Instructor-Led Training

The samples below are from an ILT/VILT course called Technical Communicator. In full, it is an eight hour course for those in highly technical roles having technical conversations with non-technical stakeholders with a goal of being able to communicate technical concepts in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the stakeholder.

Technical Communicator was an internal project assigned to me to be sold off-the-shelf, therefore no SMEs or source documentation were available for the creation of this course. Everything had to come from me. I used Perplexity’s AI LLM as an SME partner to be able to create the course. Reviews from companies that ran the course were outstanding.

The activities and scenarios were customizable by industry. In the samples below, it was intended for those in the telecommunications business.

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Learning Objectives

The learning objectives are specific and observable starting with actionable verbs commonly associated with Bloom’s Taxonomy:

  • Describe active listening and demonstrate its usage.

  • Describe emotional intelligence and demonstrate its usage.

  • Demonstrate translating technical concepts and language into language appropriate for your audience.

  • Identify the type of communicator you are and the implications on how you communicate.

  • Describe how your audience’s role and prior knowledge affects your communication style.

  • Practice using your understanding of your audience’s role to tailor your conversations on technical topics.

Slide Animations

Slide animations are included on each slide to allow the facilitator to present information as they cover it.

Message Crafting Activity

Facilitator Guide

Learners went over various strategies to translate technical jargon into “everyday” speak for non-experts by using perspective-taking approaches, analogies, relatable examples, and everyday language.

They practiced as a group with some examples of expert language passages before studying an example of the same concept in non-expert language.

Then, they divided into pairs and practiced what they learned with the process outlined on this slide.

Technical Concept Cards

The assigned technical concept in the message crafting activity were assigned as “technical concept cards” with each one containing technical verbiage in the telecommunications industry. There were 50 unique cards to account for various class sizes and adding the ability for teams to continue to practice after the session. Each technical concept card had a corresponding “non-expert translation card” for the facilitator and team leaders to use as assistance.

The card sets were generated quickly using AI which allowed for more card sets for different industries to be easily created.

Facilitator Guide and Participant Guide

A facilitator guide and participant guide were included. The facilitator notes were included in the PowerPoint deck notes, as well as in a PDF. The participant guide had two variations: a version meant for print and a fillable PDF. This allows flexibility for the company receiving the session.

Facilitator Guide

Participant Guide

The Audience’s Role

Building upon technical concept translations, the learners considered the role of their audience and what they care most about to help tailor their message.

This included considerations of:

  • Understanding their goals and responsibilities.

  • Knowing how they will use the information.

  • Anticipating their concerns or pain points.

  • Understanding their decision-making power.

  • Adapting to their preferred communication medium

Various activities incorporating stakeholder bios are held.

As with the message crafting activity, other group activities involved cards. This time “Stakeholder Persona” cards each with information about a unique stakeholder and their role.

This time 30 Stakeholder Persona cards were supplied, again created by AI.

Conversation Planner

Other topics and activities are included such as a communications styles test are included in the course, but at the end, learners are given a Conversation Planner job aid intended to help them remember what they learned in preparation for technical conversations with stakeholders.