Learning Design Brief: Instructional Design Planning Template for L&D

A structured instructional design brief for learning designers and L&D managers who need to define the problem, the audience, and the performance outcome before any content is built.

Most learning content is built before the problem is properly understood. Someone identifies a gap, requests training, and a course or workshop gets produced. The content may be well made. But if it was designed around the wrong problem, for the wrong audience, or without a clear picture of what behaviour needs to change, it will not work regardless of how polished it looks.

This guide covers the thinking that happens before anything is built. It draws on the work of Will Thalheimer and Cathy Moore to explain how to write outcomes that actually describe behaviour, how to set a success metric before design begins, and how to choose the right format for the right problem.

Includes a section-by-section guide to completing the brief, practical examples of strong and weak briefs throughout, and a printable blank template to use immediately.

Suitable for L&D practitioners, managers commissioning learning, and anyone who has ever sat through training that changed nothing.

29 pages