Why L&D professionals must evolve into Product Managers
This is also a backstory of why I decided to move into product, after spending 10 years as a UX Designer in the education/L&D space.
I stepped into the education industry because I wanted to live a meaningful life and thought that education – specifically the Learning & Development (L&D) industry – is a great way to add value to society.
However, over the years, I've heard how Training, Consulting and L&D is seen as a cost centre and needs to justify their ROI. Initially, it felt like a bummer – we are driven by a purpose; we're trying to help people develop their potential. Profit should not be the main driver.
I've come to think that it is true; and that the L&D function that exists within organisations today, needs a massive overhaul. In fact, in some (not all) organisations, L&D efforts actually hampers productivity where:
Trainers train employees in courses that take them away from their jobs, affecting productivity – sometimes only for the certification and/or grant subsidies.
Management Consultants offer expensive advice, build toolkits and conduct training to help organisations. But implementation is typically managed by the organisation or agencies, which can be a hit or a miss.
Curriculum and Learning designers have to work with subject matter experts to design & develop learning materials, which typically follows a long-winded waterfall process. Moreover, these developed materials may not be easily accessible.
Therefore, I believe L&D should not be an independent function of an organisation – but a behaviour; a mindset; a systematic way of life; a culture – within the organisation.
It should be a strategic management decision, systematically designed to optimise the scale of the organisation's growth. I believe L&D can learn a lot from startups, tech and marketers who have mastered this well:
From Startups: Going lean and finding the most effective and efficient way to get from 0 to 100, at $0 if possible.
From Marketers: Subtly hooking a target audience and driving them towards certain behavioural change.
From Tech: Using tech to simplify and improve how tasks are done today.
I believe most of what L&D seeks to do, should be led by Management – helping to increase productivity so that the business scales & grows. For example:
Giving employees the ownership to set their own performance goals and metrics that are tied to the business. e.g. OKRs that originated from Intel Management.
Giving employees the opportunity to explore, learn, and apply on their own time and budget. e.g. 3M's 20% exploratory time to work on projects.
Removing blockages that hinder performance.
If the work of L&D should be led by Management, what should L&D functions do then?
I believe it is to create products that simplify the job of Management, and enhance communication & productivity. For example:
Nurturing a community where employees meet peers and get mentored by experienced seniors.
Integrating/building tech that removes blockages in performance or help people keep track of performance.
Consolidating collective knowledge to help employees access or share knowledge faster.
The goal is to create zero friction for employees to thrive.
And that is also why I believe L&D professionals should evolve into product managers – working with engineers, UI/UX designers, etc – to create products & tools that are so useful, organisations love it so much, they're willing to pay for it.
A great example is Slack, a SaaS communications product for the workplace. Interestingly, Slack was originally built by a gaming product company as an internal communications tool created out of necessity. Slack was an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge". Today, Slack is revolutionising how organisations communicate internally.
That's why, this year I dove into tech product management – and am practicing L&D as a mindset.
As we all know, life is a journey where we continuously push ourselves to keep learning, applying, reflecting and growing.
I'm still in the early stage of applying what I've learnt as a young Product Manager.
Product Manager Roadmap is my humble attempt to share my struggles, explorations, and learnings as I embark on the world of product management and technology, with a goal of building products & tools that people want to use to perform better.
I'm sure to go through many failures pivots before I ever succeed. But that is the thrill of life, and I look forward to pushing myself beyond, upwards and onwards! 💪🏽