and new hires to spot when intervention can prevent performance issues from becoming big performance issues.
Once you have the ‘what’, then you can address the how.
Now everyone’s on the same page, to quote a cliché.
One conversation, one hour, and you’ve just saved weeks of confusion and frustration.
That’s the power of knowing your learner.
It’s not theory. It’s evidence you can act on.
And it’s far more reliable than designing in isolation or recycling last year’s training deck.
Why Structured Research Matters
Structured research gives you confidence. It turns loose feedback into clear evidence and helps you see what really drives learning success in your organisation.
When you take the time to gather insights directly from your people through focus groups, observation, feedback, or user stories, you uncover what’s working, what’s not, and why.
That means every design decision that follows is based on data, not guesswork.
It’s the difference between “we think this might help” and “we know this will make a difference.”
And the best part? Once you learn the method, you can use it again and again.
Reviewing onboarding? Use it.
Designing role-specific training? Use it.
Refreshing your management development programme? Use it.
It’s a repeatable process that scales with your business.
From Insight to Impact
When you use real learner data to shape your design, everything connects.
Your training speaks directly to the real challenges people face. Your materials feel relevant, familiar, and useful. Managers see performance improve. Learners feel valued because their voice helped shape the solution.
And from a business perspective? You have the evidence to back every decision, whether you’re justifying investment, demonstrating ROI, or aligning training to strategic goals.
It’s learning design that’s smarter, stronger, and built to last.
If you’re naturally curious and already skilled at spotting patterns, asking the right questions, and digging into data, you’ve got everything you need to make your next training intervention hit its mark. You have the insight, the instinct, and the ability to turn what you observe into real, measurable change.
But if you’re not quite sure how to channel that curiosity into structured, actionable research, that’s exactly where our course steps in. It guides you through a proven process to uncover what learners really need so your design decisions are confident, evidence-based, and impactful from day one.
How the Know Your Learner Course Helps
Our Know Your Learner course guides you step-by-step through this discovery process.
You’ll learn how to:
Run structured research activities like focus groups, user stories, and observation.
Capture insights using practical templates and a ready-to-use data workbook.
Analyse what you find and translate it into clear, evidence-based training requirements.
It’s hands-on, not heavy theory. You’ll build confidence to run your own research activities right away and see how much easier design becomes when you start with insight, not assumption.
Because the truth is: you can’t fix what you don’t understand.
Knowing your learner is the first step to creating training that truly works for your people and for your business.
Take the First Step
If you’ve ever launched training that didn’t quite land, or found yourself wondering why performance hasn’t shifted, the Know Your Learner course will show you exactly what’s been missing.
Start small.
Ask. Listen. Observe.
When you truly know your learners, you stop wasting effort and start building results that last.
👉 Explore the Know Your Learner course and start designing training that delivers.
References
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). (2023). Learning at Work Survey 2023. London: CIPD.
LinkedIn Learning. (2024). Workplace Learning Report 2024: Building the Agility Advantage. Sunnyvale, CA: LinkedIn Corporation.
Jessanol Ltd. (2025). Know Your Learner: Course Materials and Frameworks.