Organizations most commonly reach out to external training vendors or consulting companies when they have identified a need and have the budget to move forward.

Working with a creative learning agency is similar to starting a new diet and all of the steps involved to prepare and cook new meals. Even before reaching out to an agency, there are some proactive steps you can take to ensure they can cook up a tasty learning solution for you.

Do your research and understand what they have to offer

First things first, you have to do your research. After identifying that you have a training need, your next step is considering what the solution for that need looks like. Will it be a series of animated videos? What about an eLearning course? If your knowledge of the possibilities is limited, take the time and a stroll through Google to familiarize yourself with possible solutions. This allows you to hit the ground running and have an effective conversation with an agency about what might work best for you.

A simple Google image search of “eLearning examples” can give you an idea of what eLearning looks like before you request a free consultation with a creative learning agency. Having this perspective when meeting with a potential vendor will guide your conversation, allowing you to better refine what you are looking for in a solution, and avoid a misunderstanding after the project is agreed upon.

Ensure your statement of work is defined

Have you ever worked on a project only to have someone come up with a brilliant idea halfway through that changes everything? With creative learning agencies, there is typically a team of consultants with different skill sets working on a project. When delays like this happen, they impact both the agency and the client. The project deadline gets pushed back, more time is allotted to complete the project, and the cost increases to cover the change and consulting hours. When you have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your project, “scope creep” is avoided, interruptions aren’t detrimental, and your project can run smoothly without any additional cost or accrued hours. A creative learning agency can help you define your solution through the discovery phase, which consists of research, a needs analysis, development of a learner persona and strategy. But if you start with a concrete idea about an eLearning course for one goal, then try to switch it to a different focus and a different format, you could easily create a scenario where you will have two separate projects with different budgets and timelines.

Ensure your team has the bandwidth to collaborate

One of the most difficult working environments is one that lacks communication and transparency. Before you decide to work with a creative learning agency, it is very important to know that you and your team will have the bandwidth to respond to emails, provide content as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), review deliverables, and meet about the project. After identifying your training needs, it’s critical to identify your task force that will assist the external vendor with this project. Your team should consist of the stakeholder for this project, a project Manager, SMEs, and possibly someone from the legal department and the administrator or developer of your learning management system or website to host your solution. If you don't set aside a lot of time for collaboration, the project’s timeline and overall goal can be impacted.

Have a clear objective and attainable goal

Every project or training need should stem from a goal. Before working with a creative learning agency, you should have a clear idea of what you want to attain and the reasoning behind it. If you need to train all of your employees on new regulatory laws, your goal could be to increase awareness to raise compliance and operating standards. This will also increase your rating and prevent possible costs and penalties from violating the law. This is a major goal that can help the agency generate ideas for the training, act as the foundation that the learning strategy will be built on, and help the adult learners understand the level of importance this information holds.

Establish a reasonable timeline

Let’s say you are working on a task that typically takes you 8-10 hours to complete, but your manager sends you an urgent message and tells you she needs it “yesterday”. This puts you in a difficult position, one that creative learning agencies are often in. Before working with an agency or external vendor, it is advised to ascertain if you have the time and the support to take on the project. The average eLearning project could take between 3 to 6 months to complete depending on the complexities, amount of content and videos, and participation of the SMEs and reviewers.

Ensure you have brand guidelines or background information

Lastly, let’s think about your organization’s website. There should be a logo displayed along with information about your company showcasing your brand colors and messaging. In order for your web developer to complete this amazing site, they had to receive the brand guidelines and the content to add to the site. This is a similar process with a creative learning agency unless they are developing the brand guidelines and content for you. It’s imperative to have some of your content and resources available and ready to hand off to the agency you will work with prior to the start of the project. Whether it’s a one-page brand guideline or an existing presentation, anything will help in understanding the language, tone, and style of the organization when working on a training project.

To sum it up

It might seem like a lot of work before you even start the project. But having an idea of what a creative learning agency offers helps you communicate your training needs and decide on the right agency to work with. It is important to make sure you have a statement of work, a clear and attainable goal, reasonable timeline, someone to partner with the agency, and guidelines in place before working to ensure a smooth execution of the project and a quick delivery.

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