Managing Stakeholders, SMEs and Design Team - #IMPS

The second element of IMPS is Manage.

Manage* stakeholder, subject matter expert and design team’s expectations - Get them “on-board” with designing concise, but effective courses.

Here's how:

• Get buy-in on what is needed to accomplish the course's goal. Emphasize it is "OUR course," belonging to all stakeholders especially the learner. We want a course that is:
• Efficient use of learners’ time, as well as the organization’s time.
• Convenient – There needs to be as little interference and time away from their jobs as possible.
• Instructionally sound - Teach what learners’ need in order to apply the KSA's (not more, not less).
• Address everyone’s role:
• They must know your role and your team’s role, as designers. So often problems occur because they believe they will determine the objectives and design the course. They also don’t know what ISD is and what you do.
• Discuss their roles and expectations (e.g., SMEs as a resource for you to learn subject and get clarification. They are not expected to design and write content - you will design and write it as instruction that will work online - that is your expertise).
• If they provide materials and content, use what supports the learning objectives and rewrite as needed. Let them know you will shape it to work online. They may be possessive of it so assure them you won’t change meaning – just make it concise and deliver in instructionally sound manner.
• You will have persistent SMEs that won't give up on throwing in the kitchen sink. There's always a compromise that won’t do extreme harm to the integrity of the course – we’ll talk about that in the next phase, Prioritize.

*The Identify and Manage phases will overlap, especially in regards to introducing the roles of the SME and eLearning Designer during initial meetings and needs analysis.