PART 2 — What Instructional Designers ACTUALLY Do (Not the Job Description) (Part 2 of 6)

 

1. The Simple Version: If Your Mom Asked You What Your Job Is

Instructional Designers:

👉 Figure out what people need to learn
👉 Design the best way to teach it
👉 Check whether they actually learned it

Job explained.BUT is it so simple??? Neither u want to say "Ma! I do ADDIE" 

(joke to myself..censored LOL)

Let’s turn the dial from “simple” → “damn, that makes sense.”

2. The MID Version: The ADDIE Breakdown 

🔵 A = Analysis

This is where you put on your detective hat.
Is training even the right solution?
Sometimes the problem isn’t “people need training”…
Sometimes it’s “your system is garbage.”
Or “your processes make no sense.”
Or “your managers communicate like potatoes.”

Analysis answers:

• What’s the real problem?

• Who are the learners?

• What’s the environment?

• What EXACT skill/knowledge gap exists?

• What should the learners be able to do afterward?

Without this step?
Congrats — you’re building a course nobody needs.

🔵 D = Design

This is where IDs shine.

You decide:

• what content matters

• in what order

• using which format

• with what activities

• and what assessments match each goal

You bring structure to chaos.
You turn “This is important” into “Here’s how they’ll master it.”

🔵 D = Development

This is the part everyone thinks is the whole job.

You build things:

• slides

• storyboards

• videos

• activities

• interactive modules

• job aids

• scripts

• assessments

• facilitator guides

Development is production.
Design is strategy.
Both are essential.

🔵 I = Implementation

Delivery day.

Could be:

• launching an LMS module

• running an in-class session

• handing the materials to instructors

• publishing a self-paced course

• rolling out a new SOP training company-wide

This step is 10% delivery, 90% “Why is the LMS down again?”

🔵 E = Evaluation

The final step…
where you discover if all your brilliance actually worked.

Levels of evaluation:

• Reaction: Did learners like it?

• Learning: Did they learn it?

• Behavior: Did they apply it?

• Results: Did it change performance?

• ROI: Did it justify the cost?

Evaluation = reality check.

3. The Real Version: What IDs Actually Do That No One Talks About

Let’s talk reality, Sri-style.

✔️ You translate human chaos into learning logic

SMEs come with:

• 500 slides

• zero structure

• acronyms that don’t need to exist

• stories from 2003

• “We’ve always done it this way”

You turn that into a clean, teachable experience.

✔️ You design with psychology, not guesswork

Your brain constantly uses:

• cognitive load theory

• memory principles

• motivation design

• behavior change models

• learning theory

• assessment alignment

All quietly running under the hood.

✔️ You prevent companies from wasting money

Honestly, 60% of corporate training…
should NOT exist.

IDs stop people from creating useless courses and replace them with solutions that work.

✔️ You fix people problems

Poor communication? Training won’t fix that.
Bad leadership? Training won’t fix that either.
Broken processes? Nope.
Policies from the ice age? Nope.

You guide teams to the right solution.
Not just “more training.”

✔️ You create clarity in environments drowning in confusion

ID = Order → Out of chaos.
That’s the job.

4. Where It Gets Complicated (AKA Why IDs Get Paid Well)

Because the job becomes:

• strategic consulting

• systems thinking

• user experience design

• project management

• data analysis

• communication psychology

• content architecture

• stakeholder management

• empathy + logic + structure

You stop being “the training person.”
You become the person who makes learning actually work.

5. My Style of a Reality Punchline

If instructional designers disappeared tomorrow?
Companies would go back to:

• 60-slide lectures

• zero assessments

• 9-hour mandatory trainings

• 500-page PDFs named “finalv8_reallyFINAL”

• onboarding that feels like punishment

Instructional designers don’t just make learning better.
They save people’s sanity. (Yep, All superheroes don't wear their underwear outside..)

6. Coming Up Next:

PART 3 — Needs, Contexts & The Silent Killer: Bad Assumptions
This is where we reveal how experts ruin learning before it even starts…and how IDs prevent that downfall.