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A learning and development expert inside your team, instead of a full-time hire.

Knowledge Manager gives you a fractional learning and development expert and instructional designer from our own team. Start with the question you have about your training, and keep them on as the work grows.

  • A few weeks from your first question to a recommendation you can act on
  • 127 tasks in one role, measured against a client's course library
Talk to us How one engagement grew
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When your training needs an owner and nobody has the time

Most organizations have learning work that matters and no one free to own it. A course library has grown without a sequence, onboarding depends on one person, documents need sorting before AI can use them, or the training hasn't been reviewed since it was built.

A full-time learning and development hire is hard to justify for that, and the work is hard to scope before anyone has looked. So it waits, until someone retires or resigns, or a new ERP, LMS or AI tool changes how the work is done.

A fractional member of your learning team

Your Knowledge Manager is one of our own instructional designers and learning and development experts, working as part of your team. They do what you'd ask of a learning and development lead, for as much of the work as you need, and we don't subcontract it.

You don't need a finished scope to start. The first block of work answers one question and ends with a recommendation you can carry out yourselves or with us. Your Knowledge Manager can then stay on to carry it out and take on whatever comes next.

What your Knowledge Manager can take on

The work follows what your organization needs, and it changes as the engagement goes on. It can include:

  • Agree what training is for

    Work with your leaders, managers and experts on what the training has to achieve and who makes the decisions.

  • Define the outcomes

    Set out what people should be able to do after training, and how you'll know it worked.

  • Profile your learners

    Describe each group of learners: their roles, what they already know and what they need from training.

  • Map what you already have

    Find where your knowledge is kept, in courses, documents, systems and people's heads, and map it to the outcomes.

  • Find the gaps

    Compare what each role needs with what it gets today, and rank what to fix first.

  • Talk to your experts

    Interview the people who know the work when a gap can only be filled from their experience.

  • Curate and create learning

    Put courses and documents in order, refresh what's out of date and create what's missing.

  • Launch programs

    Plan and roll out learning paths, onboarding and programs for the people they're meant for.

  • Act on feedback

    Turn what learners say, and the questions people ask your AI assistant, into updates that keep programs current.

How an engagement starts and grows

The first block of work takes a few weeks and ends with a decision about what to do first. What happens after that is up to you.

  1. We start with your question

    It can be broad, such as why onboarding depends on one person or whether your course library is any use. We meet the people involved and agree what the first block should answer.

  2. We look at what you already have

    An export of your LMS lets us audit your training library without logging in or opening your content. Documents, checklists and role descriptions help too, however rough they are.

  3. We measure it against what the work needs

    We map your material to the roles and outcomes that matter, with AI doing a first pass and our team checking every result. Where a gap needs someone's experience, we talk to your experts.

  4. You decide what to do first

    Your decision makers and experts review the analysis together, and you get a recommendation you can carry out on your own or with us.

  5. Your Knowledge Manager stays as the work grows

    They can carry out the plan, take on the next question and keep your programs current. How much they take on can grow or shrink as your needs change.

A question about one expert became a plan for how a role is learned

A North American distributor with more than 70 branches asked us to capture what one of its experts knew. The expert spent a week on site with every new branch manager, and that week was the manager's onboarding.

We started from what the client already had: an export of its LMS and the expert's own checklist for the role.

Measured task by task against the course library, the role was learned mostly from documents and from the expert's week. The library turned out to be uncurated rather than thin, and only 15 of its 33 learning plans were active.

So the fix was to put what already existed in order.

The decision maker, the expert and the course builder each chose the same option: a path through a new branch manager's first 90 days, in stages at 30, 60 and 90 days, with the expert's week placed inside it and built to be repeated for other branch roles. The decision maker called the analysis "very helpful and eye-opening."

  • 127 tasks in the branch manager role, measured against 88 courses and 33 learning plans
  • 54% of the tasks were learned from documents
  • 29% were carried by the expert's week on site and by manager coaching, with no course behind them
  • 17% were learned from courses
  • One prerequisite in the whole LMS account, and 39 courses in no learning plan
  • Under five hours of analysis
Read the full story

Who Knowledge Manager is for

Knowledge Manager suits organizations that can't justify a full-time learning and development hire, learning teams too small for the work in front of them, and associations with small education teams. If two or more of these sound familiar, it's worth a conversation.

  • A big library with no sequence

    You have plenty of courses, and nothing tells a new hire which to take or when.

  • One person everybody calls

    When something goes wrong, the same experienced person gets the call.

  • A checklist, a binder or a shared folder behind the role

    Much of the role is learned from documents, and nobody has put them in order.

  • A wide footprint and a thin learning team

    Many locations or many people, supported by a small learning team.

  • A system change on the way

    An ERP, LMS or AI rollout is coming, and the know-how behind today's process has to come with it.

  • Somebody is leaving, or just did

    A retirement, a resignation or a restructure is about to take know-how out the door, or already has.

  • Only need a course built?

    If you already know what the course should cover, Custom eLearning builds it with our own production team, scoped and quoted as a project.

    Custom eLearning

  • Need help managing your LMS day to day?

    Managing your learning platform is the work of our LMS services team. Knowledge Manager works on the content and the learning behind it.

    LMS services

Want your people to find answers while they work?

Our page on capturing expertise and putting answers in reach shows how Knowledge Manager and JoySuite work together, and where to start.

Capture expertise and put answers in reach

FAQ

What does a fractional Knowledge Manager do?

Whatever you'd ask of a learning and development lead or an instructional designer. That can mean agreeing with your leaders what training has to achieve, describing your learners, mapping what you already have and finding the gaps.

It can also mean putting courses and documents in order or creating what's missing, launching programs, and acting on feedback to keep them current.

How is that different from hiring a consultant or a contractor?

Your Knowledge Manager works as part of your team over time. The first block of work ends with a recommendation, and the same person can stay on to carry it out and take on what comes next. You don't need a finished scope before you start.

Who will our Knowledge Manager be?

A learning and development expert and instructional designer from our own team. We don't subcontract the work.

How much of their time do we get?

As much as the work needs. The first block is sized to answer one question in a few weeks. After that, you decide how much your Knowledge Manager takes on, and it can grow or shrink as your needs change.

What do you need from us to start?

The question you want answered and the people who own it. For work on a role, an export from your LMS and any document that describes the role, however rough. We ask for time with your experts only if the work needs it.

We already have a learning team. Where does this fit?

Alongside it. A Knowledge Manager adds hands and instructional design expertise to a small team, for as much of the work as it needs.

What does it cost?

Knowledge Manager is quoted per engagement. It gives you a fractional expert instead of a full-time hire, and the work is sized to what you need.

How can we help with your learning and development work?

Tell us what you're working on and we'll suggest where to start. We reply within three business hours.

Talk to us
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