Lessons from Instructional Design
A teammate dropped a casual “You’re basically an Instructional Designer,” and my first reaction was, “Huh?!?”
Then she was kind enough to elaborate with the following:
“After my first project with Beth, I assumed she’d studied instructional design because that’s the end result she delivers. She doesn’t take a brief and regurgitate the same layout you’ve seen a thousand times. She thinks deeply about user intent, how each asset fits inside the customer journey, and how to create visuals that facilitate actual comprehension and changed behavior. In 13 years of working closely with designers every day, she’s one of my all-time favorites to partner with.”
I’ve never called myself an instructional designer, but the more I thought about it, the more it clicked.
The role is responsible for translating complex, technical information into clear, actionable learning experiences for both internal teams and external audiences.
Instructional designers are not subject matter experts (SMEs), but rather translators who turn deep product knowledge into content that drives understanding, confidence, and adoption. They do this by asking the right questions, uncovering what matters most, and building pathways for people to grasp highly technical ideas in meaningful ways.
Sound familiar? Because that’s also what conversion design does.
Designing for outcomes like revenue generation, sales enablement or reducing churn isn’t about making something pretty. It’s about creating clarity that drives action.
I didn’t expect a passing compliment to reframe how I see my own work, but it did.
Sometimes, our peers spot patterns in us long before we name them ourselves, and I’m grateful for that kind of perspective.
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