Bespoke Project Pitfalls – Skillcast

Top five pitfalls – and how to avoid them (together!)

At Skillcast, we have decades of experience in designing and developing award-wining training. We know what works – and what doesn’t!

Here we share our top five pitfalls that might blow your project off course – and our recommendations for how to stay on track. Together, we can ensure a smooth journey for your project, whatever its size or complexity.

1. “Is this what I asked for?”

A client receives the Alpha version of their built course and feels disappointed, or surprised, because it wasn’t what they had in mind.

When we take a step, these are always the projects where early discussions have been rushed, or lacking in detail. We can’t know your vision unless you share it with us!

Do	Don't
Give space at project kick-off to share everything you want – from tone of voice to image style	Rush ahead before content is finalised
Ask if you’re not sure – your Skillcast contacts will be brimming with ideas for the project	Wait until the course is built to get key stakeholder input – we need buy-in upfront
Involve ALL stakeholders upfront so there are no surprises down the line	Go with the less-is-more approach to sharing your course vision – we’re not mind readers!
	Feel the need to train your learners to be SMEs – sometimes less is more

2. “This course is huge!”

A client realises half-way through the project that their ‘bite-sized’ course is an hour long.

We’ve been in this situation hundreds of times – our client would like a 20-minute course but gives us an hour’s worth of mandatory content. Or, at review stage, different stakeholders just want to add a few paragraphs here and there…

Do	Don't
Start with learning objectives and action points – define the five things you want your learners to know/do differently at the end of the course. Any content that doesn’t help directly with this can be cut	Let different SMEs dictate the length of their topics – give them a word count
Remember: a short course is a good course. There’s only so much information someone can digest at one time	Plan to cut content later in the project – it needs to happen upfront
Stick to the numbers: 3,000 words of content equates to 20 minutes of learning	Be tempted to add more content in once the course is built – have faith in your signed-off storyboard!

3. “This is going to be the best course EVER!

The plan is to make a showcase course that bowls people over. Every detail must be perfect!

Sometimes clients can lose sight of the goal: compliance training that engages, supports and changes behaviour in specific ways to ensure overall compliance with policy and legislation. We’re not going for the next Shakespeare text or producing a Hollywood movie.

Do	Don't
Think in terms of robust training and memorable takeaways	Get bogged down in fine details – most learners will hurry the course, take away the basics and miss little details you’ve agonised over altogether
Trust in Skillcast’s ability to deliver memorable training	Think of your course as a game or a movie – subtle elements of gamification and video can lift the experience but too much and they take over
Think deadline over perfection – courses can always be improved in the following year’s iteration	Give in to late-stage whims! We often get flashes of genius down the line in creative projects but, unless it really benefits the overall learning, we strongly suggest sticking to the original plan to avoid scope creep
	Obsess about design while losing track of the overall learner experience – think about what’s really important

4. My boss will want to have a look later…”

The boss is far too busy to get into the finer detail upfront, and besides, who wants to show them a project until it’s looking great? But they will definitely need to sign it off once it’s built.

This is another common red flag. Otherwise straight-forward projects can run onto the rocks at a late stage when the Department Head sees it for the first time and wants to take a different creative direction. Or the marketing team see it before roll-out and say the design is all wrong. Or it’s run by Legal for a final check and the language needs a fundamental rethink from what was provided in the content documentation.

Do	Don't
Share key points for sign-off with ALL relevant parties	Let too many cooks into the kitchen when it comes to reviews
If content needs formal sign-off from a different department, ensure they have completed this action before the project kicks off	Wait for a course to be perfect before sharing it
Agree a single point of sign-off to streamline internal discussions. But make sure this person has the authority to take decisions!	Always rely on reviewers who have seen the course 10s of times – sometimes it’s best to let the course go for senior review earlier on
Ask your Skillcast contacts for support to get buy-in with senior or specialist stakeholders early

5. “We’ll miss the roll-out date!”

The project owner is under considerable pressure to roll a course out to tight deadlines and would prefer to skip a couple of review rounds in order to meet the deadline.

Our ‘pitfall number five’ is the rushed project. If there’s one thing we’ve from being flexible on this front, it’s that the more we rush, the more delays develop. Our project process is the results of thousands of projects and ensures a good quality project with sufficient checks and reviews along the way.

Do	Don't
Keep review turnarounds tight by booking review time in advance with all relevant stakeholders.	Give feedback at EVERY stage just because you can – or want to add value – if the course is fine, picking holes will add delays.
Follow the agreed process for giving feedback, in a single Word document.	Feel the need for meetings at every stage – written feedback can be more efficient and we can let you know if we need clarification.
Wait until everyone has finished the review before sending consolidated feedback – having multiple mid-review inputs creates confusion and slows the overall process.	Provide feedback in a different format from Word – it always causes delays.
Know when to stop! We can tweak and tinker with a course forever, but taking a step back and remembering the overall objectives can help you to put the red pen down.