Needs Analysis and Learner Personas: Your Secret Weapon for Effective Learning

What happens when you launch a learning experience that misses the mark despite solid content? The critical missing ingredient might be a deep understanding of your audience. In this episode, we explore the often-overlooked foundation of effective instructional design: learner needs assessment and persona creation.

Drawing from years of experience, Jackie breaks down why understanding your audience is step one of truly human-centered design. She explores five practical methods for assessing learner needs. 

The heart of this message resonates with Steve Jobs' wisdom: "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." Whether you're creating corporate training, higher education courses, or K-12 curriculum, this approach transforms your work from information presentation to problem-solving that genuinely serves your learners' needs. 

🔗 Episode Links:

Please check out the resources mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!

Assessing Learner Needs and Personas Infographic

7taps Learner Persona Template

Lucid User Persona Template

Miro User Persona Template 

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Episode Transcript

Jackie Pelegrin (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Designing with
Love podcast.
I am your host, Jackie Pelegrin, where my goal is to bring you
information, tips, and tricks asan instructional designer.
Hello, GCU students, alumni,and fellow educators, welcome to
episode 51 of the Designingwith Love podcast.

(00:22):
In this episode, I will discusssomething foundational,
something every instructionaldesigner should be doing, but
often gets skipped in the rushto meet deadlines, assessing
learner needs, and creatingeffective learner personas.
If you've ever launched alearning experience and found
that it missed the mark, notbecause the content wasn't good,

(00:42):
but because it didn't connectwith your audience, then this
episode is for you.
So let's dive into whyunderstanding your learners is
step one of a trulyhuman-centered design.
Instructional design isn't justabout putting information
together.
It's about solving learningproblems, and to solve a problem
, you first need to understandit.

(01:03):
Assessing learner needs helpsus understand questions like:
What does my audience alreadyknow?
What do they need to know tosucceed, and what's getting in
their way of truly understandingthe content?
Whether you're creatingtraining for new employees,
developing an online course foradult learners, or working on a

(01:23):
K-12 curriculum, these needsassessments are the compass that
guides your design decisions.
So, how do we assess thoseneeds?
Here's are a few quick methods.

Method number one (01:34):
surveys and questionnaires.
These are great for collectingbroad data quickly.
You can use tools like GoogleForms or Microsoft Forms to
collect and analyze the data.
Make sure to ask about skilllevels, confidence, challenges,
and motivations.

Method number two (01:52):
interviews and focus groups.
With these, you can gain deeperinsights into learner attitudes
and experiences.
These work especially well forsmall or high-stakes projects.

Method number three (02:06):
job shadowing and observations.
If you're working on acorporate or on-the-job training
, make sure to spend timewatching what learners actually
do day-to-day.

Method number four: pre-assessments. (02:18):
undefined
Here, you can use quizzes orscenario-based questions to test
current knowledge and skills.
And finally, method number fiveis stakeholder conversations.
Make sure to include your SMEsand managers, because they know
what success looks like, even iflearners can't articulate it

(02:39):
themselves.
Once you've gathered the data,the next step is turning it into
something usable for yourproject.
Here's where learner personasare so valuable.
A learner persona is asemi-fictional profile that
represents a key segment of youraudience.
Think of it like a charactersketch.
It helps you design for someone, not at someone.

(03:01):
Here's what a strong learnerpersona might include A name and
photo.
This is where you give themlife, age and background,
learning goals, pain points orbarriers, preferred learning
methods, motivation triggers andtechnology comfort level.
So let's take a look at anexample so you can imagine what

(03:23):
a learner persona might looklike.
Meet Maria.
She's a 34-year-old healthcareworker going back to school for
a certification.
She's confident in hands-onskills but struggles with online
platforms.
She studies late at night afterputting her kids to bed and
needs short, mobile-friendlymodules.
She's motivated by progressbadges and wants to feel like

(03:47):
she's moving forward.
Knowing Maria exists changeshow you design.
You will likely thinkdifferently about pacing, mobile
responsiveness and tone.
This allows you to make designchoices that love your learner.
So you may be wondering how canyou create learner personas for
your projects?
Let's take a few minutes toexplore some helpful tools that

(04:09):
you can use to create effectivelearner personas using the
information I mentioned earlier.
Links for each of the tools isprovided in the show notes.
Tool number one seven taps.
This micro learning tool allowsyou to create laser focused
learner personas in 15 minutesflat, which is great.
You can download a free Canvatemplate from their website that

(04:31):
includes some crucial elementsfor designing microlearning that
will wow your learners and yourboss too.
Tool number two Miro.
Using Miro, you can create auser persona that targets user
profiles to better understandthem.
The format is similar to awhiteboard with sticky notes.
Tool number three the format issimilar to a whiteboard with
sticky notes.
Tool number three Lucid.

(04:52):
Using Lucid, you can create auser persona that contains the
person's name, age, location,occupation, income, bio and
personality traits.
The template also allows you tocreate an empathy map with
goals, wants and needs and painpoints.
When you combine needsassessments with learner

(05:13):
personas, you build a designstrategy that is both
data-informed and empathy-driven.
It's no longer just contentdelivery, it's human connection.
That's what designing with lovereally means.
Oh, and here's a tip If you'reshort on time, you don't have to
create 10 personas.
Start with two or three.
Focus on your primary audienceand the outliers who might be

(05:36):
hard to understand.
Make sure to use your personasthroughout the design process,
refer to them in meetings,during prototype reviews and
even when evaluating learningoutcomes and evaluating learning
outcomes.
I hope you have found thisinformation about the benefits
of assessing learner needs andcreating effective learner
personas helpful as you designengaging, learner and

(05:58):
human-centered designs.
As a recap, we covered why itis important to assess learner
needs, creating learner personasthat actually work, and how to
bring it all together.
So here's your challenge forthis week Take a look at your
current or upcoming project.
Have you done a learner needsassessment?
If not, schedule a quickstakeholder chat, send out a

(06:20):
mini survey or simply jot downwhat you think your learners
need and go validate it.
Then try drafting one learnerpersona using real data you've
gathered.
Make sure to give them a name.
You can also hang their profilenext to your desk as a reminder
.
Design like you're designingfor them because you are.

(06:45):
I would encourage you to viewthe interactive infographic that
I developed, which covers thekey information I discussed in
the episode, especially if youare new to instructional design.
I discussed in the episode,especially if you are new to
instructional design.
If you found this episodehelpful, please send me a text
or leave a comment on thecompanion blog site.
You can also share this episodewith a fellow instructional
designer or educator.
As I conclude this episode,here's an inspiring quote from

(07:05):
the late Steve Jobs Design isnot just what it looks like and
feels like.
Design is how it works.
This quote is a powerfulreminder that great
instructional design isn't justabout aesthetics or content.
It's about function, andfunction begins with deeply
understanding your learner'sneeds and designing with them in

(07:26):
mind.
Thank you for taking some timeto listen to this podcast
episode today.
Your support means the world tome.
If you'd like to help keep thepodcast going, you can share it
with a friend or colleague,leave a heartfelt review or
offer a monetary contribution.
Every act of support, big orsmall, makes a difference and
I'm truly thankful for you.