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LXP: Towards a consumer-grade platform :
In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of consumer oriented platforms that have been highly successful in driving user engagement. Are there lessons to be learned in terms of engagement?
You are probably already familiar with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). This practice consists of bringing a personal device (tablet, smartphone, PC) into the workplace. As a result, it initiated a wave of consumerism that goes far beyond IT equipment.
Today this practice can be extended to many aspects of professional life.
Participatory web (also known as web 2.0) refers to an evolution of the web that enabled every internet user to create and share content. Social networks are its predominant expression. On these platforms, users create content they find interesting and share it with people who are likely to be interested. And although the first use cases of participatory web date back to the late 2000s and have since become an integral part of our daily lives, they have struggled to make their way into corporate learning.
A range of practices, features, and mechanisms adapted from those successfully used by, for example, Spotify, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, or TikTok can be brought into learning platforms.
With interfaces clearly designed around the end user, they have forced a rethinking of traditional SaaS platforms used in the workplace.
Nowadays, everyone has codes, habits. Everyone uses apps with intuitive ergonomics designed for intuitive use on a daily basis. It would therefore be counterproductive not to find these same codes in the applications we use at work.
E-learning software editors, whom for the most part, have noticed this change in the end customer, have therefore set out to renew the “employee experience”.
There even are tools that were originally designed for B2C use that are being used in companies as a result of pressure from employees on their CIOs. For example, Workplaces on Facebook, Coursera for Business or Slack.
While some flirt with GDPR, companies do not hesitate to deploy them. The attractiveness of the products speaks for themselves. Of course, they do so because they see a significant increase the usage compared to the B2B counterparts.
Not doing so is like trying to curb BYOD as CIOs.
Generally, where technical limits cannot be set, the law remains to define the framework in effect. We can equip ourselves with security rules, firewalls, software to install on personal computers, but we all know that nothing can avoid the human action of copying files from our work computer to our personal computer if not the law.
This is all to say that it is very hard to prevent employees from using Slack, Trello or Youtube, Gmail. And they are probably right because these are very good tools.
If we take the example of Spotify, the platform allows users to create playlists, follow experts to see what playlists they create, search for music in a huge database, share playlists, recommend music based on usage and machine learning, rate songs, and browse featured playlists.
The codes and mechanisms that make these platforms engaging are well known. Here are some of them:
Now, if we replace the word “music” with “learning content,” we end up with a platform that allows users to launch digital learning content, create content playlists, follow people with expertise in a skill to see what playlists they create, search through a huge aggregation of content to add to their playlists, share playlists, receive content recommendations based on usage or peers, and browse playlists highlighted by L&D managers. And to top it all off, enable user generated content in order to add a bottom up dimension to your learning activities and make internal knowledge sharing easier.
undamentally, it is about giving employees back the choice of how they want to learn, and what they want to learn. The company would only be an actor, a facilitator of their personal development.
The new Personal Training Account (CPF) seems to go in this direction. The xAPI standard as well, since it is designed to capture reporting data on informal learning.
This does not, however, exclude learning professionals. Their role will now focus more on advising, marketing the offer, and curating rather than creating and administering content.
It also gives a special place to frontline managers.
Like any employee, they can create micro content and share it with their teams. They can also inspire them by creating playlists and adding content that people will receive as notifications. They can personalize onboarding experiences, as well as assess the skills of their team members and provide recommendations.
We remain convinced that every manager wants to support their teams in developing new skills, but that the entry barrier is too high for them to play this role of curator, prescriber, or even inspirer.
How many managers, or even employees, send their team a link by email or chat to an interesting article? How many of you have sent yourselves article links by email just to keep track? And when the day comes that you want to find that information again to share it, what happens?
That is why we created the LXP Bealink:
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