May 22 2020

Your Design Will Only Be As Good As the Analysis Data That Informs It

After listening to a dozen podcasts this past week, I have to conclude that while some seek to “go for performance” – most talk about Design of Experiences – but hardly ever mention Analysis of Performance.

The same as it’s ever been IMO/IMEx.

And I would like Performance Thinking prior to any Design Thinking. And why use “Personas” – as a proxy – when you could have people from the Target Audience guide your design decisions live – in your design workflow?

I’ve been using Master Performers to “Influence the Designer By Committee” since 1979. See this 1984 Training Magazine article I co-authored about “how”. It’s not new – other than the label. It’s actually old school – although not widely adapted/adopted,

Some talk about Outcomes but in a general manner. Some talk about Performance and seem to get it. I hope so.

My first job in ISD in 1979 was creating asynchronous T&D, video-based, with a Guide w/ minimal Readings, for a manager to use in a Group-Paced setting and/or for the employees to use on their own in a totally Self-Paced mode. It was based on an Analysis of the Sales person’s job in our lumber centers. A job I held while in college for 2.5 years.

We used a derivative of a derivative of a Rummler & Gilbert analysis methodology that I evolved back in the early 1980s to pretty much what I use today.

Here is the data structure or data architecture that I use – other than the “Mission” component – which became passe a long time ago – and I used to warm the group up – in my FGP – Facilitated Group Process for analysis – and again for design.