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Think outside of the Authoring Tool, with a Custom Software Simulation

Role: Learning leader

Think outside of the Authoring Tool, with a Custom Software Simulation

Posted on by Sammy Dellaria

Authoring tools, like Rise and Storyline from Articulate, are incredibly useful, but there are times when learning goals, subject matter, or learner needs are best delivered by thinking beyond the authoring tool. That’s the exact thought we had while working with Royal Caribbean on training their fleet of bartenders. Here’s a little background before diving in.

Royal Caribbean has massive ships and massive learning needs

Innovation has been a mainstay of Royal Caribbean’s since 1969. Today, each class of ship is an architectural wonder, pushing the limitations of a cruise vessel. Rock climbing, ice skating, even surfing at sea—this global cruise line has debuted countless industry firsts to capture the hearts and imaginations of its passengers. 

Regardless of where families or individual travellers are setting sail, Royal Caribbean’s friendly and engaging staff continues to play a critical role in ensuring guests have a memorable trip. And that’s where the crew here at Maestro jumped aboard. 

As part of a massive learning program reinvention, we raised the bar by developing an innovative, award-winning cocktail simulator for bartenders.

The learning need—mixing cocktails isn’t always smooth sailing

Picture an eager new bartender learning to mix a Bahama Mama for a cruise guest. What kind of rum is in a Bahama Mama again? How many ounces? When should you pour in the juice? What glass does this particular drink go in? Does the ice go in first or last, or first and last?

Though you might not realize it when tipping one back, there are a lot of steps and variables that go into mixing a good cocktail. All those steps and variables increase the potential for error, leading to lost product, lost revenue, and ultimately, customers who are lost at sea… at least when it comes to their satisfaction. 

While job shadowing is valuable, it can also be pretty expensive. Stop and think: Royal Caribbean has a couple dozen floating hotels with a bunch of bartenders serving a myriad of drinks to thousands of guests. Helping to ensure these bartenders deliver the perfect drink to the right guest every time just makes sense—and can really add up to big savings. 

A better recipe for training 

When it comes to mixing drinks, and learning most anything actually, learning is a process. Without adequate training and practice, money is not only wasted, but taste and safety can be compromised, too. The Royal Caribbean simulator allows bartenders to master mixing cocktails in a risk-free environment, not to mention boosts their engagement and retention through gamification. 

The Royal Caribbean drink simulator offering instructions for making a Bahama Mama: Shake and Pour Over Ice

Royal Caribbean’s commitment to the growth and success of their employees led us to create this out-of-the-box learning tool. Our Brandon Hall Gold Award-winning bar training simulator provides a more effective learning experience, elevating bartender confidence and saving Royal Caribbean company resources. 

Here’s a taste to wet your whistle.

Making a splash outside of authoring tools  

At Maestro, we believe swimming outside of your comfort zone is often where the best learning happens. 

When we partnered with Royal Caribbean to help them ditch their outdated, instructor-led onboarding in favor of a modern, scalable curriculum, we designed the bulk of the content in Articulate Rise, one of our favorite authoring tools. Our team of interactive designers thrives on pushing the boundaries of Rise, but sometimes, even the most intuitive software has its limitations. 

We quickly recognized that for this particular solution (with lots of variables and a desire to build on content over time), the Rise environment had too many hurdles and offered less flexibility for the multifaceted bar simulator we’d envisioned. Rather than using Rise (the authoring tool that we used for the rest of the content), we pivoted and built a custom software solution that could handle the simulator, function seamlessly within Royal Caribbean’s overall training landscape, and save on development time and budget. 

The final product is a mobile responsive, SCORM wrapped, simulator (built in AngularJS, in case you want the nitty gritty) that incorporates recipe cards for 20 drinks, with interactive learning demonstrations, as well as the ability to digitally practice the cocktail preparation and then assess performance. Best of all, the software allows for future expansion in scale and functionality. 

The Royal Carribean bar interaction course displayed on a tablet

Cheers to the numbers 

By moving the bartender training to a digital solution, Royal Caribbean was able to significantly cut back on wasted product used for live practice. And following the simulator’s launch, both bar revenue and speed of bar service increased. Those numbers are huge for companies in the hospitality space that are looking to increase their Medalia and Net Promoter Scores.

Facts and figures from the Royal Carribean training: 21% average increase in performance, 90% increase in crew confidence, 95% training completion rate, 2.9% increase in guest service scores

Detailed analytics that keep on giving

Something that doesn’t get talked about enough—a custom software solution is a great opportunity to incorporate analytics beyond what would normally be available in your LMS. This simulation was a perfect chance for Royal Caribbean to gain insights from their bar staff’s activity to inform their future learning content strategy and interventions.

Through a combination of Google Analytics and key triggers from learner inputs, Royal Caribbean is gathering anonymized data on things like, the most common mistakes made throughout the learning experience. This is powerful data! Think about it, if you realize that 20% of bar staff selected the wrong glass when making a Bahama Mama, this could explain glass shortages noticed fleet-wide—a challenge that could be addressed with this simulator or with another low cost intervention. 

Would going outside an authoring tool benefit your learning initiative?

Not every project needs a custom software solution, but if you think it might be right for you, here are a few questions to think about:

  1. Does the authoring tool put too many constraints on your vision?
  2. Could customized software actually be more cost effective for your course or program?
  3. Do you want your learning to function like a dream on multiple devices?
  4. Have you thoroughly mapped out your process? Customized software can be an ideal solution for complex process training with multiple variables!
  5. Does the software need to live within your LMS? Would your LMS support a custom SCORM package or HTML Interactive? 
  6. Do you have a development partner who’s not only an expert in the learning field, but also skilled in software development and creative/interactive design?

What Is Asynchronous Learning? Plus the Pros and Cons

Posted on by Sammy Dellaria

What is Asynchronous learning? As a learning professional, I’m sure the question has crossed your mind since the rapid increase in remote and hybrid workforces. In our current digital lives, synchronous, face-to-face learning is no longer the default way we engage with our learners. Sure, you can jump on a Zoom and replicate your face-to-face training over a screen, but how effective is that, really? And if you’re interested in incorporating more creative or innovative teaching methods, where should you start? Asynchronous learning is worth some consideration.

What is asynchronous learning?

“Asynchronous” means that objects or events are not happening at the same time. In terms of our technological world, this also means that people can participate in the same experience but at different times. So what does it mean when we apply “asynchronous” to learning opportunities? Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like:  Asynchronous learning is when people are learning the same things but at different times.

The important distinction between asynchronous and synchronous learning is that asynchronous learning does not require that learners log in or participate at a specific time. This means that there aren’t virtual lectures or scheduled class periods that the learners must attend. Synchronous learning, on the other hand, does require that learners log in at a designated time, in which they are all learning together simultaneously. Though virtual learning, in either format, often grants learners the flexibility to participate from home (or wherever else they may want to), with asynchronous learning, there is the added flexibility of completing work and reviewing materials on their own schedule. 

Put simply, when you take content that was traditionally taught in a classroom and put it online, still requiring people to learn the same thing at the same time, this is not asynchronous learning. This is doing synchronous learning online. But, when you put content online without designated class periods and allow your learners to access materials and complete learning objectives at their own pace, that’s asynchronous learning. 

Examples of asynchronous learning

There are a lot of great examples of asynchronous learning in consumer-facing platforms like Khan Academy, Udemy, Couseca, and Pluralsight.

In a business setting, a basic example of asynchronous learning would be when you create a course and have learners view that content on your learning management system (LMS). The course allows for multiple people to learn the same things but at different times. 

Now, let’s explore a couple of more detailed examples to really paint the picture of what an asynchronous learning experience looks like:

Asynchronous learning for sales product training

Imagine you have a new product launching in 3 months, and before then, you need to teach all of the members of your sales team about the product. The individuals on your sales team represent different territories and regions, and as such, they live all over the country, with only a few of them based out of your headquarters. So, instead of covering travel expenses for the entire sales team, disrupting their day to day, and attempting to coordinate a mass learning experience, you put together educational content available online that the team can use to learn the features of the new product from wherever they’re located and on their own time. Not only does this save your business money, but it also allows your team to work within their schedules and time zones. 

Asynchronous learning for tight tech timelines

Imagine now that one of your Senior Software Engineers notifies you that there is a new regulation that all of your techs need to follow, and they all need to get up to speed. Fast. However, many of your techs work conflicting schedules and have very limited availability. It doesn’t look like you will be able to coordinate a time that works for everyone in the near future, especially without disrupting your business, so instead, you decide to incorporate asynchronous learning. To do so, you work with your Senior Software Engineer to create online content that details the new rules your techs need to follow and grant them access to it. This way, despite their differing schedules, everyone will now be able to learn the necessary material within the tight timeline.   

So, asynchronous learning can work really well for a variety of reasons, but like most things, it isn’t perfect.

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What are the pros and cons of asynchronous learning?

Benefits of asynchronous learning

Flexibility 

Asynchronous learning gives you the ability to follow a simple four step process: Build your curriculum, record the curriculum, place your curriculum in a learning platform, and repeat. Your curriculum can then be viewed by learners anywhere at any time, and you don’t have to actively instruct them every time someone reviews your material. Thus, your learners aren’t restricted by time or place, and neither are you! This is especially useful during a global pandemic. Asynchronous learning offers clear advantages when being together in a group could be life-threatening.

Budget-friendly 

If budget is a concern, being free of time and place can save you tremendous amounts of money. As referenced in the sales team example earlier in this post, asynchronous learning opportunities can help alleviate travel expenses, and they can also reduce, or possibly eliminate, space rental fees and other expenses. 

Scalability

Another advantage of asynchronous learning is it’s scalability. With the traditional classroom model, the more you need to teach, the thinner your resources are spread. Reaching more students means needing more teachers and instructors. It also equals more classrooms, more travel expenses, and more resources. But with asynchronous learning, you often only have to teach or record your material once, and multiple cohorts of students can learn from it. Not only does this allow you to do more with less, but it also gives you more time for other activities and projects while multitudes of students still benefit from your content. Don’t forget, we should always be gathering data on our courses and making improvements over time when needed. A smarter workforce is a better workforce, and an asynchronous strategy can help you reach more students without utilizing more resources. 

Availability

Not only is asynchronous learning considerate of learner’s schedules, but it’s also considerate of their differing learning processes. Not all learners can absorb material at the same rate, and asynchronous learning allows learners to go at their own pace. It also enables them to refer back and review concepts that they may need to spend more time on. With asynchronous learning, learners get to take control of their education (for better or worse). 

Asynchronous learning challenges 

Student motivation required

Possibly the most poignant challenge is that if the learning “event” isn’t happening at a required time, it means that the execution or completion is now your learner’s responsibility. So, one of the most important skills you’ll need your learners to have is motivation. And it can be a lot harder to motivate a student if you don’t have live, interactive contact with them. It’s not impossible, of course, but it is more challenging. 

Difficult to adapt

As a learning professional, it’s vital to meet your learners where they’re at and make adaptations when needed to help ensure their success. For example, if many of your learners are struggling with the same concept, in a synchronous format, you could slow down and spend more time providing examples and ensuring that your learners have a grasp on the material during the designated class period. This is a lot harder to do in an asynchronous format in which you don’t have the live interaction with all of your learners.

Easier to lose focus

Without real-time activities and interpersonal connections, it can be especially difficult to command the attention of your learners. And a lack of live interaction between students isn’t the only potential attention span pitfall with asynchronous learning. Procrastination, distractions, and being physically disconnected from the learning environment can all compound a learner’s difficulty focusing on the material. 

Prolonged feedback timeline

Because you can’t control when your learners are learning, you also can’t control when they ask questions. This means that if a learner accesses their materials and has a question at a time when their educator isn’t readily available, the learner may waste valuable time waiting for their educator to get back to them before they can continue. Synchronous learning’s designated class times better allow instructors to be prepared for questions. 

Will asynchronous learning work for your people? It all comes down to understanding your learners

So, should you incorporate asynchronous learning into your training? Well, it depends on the situation and the learners. Are you under a tight timeline? Are you trying to save money or conserve resources? Do your learners have conflicting or busy schedules? Asynchronous learning can be an innovative, useful way to show learners that you respect their time and their ability to complete tasks on their own. And it can save learning professionals time and resources in the process. But, it doesn’t work for everyone. Are you worried about learners having the motivation to complete their tasks? Do you enjoy the ability to adapt your lessons as you go? Do you want to interact with your learners or have your learners interact with each other in real time? Then synchronous learning might be a better fit. Ultimately, it all comes down to understanding your learners and their needs, and then making an intentional decision to meet them where they’re at. 

Microlearning—How Short Is Too Short?

Posted on by Maestro

Lately, I’ve been thinking about a trend that’s been slowly plaguing the learning industry for the past 5 years or so… shorter and shorter training sessions. The idea of shorter learning sessions originally came about to enable learners to focus on one or two key takeaways. That’s great! But what’s not great is cramming more and more information into a shorter and shorter amount of time.

With microlearning, also known as bite-sized training or learning “bursts,” one thing we’re certainly not short on is buzzwords, but are we short on effectiveness? That’s the question.

Are shorter training sessions really better? 

Here’s what I’m thinking.

There are benefits to longer learning experiences

Spacing out learning opportunities enables learners to focus on key pieces of information, absorb that information, and then build on it over time.

Similarly, repetition (something that takes time) is a key element to learning and growth– repeating information over time sends a signal to your brain that it’s important, it builds up familiarity, and enables you to more easily recall it in the future.  And it’s not just repetition that matters. Experts argue that the spacing intervals are vital to long term comprehension as well. In fact, it’s the opportunity to forget and recall a piece of information that increases the likelihood of long term memory and comprehension. By spacing out a lesson and allowing time between different concepts, learners are able to not only build on concepts increasing in complexity, but they are also able to practice recalling and using the information they just learned. 

So, shorter bursts of learning can work, but learning professionals would need to incorporate frequent microlearning sessions in order for this method to be effective. 

Our attention span is short

The decreasing human ability to stay focused is pretty widely documented and accepted. 

While the human attention span was at about 12 seconds in 2000, it’s down to around 8 seconds today. And for reference, experts say the attention span of a goldfish is about 9 seconds. (Yes, you read that right. Our attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s.)

But what about something specific like social media content? To create an effective, engaging video post, experts say you better capture attention in the first 3 seconds of that Instagram Reel or your audience is scrolling on. And in a very scientific study (results based on a casual chat between me and 6 coworkers), we acknowledged that, in our own lives, Instagram Reels and TikToks that last more than 10 seconds are likely to get skipped.

So, acknowledging that our attention span is short (and has been getting even shorter over time), it makes sense that many learning professionals are integrating shorter learning experiences; however, there’s a fine line between time effective and ineffective. 

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What Is Dynamic Planning and Why Is it Important for Your Learning Strategy?

We are busy

Whether you’ve taken on remote learning (either yourself or with your kiddos), continued working as a front liner, or adapted to working from home, experts suggest that we are all busier than ever. In addition to the many new and stressful tasks we’ve all taken on in our personal and professional lives, we can’t ignore that we’re also living through the collective trauma of a global pandemic, which is exhausting on its own. So, the trending preference for shorter learning opportunities makes a lot of sense. Perhaps now more than ever before. In fact, in a sea of Zoom meetings and video conferences, screen fatigue is a real concern. 

With less time and energy to devote to learning, microlearning lessons may better suit our busy schedules, but do they really suit our needs as learners?

The risk of shorter learning

When we make learning sessions shorter and shorter, we risk learning nothing at all.

So, is there a place in the education toolkit for microlearning? And perhaps more importantly, if there is a place for microlearning, how can learning professionals strategically incorporate it, and when should they opt for a longer format?

It’s a difficult question to answer, but it’s important to consider the audience and the material. It’s also important to recognize that shorter isn’t always better. Some complex information requires context, background, and repetition in order to be learned and retained. So, complex or nuanced lessons likely aren’t meant for the microlearning format, and if you choose to teach them in a microlearning lesson, you take a chance that your learners won’t retain the information.

Though you may want to cater to busy schedules and shorter attention spans, microlearning begs the question: by making learning shorter and shorter, are we eventually learning nothing at all?

How short is too short? 

Longer learning has its benefits. Experts suggest that opportunities for repetition and memory recall maximize the chances that learners will learn and retain concepts. However, experts also suggest that we have short attention spans and busy schedules, so it makes sense that we have (successfully and unsuccessfully) created shorter learning lessons. So now the question is—how short is too short? Surely a limit has to exist.

What Is Dynamic Planning and Why Is it Important for Your Learning Strategy?

Posted on by Maestro

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: You’re mid-way through the fiscal year when you’re presented with a fantastic opportunity to help your team learn something new. “If only we could take on this project, we might be able to affect real change,” you say. Unfortunately, you’re forced to pass it up because it wasn’t in the budget.

This probably sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

If your company is like most others, you spend seemingly endless hours in annual planning meetings discussing spreadsheets, crunching numbers, prioritizing line items, trying to predict what opportunities might arise and estimate just how much the year ahead will cost. 

Usually we look at our work history in an attempt to plan for the future. How many courses did we build last year? How many will we make this year? What work will we complete in-house? Will we need to contract out certain projects? What’s the priority for our resources? This is traditional strategic planning. We use the past to inform the future, tweak the percentages up or down, and then we’ve locked in our plan for the year.

That may be the way things have been done in businesses around the world for generations, but in a world where technology moves faster than business (hint: right now), annual planning is becoming archaic.

It’s static planning for a dynamic world.

It’s time to step away from tradition and into a new way of planning—one that invests more time in maximizing productivity and flexibility.

One that doesn’t make you waste time trying to pin down every little detail only to pin yourself down by a plan that doesn’t allow any breathing room.

An article in the Wall Street Journal puts it this way, “Organizations need to blow apart the traditional budgeting process, become more dynamic and refocus on crucial management functions individually.”

So turn your back on static annual planning. Begin dynamic planning.

What is dynamic planning?

It’s planning with a balance of strategy and flexibility.

It attempts to take the big picture into account in order to make a broad, responsible plan for the year ahead. But it also requires you to revisit that plan regularly—perhaps quarterly—to ensure it’s where it needs to be right now.

This isn’t just budget related. If there’s a shift in organizational learning priorities, you’ll want to be able to revisit those to adapt for your team’s learning needs, as well. 

A dynamic plan allows employees to take intelligent risks, pursue unforeseen opportunities, respond swiftly to threats, adopt new technology, and carry out new ideas—all for the betterment of the business.

If you haven’t made the shift yet, here are some tips to get you started.

Set clear goals

Having clear, big-picture goals is just as important in dynamic planning as it was in static planning. When goals are in place, they can serve as the measuring stick for whether or not an opportunity is worth investing the required resources.

For example, let’s say that your company’s primary goal for the year is to increase its percent of market share. 

A couple of weeks into the new year your competition launches a new product, stirring up buzz in your industry.

After researching the competition, you find that with a few key talking points your sales team can defend your market position and maybe even gain market share with key differentiators. 

The question now becomes: How can I quickly train my sales team to contest our competitors’ new product? Time is of the essence! Every day that goes by you risk losing market share. 

Thankfully, your organization believes in dynamic planning and is able to successfully allocate the resources to create new sales collateral, host a well produced webinar, and create an asynchronous training curriculum for your sales team.  

You were able to get the resources for the project because this training directly supported your goal of increasing market share.  

What if you were stuck in static planning? You would’ve had to wait until the next planning cycle and by then it might’ve been too late. You might’ve lost market share and then you’re a cycle behind your competition.

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How to Use Trello for Project Management—Plus Our Best Tips and Tricks

Minimize your outlook

Static planning tries to predict what things will be like a year from now or even more. Dynamic planning shifts your mindset to more immediate concerns, but in the best way possible.

Try to scale down your thinking to just 90 days. Focus on one quarter, major milestone, or product launch at a time.

With those big-picture goals in place for the long haul, you’re freed up to focus on the short-term. By focusing on the here and now, allowing yourself and your team to take risks and pounce on new opportunities, you could drastically change what the next short-term window of time will look like.

Let’s say that with static planning, your company predicts Q3 of next year to be relatively slow. Let’s be real, it’s always slow.

Your customers are vacationing and thinking about getting their kids back to school. They’re not buying from you. So, you plan for a slow Q3. You bake it into the annual strategy. You inadvertently prepare your reps for a slow Q3. And what do you know? After all is said and done, it’s a slow Q3.

Now rewind for a second.

With dynamic planning, you’re free to focus more on the short-term and the flexibility to do whatever it takes to move the needle closer and closer to your primary goals. Maybe you identify asynchronous training opportunities for your team members that could really improve their overall job competency and satisfaction.

So in Q2 you implement it.

With that investment, your team is able to dedicate far more time and energy to actually performing their jobs well, and the company’s productivity increases substantially. As a result, Q3 turns out to be a record-breaking quarter for your company.

Focus on the short-term (which should always ladder up to a long term goal) while actively analyzing the results of your efforts. Be nimble and change what’s not working while also maximizing what is. Seek every opportunity to be better immediately. Don’t wait until your next planning meeting.

Communicate

One advantage of a static annual plan is that it can serve as an unwavering playbook for your company. Everyone receives it at the beginning of the year and does their part to see it through to the end.

Not so much with dynamic planning. Things change. Strategies take twists and turns. Priorities are rearranged. This can be frustrating on the individual level if it’s not all accompanied by strong communication on the company’s part.

Everyone involved should communicate regularly—both within teams and among departments—about what they’re doing to move the company forward. This way, everyone can flex together to help achieve common goals.

Now, you don’t need to replace your annual static planning meetings with regular dynamic planning meetings. You just need to be responsible for keeping others in-the-know about what you’re up to.

Send emails. Mention it at team meetings. Do what works for you. Just don’t do it in secret.

Measure what matters

What might you communicate to help get decision maker buy-in? Data related to the learning project or initiative can be one of the most convincing talking points. 

To build on the example from above, if you’ve just released a new course to help train the sales team, how many people have completed the course? Is there any correlation to sales numbers changing? 

Another example—if you’re building a new feature in your learning platform, perhaps the most important measure is % increase of users, % increase in user happiness, or % increase in time in the app.

If you’re looking to update an existing course, is the behavior change still happening? Is the learner’s satisfaction going up? 

It’s important to measure and track the results of each initiative as you move through them. This helps establish a baseline to compare all future projects with. 

Being able to tell the story about what’s working and what’s not, and understanding why things worked out the way they did, is what helps inform your next pivot. It tells leadership you’re paying attention to what matters and you know how to steer the team in the right direction, and how to change course quickly if it’s not working.

Dynamic planning gives you and your team the freedom to be strategic more than once a year.

Actually, it encourages strategic thinking as often as possible. And with the world changing as quickly as it is today, who doesn’t need a little more freedom and encouragement to keep up with it all?

How to Use Trello for Project Management—Plus Our Best Tips and Tricks

Posted on by Maestro

When managing a department or company wide project, do you find yourself overwhelmed? Is organizing all those tasks, team member responsibilities, and deadlines a grind? With Trello, keeping your project management balls in the air no longer requires a PhD in juggling. 

Maestro has figured out the best way to use Trello for project management when partnering with a variety of clients to develop eLearning courses, marketing campaigns, and animated and live-action videos that leverage the talents of a myriad of team members—from account managers and copywriters to developers, project managers, and everyone in between. Trello was a lifesaver for me during an over two-year project with Royal Caribbean that resulted in a dynamic curriculum of digital training courses for 14 different employee roles.

For more on how Trello can turn you into a project management pro in no time, read on. 

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So what is Trello anyway? 

Trello is an interactive project management tool that enables you to organize your work and tasks into visual boards. Simple (and fun) to use, Trello tracks what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and what the status is of each and every task in your given project. Think of Trello as a whiteboard filled with rows of 80s neon sticky notes, only with a heck of a lot more functionality and adaptability. And a way bigger wow factor.

Why use Trello for project management? Trello’s power is in the cards

Looking to spark accountability, inspire collaboration, rightside disorganization, and yes, regain sanity? Say hello to Trello. Trello’s power stems from cards you organize into customized lists (or what I like to call swim lanes). Cards can be tasks, notes, projects, shared files, or almost anything under the sun that helps your team work a whole lot smarter.

Let Trello manage your project, instead of your project manage you

Long email threads can be confusing. Wasted time spent in superfluous meetings can be frustrating. Accountability and transparency are vital, yet both demand everyone being on the same page… at every stage of the project. 

Trello solves these common problems. When you use Trello for project management, your task cards tell you all you need to know about how to get the job done—and all discussions related to that job are right there in black and white (or teal and pink—because you can customize the background of your board with any color or photo you like). Keeping everything in a single location allows your project to stay on track, because everyone can see what’s being done and what’s completed at a glance. 

Still not sold on Trello over other project management tools? Here are three more reasons why I think Trello works wonders for project workflow:

1. It’s free (and pain-free) to use

Trello’s standard tools are free. Create your workspace, then your main board, cards, checklists, and more—and voila!—turn all that work into a template for fast and simple replication across projects. (Trello even has its own templates you can choose from, so you don’t have to start from scratch.) Your team can get collaborating and conversing in a heartbeat.

Maestro's Template for BOSS Project Management

We created a sample Trello board with a set of lists we typically use on our projects to get you started. Create a board from this template, then edit the lists and cards for your organization!

Try out our free Trello board→

2. It has pivoting power

Using Trello for project management not only gives you a clear view of all relevant tasks, but also the ease and flexibility to rearrange those tasks as your needs and priorities change. If one card isn’t ready to move on, no worries. You can still move forward without any hiccups. Adding, removing, or rearranging the priority of a card doesn’t cause a breakdown in the entire workflow. In fact, fine-tuning is encouraged to continually improve your project planning and workflow.

3. It fosters ownership and furthers teamwork 

When a team member is ready to tackle an assigned task, move the card over to an “In Progress” lane. When a card is approved, move it to a “Ready to Deliver” lane. Anyone on the team can see the status of a card, anytime and from anywhere. (Plus, they can see the big picture and what lies ahead.) Within each card, conversation and status updates are documented and welcomed.

Best Trello tips and tricks

Ready to dive in and see how Trello can make a difference in your project management? Because Trello is so nimble and versatile, the following tips are just the beginning.

  • Designate a team captain. While everyone should play a role in updating cards and moving your project forward, Trello works best when there’s one person overseeing the board—typically this is a project manager at Maestro, but anyone is capable! 
  • Start simple and grow on demand. Remember, you can add new lists/swim lanes as your needs expand and you further define your process. 
  • Create a reference card (example: “How This Board Works”) that’s always available in the leftmost lane. This card can include links/attachments to project details, kick-off docs, and any other information necessary for the whole team to know. To build your reference card, you’ll want to answer these key questions first.  
  • Make a card a template when repeating the same deliverable/task information. It’s a huge time saver! To get started, select “Make a Template” from the card’s Actions menu.
  • Edit your cards without opening them. By using the pencil icon in the top-right corner, you can easily edit labels, change your cover image, and copy, move, or archive cards. 
  • Embrace checklists for tracking cards, tasks, and/or completed reviews. You can re-use checklists throughout your board (see “Checklist” on drop-down menu for reference). Assign checklist items individually as needed or convert an item on the checklist to its own card (select “Convert to Card”). 
  • Use color-coded labels to categorize cards, as well as distinguish deliverables. This is especially handy for flagging any issues that need to be rechecked before final delivery (example: legal language additions). 
  • Assign and remind your team members (and yourself). Keep in mind, assignees can easily be changed as the deliverable moves through your board. Due dates and corresponding reminders can be set up to notify assignees, keeping everyone on track—and on deadline. And this is true for everyone who’s a member of the board, including the person who created it. A little reminder never hurt anybody!
  • Make your Trello board an all-inclusive go-to for your team by including links/attachments to all documents and source materials. Consider doing so in that reference card mentioned above.
  • Take advantage of power-ups like Butler. Trust me, Butler will make you look and feel like a Trello genius by automating your boards with rules, scheduled commands, and custom buttons. (The list of power-ups is long, too, ensuring that Trello will easily integrate into your existing workflow.)

Trello project management examples (from our project managers!)

Sometimes you just need to see it to believe it. Or in this case, see it to execute it. We put together a Trello project example to get you started with the tool. This sample Trello board for project management uses the simple tips and tricks we outlined for you. Take a look at it for inspiration or copy it and use it to get started with your own project. 

Time to Trello!

With so many tips and tricks to guide you and example boards to get started, making the most of Trello is well within your reach. When your team wouldn’t dream of going anyplace else but your Trello board for the lowdown, you’ll know you’ve mastered this project management powerhouse.

We’re Testing out Tiered Proposals for Our Projects—Here’s Why

Posted on by Maestro

The traditional proposal route

As a creative agency, our line of work is pretty simple. We get introduced to a new client or idea, and we get a couple of hours with the client to explore what their idea is and the business problem we’re trying to solve. Then voilà! We pitch what they wanted to hear, which solves their exact business problem. We now have a happy client, and the cycle repeats itself. Right? 

Not exactly.

You know that process where you identify you need help, you reach out to potential partners, and you hear all their ideas before picking one to work with? Let’s call that the pitch-decision loop. The pitch-decision loop is designed to make client decisions easier. 

As a client, you tell potential vendors what you want over a couple of hours. You wait to hear back on ideas and price points within about two weeks (pitch). Then you evaluate as a team and respond back with a yes or no to all the potential partners (decision).

Boxes are checked. 

Stakeholders are happy.

And, hopefully, you have found a great strategic partner—hooray!

Here’s the problem

From our perspective, as a learning partner, those couple of hours with a new client, learning their business, while helpful, aren’t nearly enough. It’s tough to understand years of organizational learning context, align on metrics of success, agree on a features and functionality list, and understand company politics in less time than we spend on Zoom in an average day. Sometimes clients are challenged to answer those questions themselves: “Measure of success? Behavior Change? Platform? We just want a course!”  

The problem is that we end up making assumptions about what type of project it’ll be, because we have only so much information and context as someone outside of the organization. Don’t get us wrong, we’ve hired the smartest people we know, and solving learning problems is our expertise—but are we being good partners if our assumptions drive so much of the project outcome?

How can this partnership be better?

This is where the idea for presenting tiered proposals or options came from. We’re starting to ask ourselves, “How might we make the proposal process (partnership) be more valuable for everyone involved?” 

From our perspective, good strategy is founded on this principle: strategy is the act of creating options, then making decisions against those options. 

So we thought, “How can we get our client involved in the strategy with us?” Presenting options is one of the ideas that brings our clients into the conversation and helps us build a better relationship (partnership) together. Here’s how:

It gets our clients involved early

When clients are involved early, we can work together to examine the pros and cons of multiple approaches, then make the best decision possible.

This approach starts to break down the pitch-decision loop and turn it into a conversation. That’s important. We want the pitch-decision loop to be less of a presentation and more of a conversation. Different clients have different value scales, based on a variety of factors. When you’re starting a business relationship, having a discussion rather than a presentation can be extremely valuable for everyone: This is how we think—how do you think? Do you like how we think? Then check and adjust accordingly. It’s the first feedback loop among many, as more decisions will be made throughout the project.

We also recognize that we don’t have all the answers on our team. Those couple of hours we spent learning about a client’s business can never replace the experience and perspective our clients have. Presenting options allows us to get closer to collaboration, where we’re continually learning from each other to create the best outcome.

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It adds more value, faster

Being forced to present options helps us play with constraints and makes our team think more creatively. Presenting options helps us be the partner we want to be.

We don’t want to take what the client wants at face value. We’re interested in having a proactive conversation regarding what it means to solve the problem, similar to how you wouldn’t tell a doctor that you need to amputate your leg because your knee hurts. We try our best to take the symptoms from the client and go beyond the ask. What’s really going on here?

It involves less pressure for everyone (doesn’t that sound nice?)

In the pitch-decision loop, there’s a lot of pressure! As an agency, we have to put together the right solution and pitch perfectly. Presenting multiple options helps take all that pressure off. 

As a client, you have to collect those pitches and then make a decision on whose is the best. That’s a lot of time-consuming work. And what if you’re wrong on the decision? Depending on the project, it could have serious consequences. Considering multiple options from a partner helps take that pressure off.

But wait, more choices isn’t always better, right?

Let’s get meta. The strategy of this strategy isn’t without its own flaws. Having more choices isn’t always better. (That’s why this is something we’re still thinking through).

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz argues that having too many choices leads to anxiety and abandoned shopping carts. Analysis paralysis dictates that too much information can actually slow down and hurt the decision making process. Productivity experts famously wear one style and color of clothing (think Steve Jobs and black turtlenecks) to reduce decision fatigue. And agency dogma believes that if you present multiple options to a client they lose confidence in the agency’s expertise. There’s solutions to each of those problems.

So now what?

It’s time for testing and feedback. Maybe we switch over to tiered proposals entirely, or maybe we find that they’re valuable for certain partnerships and not for others. I’m excited about exploring these options. What do you think?

What’s the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model?

Posted on by Maestro

At Maestro, we have spent many years with our team and with clients discovering what makes a powerful learning experience, and from that, we’ve built an arsenal of learning philosophies and principles that guide the work we do in learning and development.

One of the models that inform our learning principles is the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model. Let’s take a look at the Kirkpatrick Model’s four levels of learning evaluation to understand how to measure the success of any training.

The Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation

In our previous post about Bloom’s Taxonomy, we talked about using that model to frame and plan learning experiences. In contrast, the Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation is about measuring the outcomes of a learning experience.

While planning and executing learning are obviously important parts of the process, it’s equally important to answer the questions: Did the training do what it was supposed to do? Did the learners learn what they needed to? As a result, is that changing learner behavior? And ultimately, is the behavior change making a difference in business objectives?

In the Kirkpatrick Model, there are multiple levels of evaluating training. Here’s a breakdown of the four levels of learning evaluation in the Kirkpatrick Model and how they work.

Kirkpatrick Model: Four levels of learning evaluation

The model’s four distinct levels that help us measure success in learning experiences are: Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results.

the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model: 1. reaction 2. learning 3. behavior 4. results

1. Reaction

This part of the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model is fairly simple: it’s user feedback. How did learners react to the experience? What are their initial opinions? Were they positive, negative, or indifferent?

While the answers to this question may not be able to fully answer whether training was successful, they do let us understand the overall impact of the learning experience and whether your learners were engaged. And as it turns out, engagement does have a way of increasing ROI.

How to Measure: Measuring participants’ reactions to training can look a few different ways. You could have learners complete a pre- and post-training survey. You could also ask learners to review the training by giving it a star rating and providing comments. Another idea is to interview learners either individually or in groups following the training.

2. Learning

At the Reaction level, the goal is to understand whether your training was well-received and enjoyed by learners. At the Learning step, you want to know if they actually learned anything. This part of the Kirkpatrick Model isn’t too different from the Remember phase of Bloom’s Taxonomy; we want to understand what was learned and if those concepts and skills are fully comprehended.

How to Measure: Measuring learning using the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model can be done through quizzes and assessments. Knowledge checks and other post-training tools allow us to understand how well the training taught certain concepts and whether learners are walking away with a stronger knowledge base.

3. Behavior

While the results gathered from the Learning phase are important to understand which concepts and skills were learned in theory, Behavior is answering the question: Did what they learn change their behavior? In terms of how this relates to Bloom’s, it measures higher aspects of learning such as Application, Creation, and Evaluation.

How to Measure: You’re going to need more than quizzes and knowledge checks to evaluate the Behavior level of the Kirkpatrick Model. Try testing behavior change with scenario learning, behavior assessments, or on-the-job observation and feedback. Then, you can see not only what someone learned but also how it’s affecting their job performance.

4. Results

Results is the final stage of Kirkpatrick’s four level training evaluation model, and it’s the most important. What’s measured here is how well the learning met company objectives.

While the other four levels matter—Reaction, Learning, and Behavior—the results are what determines whether the training served its intended purpose or not. Did it improve sales? Did employee satisfaction improve? Are there fewer safety violations? This is why it’s so important to set objectives from the start of planning a learning experience: you want to see results.

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How to Measure: Results are done through KPIs and strict measurements. Did ROI increase? What about customer satisfaction? Did workplace incidents go down?

_____

When used successfully, the Kirkpatrick Model can provide the “why” behind your training and give you a way to measure whether or not it was successful—for everyone involved. We hope this intro to the Kirkpatrick Model gives you the tools you need to evaluate your learning and truly understand its impact from multiple viewpoints.

What You Can Learn from MasterClass about Your Next Learning Project

Posted on by Maestro

MasterClass launched in 2015, but the fact that it’s been around for a while doesn’t make it any less engaging or compelling. Some of the ideas from the MasterClass learning experience can even be applied to the learning experiences you design. Before we jump in, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.

What is MasterClass all about?

What is MasterClass?

It’s a platform that offers high-production value online classes created for students of all skill levels. 

Who are the MasterClass instructors? 

MasterClass is the only platform with content provided by world-famous experts like Aaron Sorkin, Gordon Ramsey, and Steve Martin. Impressive, right? There’s no other online learning platform that pulls household name writers, chef’s, and actors into one space.

MasterClass online classes price

MasterClass is $15 a month or $180 a year.

What is the MasterClass learning experience?

MasterClass is polarizing in the learning space. Searching for “MasterClass” leads you down Google rabbit holes like, “Is MasterClass a ripoff?” and “Is MasterClass worth it?” In our office, we have a bit of a debate: is MasterClass just entertainment, or do subscribers receive value from this super-polished format?

I’m going to demystify MasterClass. I’ll talk about the things MasterClass does well: production value and access to world-class experts. Then we’ll consider gaps in the MasterClass learning experience. Finally, we’ll discuss how to replicate the success of MasterClass in your learning project.

Things MasterClass does well

When you think about a “learning video,” what comes to mind? Depending on your generation, you might have a few thoughts: Schoolhouse Rock!? Bill Nye? Some sort of PowerPoint with voice-over? A YouTube video? Whatever the case, all those are…well…just okay compared to the work that MasterClass is producing. 

If you haven’t taken a class from MasterClass or seen one of their advertisements, stop what you’re doing and go watch one right now! The cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words” doesn’t even come close to summarizing the value of the MasterClass experience. Once you see a 30-second clip, you’ll understand Masterclass takes their production seriously (here are two fantastic examples with Tony Hawk and Misty Copeland).  

With such attention to detail during the setup, shoot, and even editing, MasterClass online courses do a phenomenal job of blurring the lines between education and entertainment. This is, in part, what makes MasterClass successful. 

These classes are not your average learning video. I’d watch Steph Curry shooting threes on MasterClass over content on Netflix any day. The MasterClass team recognizes they’re competing for attention, like any other content platform. They’re saying that focusing on learning isn’t enough to get that attention. This high level of production combined with access to world-class experts is the essence of MasterClass’s value proposition.

On MasterClass, Herbie Hancock teaches jazz, Tony Hawk teaches skateboarding, Ron Finley teaches gardening.

Most of this information is a search away on their platform. Masterclass gives people access to all these experts talking about their craft that isn’t available from a Google search.

Good learning doesn't just look like high quality videos

You can achieve compelling learning design with stock photography, too!

Get our checklist for selecting great stock photos→

Gaps in the MasterClass learning experience

By creating a scalable, asynchronous way to have access to all these experts, MasterClass has chosen to lean more into entertainment than education. Its strengths are also its greatest weakness. They’ve captured the learner’s attention, but you have to ask yourself, “Are they learning?” 

The MasterClass format brings awareness to subjects for learners, but doesn’t give much opportunity for application. Perhaps, most importantly, there is no way for MasterClass to give you feedback while you’re practicing a particular skill. The expression, “You don’t learn how to ride a bike by reading about it,” comes to mind. As a learner, watching Kelly Wearstler talk about how she designed a hotel:

A. Isn’t going to help me win a contract to do my own hotel project.

B. Gives me zero skill development velocity. 

You might learn a little. A trick here, a tactic there, but it’s so incremental relative to experiencing the work in real life. Learning is a process, not a one-time event. 

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Capture “MasterClass magic” in your next learning project 

How can you, with your next learning project, capture the strengths of the MasterClass learning experience and online classes—and avoid the pitfalls?

Make your content beautiful—and useful

Recognize that your content, like every other piece of content on the Internet, is competing for attention. A strategy to consider is our affinity for beautiful content. This is called the Aesthetic Usability Effect. When something is more visually pleasing, your audience is more likely to use it. This applies to usability and user experience design, too. You can apply this to the production quality of the photography or video content in your learning projects.

Use your experts to lead the charge

Get the best of the best to teach your content. Teaching sales techniques to your organization? Who’s your best salesperson? Get them to be one of the talking heads in a video, or have them do a “celeb shot” for a particular module. Looking to teach your flight attendants the  best practices on customer service? How do you measure success in those areas with your organization? Who’s the best? Have them teach! This will add personality, keep the skill in-house, and make it more authentic for your audience.

Let your learners apply their new knowledge

Give your audience a chance for practical application. After hearing from the experts, consider how someone can practice in their home office, in their workshop, or wherever they may be. Meet the learner where they’re at, and give them the tools they need to practice and apply everything they learn.

Focus on the learning process

Consider process versus outcome. Learning is not a one-time event. It’s a transformative journey that learners experience. Watching a video and checking the “I watched this” box is great for the MasterClass learning experience and its revenue model. You’re looking to generate change in your organization to win market share or reach another level of profitability or (at the very least) you’re looking for that project that might grab the attention of your leaders. Learning that focuses on process and not outcomes will give you and your organization the results you’re looking for.

What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Posted on by Maestro

At Maestro, we have spent many years with our team and with clients discovering what makes a powerful learning experience, and from that, we’ve built an arsenal of learning philosophies and principles that guide the work we do in learning and development.

One of the models that informs our learning principles is Bloom’s Taxonomy. What is Bloom’s Taxonomy? How does it work, and how can your company use it to boost learning outcomes?

What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchy for teaching and learning that helps to frame desired objectives or outcomes for a learning experience. Each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy builds on the one before it—providing a ladder of potential learning objectives to draw from when tackling your next learning project.

Bloom's Taxonomy: 1. remember, 2. understand, 3. apply, 4. analyze, 5. create, 6. evaluate

There are several iterations of Bloom’s Taxonomy that have been around since its creation, but we’re going to use the following levels: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Create, and Evaluate.

Bloom’s Taxonomy and teaching

Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a blueprint and structure for teachers, helping them ultimately answer the question, “What do you want your learners to do?”

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework that goes hand-in-hand with course development for our clients. It pushes clients to think past the basic levels of learning such as remembering and understanding, which you see a lot in courses with knowledge checks and quizzes, and towards higher levels of learning found in analysis, creation, and evaluation.

What do we mean when we talk about basic and higher levels of learning? At one point, we all had science class and had to memorize “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell”. That example right there depicts the Remember stage in Bloom’s Taxonomy, the most basic form of learning. When learners take this concept and work it through the higher levels of Bloom’s, however, it’s not enough to recite this scientific reality. There’s then a need to understand it in context.

While a learner might remember the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, do they really understand what that means? To take it even further, could they recreate an accurate model of a cell and evaluate just why this component is so vital to life as we know it? That’s Bloom’s Taxonomy in action.

Basically, Bloom’s Taxonomy and teaching are a perfect pair. The framework helps push learning outcomes towards their fullest potential, so that students, employees, and learners aren’t just thinking about concepts by memorizing definitions or passing knowledge checks, but actually thinking about their application in the real world through scenario learning, real-world application, and other hands-on learning experiences.

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Bloom’s Taxonomy in education

Beyond the traditional classroom setting, Bloom’s Taxonomy can play a fairly broad role in education as a whole. It can be used in any situation, in both formal and informal learning. While it’s most often used in a formal learning setting for lesson planning and structuring courses, it can also be used when you’re offering short informal trainings to make sure learners aren’t just staying at lower levels such as Remember and Understand, but also moving towards higher stages of learning such as Analysis, Creation, and Evaluation. Whether you’re planning an online course, a training luncheon, or a conference, Bloom’s Taxonomy is an invaluable tool to ensure a positive, valuable learning experience.

Bloom’s Taxonomy in education is a powerful tool for any facilitator to keep in their back pocket. Keeping Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind when structuring information, especially as it pertains to those higher levels of learning, can remind educators that organizing their learning based on what goals they want their learners to achieve matters.

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy used for?

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy used for? Besides being the genius invention of Benjamin Bloom, Bloom’s Taxonomy has proven to be valuable across industries. Beyond course and lesson plan development, Bloom’s Taxonomy has also been used in technology to frame digital tasks, evaluate apps, and write questions for assessments.

Let’s learn more about the levels of Bloom’s and how each level impacts learners.

Bloom’s Taxonomy explained

Remember

Remember is the most basic level of learning in Bloom’s Taxonomy, and it’s likely familiar to you. Think about memorization, flashcards, and similar question and answer features found in courses. The purpose of the Remember stage is for learners to grasp basic definitions of concepts so that they can next understand them.

Understand

Once a learner has mastered Remember, they move towards Understand. This looks like not only comprehending a definition of a concept, but being able to understand what that concept looks like in its real-world context.

Apply

Once understanding has been reached, it’s time to apply. This is the stage in the learning hierarchy in which the learner moves from thinking to doing. The learner remembers and understands a concept enough to where they can begin using it in the real world.

Analyze

Once the learner applies a concept to the real world, the next step in Bloom’s Taxonomy is Analyze. This is the stage in which learners are able to draw connections between ideas—distinguishing applied concepts from other, similar concepts. So, not only can the learner apply what they’ve learned in the real world, but they begin to see how it relates to other things they’ve learned in life.

Create

Once a learner has analyzed, something amazing happens—they’re able to produce new and original work. Because they’ve gone through the process of remembering, understanding, applying, and analyzing, they have the tools they need to improvise and invent something new using what they learned at the beginning of the process. It’s a stage that empowers learners and encourages them to use their inherent creativity.

Evaluate

Finally, the learner has made something new and it’s time to evaluate it. They’re able to see the strengths and weaknesses of a given concept and defend their decision to use it. This is the kind of learning that produces a long-term change in behavior and outcomes.