When you perform a needs analysis as an instructional designer you don’t want to show up to the conversation and improvise. This is your first chance to collaborate with your cross-functional partners on the project.
Make a good impression by arriving prepared, with an outline of questions, and something visual to display on the screen to guide conversations.
I have a single PowerPoint slide visualizing the following categories. And in my own notes I have a series of questions for each category that we talk through before moving on to the next topic.
- Context: What prompted this request, what resources are there currently.
- Audience: Learners, personas, location, workplace, roles.
- Objectives: Learning goals, skills, common mistakes, content, what are we assessing.
- Environments: Who provides access, how often are there release updates, what version can we expect.
- Project Management: Roles, responsibilities, roadmap.
- Delivery: Deadlines, accessibility considerations, reporting, post-training reinforcement.
Needs analyses look different depending on your industry; for example, because I work at a software company there is a technical component I have to consider in order to build training. You might replace the environments question with a completely different category depending on your context!
If you are new to performing a needs analysis, Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping is a great book for brushing up on those performance consulting skills. She has diagrams you can follow that make the process very straightforward.
This is your chance to make a great first impression with SMEs and stakeholders, so take time to prepare and communicate an agenda with attendees in advance.
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