In a previous article, I explained how I go from an initial client conversation through to a proposal for their approval.
If you have not yet read that, I’d encourage you to now.
What I end up with after that process is client sign-off, and an understanding of:
- What are their business needs?
- What learning outcomes would address those needs?
- How would we arrange those outcomes into a course?
I’ll continue to use the same document as a planning tool, which at the end of the prior article looked like this:
| Day | Outcomes | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (All) | Can describe how ‘shifting left’ promotes shared understanding | More collaboration between Java and FE teams |
| Can name five ways to slice a feature | Clearer requirements at sprint start | |
| Can take part in an effective backlog review | Clearer requirements at sprint start | |
| 2 (Delivery teams) | Know why it’s important to keep backlogs short | Shorter backlogs |
| Have a shared understanding of what backlogs exist and their appropriate sizes | Shorter backlogs | |
| Be able to measure and identify bottlenecks in their progress | Focus on finishing | |
| Understand the importance of slack time to increase responsiveness | Focus on finishing |
I have from the time the client accepts the proposal until the day of delivery to design the training activities.
It’s a good idea not to be doing it this night before, and I’ve developed a loose framework that keeps me away from that!
Step 4. Design the outline
In my top-down approach I try to get to a reasonable outline first, before drilling in too much.
A big reason for this is that the outline will help me see more clearly what work needs to be done to get the course ready.
I’m going to present it pretty linearly, but please understand the actual process is much more iterative than this will look - you will go over it a bunch of times, cross things out, go down rabbit holes and undo the lot. That’s fine - nobody will ever see it but you!
Validate the outcomes with checkpoints
For each of the agreed learning outcomes, I then try to think of an activity the learner will take part in that will validate the learning outcome. Often it’s as simple as:
- For some knowledge they’ve gained, you want an activity where they recall the knowledge in some way
- For a a skill they learn, you want an activity where they use the skill
- For a thing you want them to be feel able to do, you want something where they relate it to their real context
There are endless variations on what activities to design, we won’t explore them in this article but focus on the structure.
While doing this I consider how to get a mix of activities through each day, and what the attendees’ energy levels will be like at each stage.
The days and roles are now fixed so I keep them on the left, but continue to mostly work right-to-left from the learning outcomes.
Timings will change as you tweak the plan, and will be different on the day! They’re only here as a check of the realism of the plan - resist the urge to put the actual times of day in.
(From now on I’m only going to show a horizontal slice of the outline in each example, for instance here I’ll zoom in on one learning outcome. The full thing starts to get large)
| Day | Timings | Checkpoints | Outcomes | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (all) | 30 mins | Review a backlog in groups | Can take part in an effective backlog review | Clearer requirements at sprint start |
Plan how to get the learners ready for each checkpoint
I then think about each checkpoint, and consider how I could get the learner to the stage where they are ready for that exercise?
Connecting learning closely to an imminent checkpoint puts me in the learner’s position and lets me ask ‘what would I need to see/hear/do/explore, to be able to do that?’
I allow myself to be vague on some of the activities and focus more on what type of activity would be useful for that sort of learning at first.
As with checkpoints you’re still trying to shape the day and keep some variety of activity on the part of the learners.
I capture the activities in my table. I am still broadly working right-to-left, but I keep the timings on the left and I’ll place the learning activities above the checkpoints they relate to, so it’s becoming more like an agenda.
I now might start to think about where breaks and lunch would naturally fit, and check that I’m not putting too much into each day.
Timings are still approximate and exercises or discussions can flex, so don’t be too worried about the detail.
As a general rule I’d probably not put more than 6 hours in a day, at an absolute maximum. It’s better to have less, and more time for side-discussions.
| Day | Timings | Activities | Checkpoints | Outcomes | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (all) | ?? | Presentation - introduce concept of Definition of Ready | |||
| 15 mins | Discussion in pairs with prompts - designing a DoR | ||||
| 30 mins | Practice backlog review session | Can take part in an effective backlog review | Clearer requirements at sprint start |
I sometimes check that it makes sense by using a sentence:
If I explain what definition of ready is, and they get a chance to create one, they’ll be ready to use one in a backlog review
Capture the prep needed for each activity
This is where I start to build an idea of the work I need to do before delivering this course. For each Activity or Checkpoint I try and capture:
- What thinking or research do I need to do in advance?
- What prepared material do I need to create to take with me?
Of course at this stage I may not know, it’s fine to put a question mark or a vague comment. I’m trying to understand whereto gaps are too.
| Day | Timings | Prep | Activities | Checkpoints | Outcomes | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (all) | ?? | Define the key points to cover | Presentation - introduce concept of Definition of Ready | |||
| 15 mins | Generate the discussion prompts | Discussion in pairs with prompts - designing a DoR | ||||
| 30 mins | Tweak what we did on the Widgets-R-Us training | Practice backlog review session | Can take part in an effective backlog review | Clearer requirements at sprint start |
Capture the materials needed
The outline should also make it clear what pre-prepared material I need to have generated or retrieved before I can deliver the training.
For some courses I will be able to go along with just a head full of ideas:
| Timings | Prep | Materials | Activities | Checkpoints | Outcomes | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| most of the morning | Pick an example business domain | The usual set of stickies and sharpies | Event storming | |||
| half hour before lunch | 1,2,4 all - what is unclear about the process? Answer where possible | Can take part in a big picture event storming session | Improved understanding of business processes |
For other subjects I’ll need at least some level of written material, diagrams, and prompts:
| Timings | Prep | Materials | Activities | Checkpoints | Outcomes | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ?? | Define the key points to cover | Key points in trainer notes | Presentation - introduce concept of Definition of Ready | |||
| 15 mins | Generate the discussion prompts | Written prompts in workbooks | Discussion in pairs with prompts - designing a DoR | |||
| 30 mins | Tweak what we did on the Widgets-R-Us training | Example backlog items on A6 (print 4-per-page on A4 and cut). 4 sets? | Practice backlog review session | Can take part in an effective backlog review | Clearer requirements at sprint start |
I’ll continue to edit the outline, but there is a point where it’s in a good enough shape that the level of preparation effort required from me is very clear.
I want to get to this point soon after agreement with the customer, so I can judge were the pre-work fits with my other ongoing work.
Step 5. Get it all ready
I now have a To-Do list of Prep and Materials to cover between now and delivery.
The items I try to focus on first are the ones with the most uncertainty, for instance designing a new exercise or presenting a complex subject that I’m not confident in.
For exercises in particular, I find if I wait a few days/weeks after generating the outline more ideas will naturally pop into my head, but often having written the outline my subconscious is already working on it.
The second focus is the areas that are clear, but require lots of preparation, for instance slides with lots of references, or an example codebase + clear steps for an exercise.
I do my best to schedule these into my calendar in blocks where I’ll crank through them. It’s not a bad idea to try and generate a less-prep alternative for each to keep in your back pocket.
Writing good trainer notes
There is one thing I create fairly directly from the outline, and that’s my notes. I tend to have them on paper, and as a PDF on my tablet just in case.
I take the materials column from the outline and convert it into a packing list for the training and put that on page one. This is the thing I’ll be checking and double-checking before the engagement.
Materials Checklist:
* 1 trainer notes (backup on tablet)
* Tablet charged
* 12 learner workbooks
* 20 sharpies
* Posters (drawn on flip chart):
* Definition of ready
* ...
* Printed Example Backlog items x 4
* ...
The rest of the notes very follow the structure of the outline, with more detail added:
# Day 1, Morning
# Can hold a collaborative backlog review
## Introduce concept of Definition of Ready - 10 min
- Ask if they have heard 'Definition of Done'? If they
have get a definition and ask how it helps
- Write DoR on whiteboard, either using terms reflecting
their DoD definition or:
> "An agreed definition of what stories need, to be
> available and up for discussion on the sprint planning
> meeting"
* Ask what they think it means. Clarify.
## Discussion - 20-30 min
Prep: check everyone has a workbook
Organise into pairs and indicate prompts on workbook page 2
*Prepare next exercise during this*
At end of time capture 'key points' from each pair on flipchart
## Backlog Review Exercise - 20 min
Prep: cut out and sort backlog items into 4 piles
Organise into 4 groups, give each group a set of backlog
items, explain the exercise:
[... and so on ...]
The important thing is for my notes to be easily navigable in a rush. I will want to have them in the correct order of delivery and make it very easy to find what I’m doing now and what I should be getting ready for next.
For this reason I try to use a lot of whitespace with many pages, rather than cramming multiple blocks onto the same page.
For areas I’m comfortable discussing it’s fine for example to have a 20-min block that just says “Explain how to draw an owl”. I would want to have the key points written down to refer to (e.g. “The trick with the curve of the beak”).
Step 6. Deliver!
This is a whole other part of the secret recipe! If I have my notes, and all the materials on the list, I should be in a good place psychologically.
At any point where the focus is off me, I look at the notes and think about:
- What did I plan to doing next?
- Am I ready? Is there some prep needed that I could be doing now?
- What time is it? Am I where we expected to be? Is there something to re-plan? Should I let some activities run longer, or skip some?
- What is the group’s energy? Do I want to bring anything forwards or backwards to match that?
- What have I been hearing? Is there an opportunity to match the course even better to the business needs?
I’ve come to believe that sort thinking, while the learners are doing an activity that will help them learn, is a more valuable use of trainer time and expertise than presentational stuff.
Step 7. Do it all over again
The amount of prep reduces with each course I do in a similar area because elements can be reused, but I do always try and have a bespoke course addressing the specific needs of the learners.
I find prep very daunting, laborious, and a source of procrastination. That’s why I’ve ended up with a fairly robust stepwise process to get me through it, and get to an outline fast. I hope explaining my method has helped you, even if your reaction is “I won’t do it like that”!
Actually delivering training is one of the most enjoyable, energising, and exhausting aspects of my job. I hope you find it as rewarding as I do.