Is It a Training Problem? (Job Aid) 

The Problem

Training requests often arrive as foregone conclusions. "We just need a quick module on X." But not every performance issue is a training problem, and without the right questions upfront, teams risk building a solution for the wrong diagnosis, wasting time and resources chasing symptoms instead of causes.

The Solution

I built a one-page job aid to help instructional designers, learning consultants, and team leads assess whether training is actually the right intervention. It is a quick-reference flowchart styled after a detective's case file, so root-cause thinking feels approachable rather than like extra process.

Process

The idea grew directly out of those "we just need a quick course on X" requests arriving without any real diagnosis behind them. I drew on Cathy Moore's Action Mapping approach, which starts not with content but with the observable behavior a business goal actually requires. Moore recommends identifying the action first and building content second, not the other way around.

From that principle, I developed a set of diagnostic questions to help learning professionals pause and assess: is training the right fix, or would a job aid, a conversation, or a process change actually solve this? I mapped those questions into a simple yes/no/maybe flow, paired with a detective metaphor to reinforce the core idea that not every problem is what it first appears to be, and good instructional design starts with an investigation, not a storyboard.

Outcome

This resource has circulated among other instructional designers on LinkedIn as a framing tool for early project thinking, and I now use it myself as a springboard for stakeholder conversations before design work begins.

What I Took Away

This one's close to how I think about the work generally: designing with purpose starts long before the storyboard, or even the learning objectives. It starts with asking better questions about why training is needed in the first place.