PROJECT
How XPLANE expanded a successful consultancy by creating an academy
2021–2022
PROBLEM
Need to diversify revenue sources
SOLUTION
Create a professional learning academy as a new line of business
IMPACT
4 new courses, bringing in more than $20,000 in the first few months
New curriculum strategy, framework, and design process established
Consistent instructor delivery process resulting in improved learner experience
Learning Management System (LMS) selected and integrated for digital purchase and training delivery
Creating something new isn’t easy, especially when you’re already busy with existing client work. But XPLANE had a bigger vision for themselves—to establish an entirely new business model to augment their client service delivery.
With more than 30 years of exceptional design and strategy consulting under their belt, XPLANE wanted to expand their impact and diversify their revenue sources, thus providing increased stability for their own business in a rapidly changing world.
For years, XPLANE had nurtured a growing community of enthusiasts who loved XPLANE’s visual and personable approach to solving big, meaningful challenges. Clients routinely asked how they could learn to do things “the XPLANE way.”
Participants loved the experience and content of XPLANE’s courses, but the process of creating and delivering the courses was laborious and inconsistent. In the past, creating new courses could take up to a year because of the demands on project members’ time. Subject Matter Experts could get sidetracked by deep details, forgetting where novice learners were starting … leaving them confused.
Without a formally defined curriculum and standard, course delivery varied between cohorts and instructors.
PHASE 1
Flagship course curriculum design
I introduced the team to a structured process for designing course experiences, creating curriculum, and documenting instructor notes to train additional instructors in course delivery at scale.
Course topics developed included:
Strategy Activation Intensive
Storytelling for Change
Design Your Facilitation Strategy
Beyond the Board: Designing engaging digital whiteboards
PHASE 2
Build a robust multi-year academy strategy
Using a human-centered and adult learning approach, I led the team to:
Develop learner profiles, aspirational journeys, and an XPLANE competency model
Define shared product definitions, goals, and marketing funnel for year-round awareness
Design an intentional Development Cycle Planning process
Map product and course topics and development roadmap
Test hypotheses with potential customers
Establish business metrics
PHASE 3
Harness technology to sell and engage
Basecamp had worked great as a way to test early courses and prove the business case, but it wasn’t going to cut it in the long run. I evaluated and recommended Thinkific, a Learning Management System (LMS) that we integrated with light automation to create an interconnected system managing email campaigns, learner profiles, course management, and e-commerce.
Using the new LMS reduced course prep and delivery time by 20 hours for the flagship multi-day course offering.
ABOUT XPLANE
XPLANE is a design and strategy consultancy in Portland, Oregon. They help organizations transform by designing and aligning Vision & Strategy, People, Process, Tools, and Activation.