Good Design Isn't Enough: Why ISDs Need a Seat at the Table
- Amy
- Jul 13
- 2 min read
A few years ago I was brought in to complete a course that was already in trouble.
The original ISD had run into the same walls I was about to hit. No direct access to the client. No SME aligned to validate content. Information arriving second and third hand through a project manager who didn't have an L&D background and didn't know what she didn't know.
I flagged the problems formally. I asked for access. I documented the gaps. I kept building anyway — because that was the job, and I do quality work regardless of the conditions I'm handed.
The course was delivered. The client was happy with the content. Then we discovered the LMS.
Government LMS environments often run older versions of publishing standards. Nobody had confirmed requirements before development started. The course was built in a tool version the LMS couldn't support. Everything had to be rebuilt from the ground up using an older version — weeks of rework, after delivery, on a course the client had already received.
The PM had to explain what happened. She couldn't. The company's reputation took the hit.
Here's what I want every ISD to take from this:
Your design framework — ADDIE, SAM, whatever you use — is only as strong as the structure around it. You need the stakeholder who owns the decision. The SME who validates the content. The learning technologist who confirms the technical requirements before a single slide is built. And a project manager who understands what a learning project actually needs.
When those people aren't in the room, or aren't talking to each other, the ISD absorbs the consequences of every gap. And so does the client.
An ISD needs a voice. More than that — an ISD needs the business skills to use it, and the organizational access to make it matter. Knowing how to design a course isn't enough. Knowing how to protect the conditions that make good design possible — that's the senior skill nobody puts in the job description.
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