“We need an elearning course” sounds like a brief.It can also be a decision reached before the problem has been properly diagnosed.
A new system may be launching and adoption needs to increase. Sales performance may be inconsistent across markets, or managers may need to handle a new responsibility. Whatever the challenge, moving straight to course development skips an important question: what needs to change at work for the business to get the result it wants?
The pressure to answer that question is growing. LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report found that 57% of learning and talent development professionals in the UK said their executives were concerned that employees lacked the skills to execute their business strategy. The research surveyed L&D and HR professionals across multiple international markets, including the UK.
Custom elearning course development can help close specific capability gaps, particularly when people need to practise decisions, build knowledge or develop proficiency at scale. Its effectiveness depends on how clearly the development process connects the business problem to the performance people need to deliver.
That work starts before anyone opens a storyboard.
Diagnose the business problem first
Learning teams are often brought into a project after senior stakeholders have already decided what they want built. The request might be for a 30-minute module, a suite of digital learning or training to accompany a transformation.
A good learning partner tests that request against the business problem.
Diagnosis means getting specific about the problem the organisation is trying to solve. A request for sales training, for example, could originate from weak product knowledge, inconsistent discovery conversations, difficulty handling objections, a new sales process or poor use of the CRM. Each problem points towards different behaviours and, potentially, a different learning response.
The sharper the diagnosis, the less likely you are to spend money solving the wrong problem well.
Translate the goal into behaviour
Business goals tend to arrive in language such as adoption, productivity, customer satisfaction, risk reduction or sales growth. None of these tells a learning designer what someone needs to do on Tuesday morning.
The next job is to translate the goal into observable behaviour.
Take adoption of a new system. The business might define success as increased utilisation, while employees experience the change through dozens of smaller actions. They need to know when to use the system, how to complete key tasks,how to respond when something goes wrongand which old ways of working they need to leave behind.
Those behaviours give custom learning something concrete to address. They also improve conversations with stakeholders. Instead of debating whether a course feels engaging enough, the project team can ask whether the experience gives people enough practice in the behaviours the organisation needs.
Find out what is getting in the way
Once the required behaviour is clear, investigate why it is absent today.
Sometimes people lack knowledge or skill, and learning has an obvious role. Other barriers require a wider response. Employees may understand a new process but find that existing systems make it cumbersome. Managers may reinforce old behaviours. Teams may face competing priorities, or people may lack confidence applying a skill when the situation becomes difficult.
Custom development gives you considerable freedom to shape the response, allowing you to build scenarios around difficult decisions, simulations that recreate a system or process, opportunities for repeated practice, and support that people can return to during work.
You can also identify where the course needs support.Manager guidance, communications, performance support or facilitated sessions can reinforce learning where a standalone digital experience would struggle. Custom development becomes much more useful when you design around the whole performance problem rather than asking a single course to carry it.
Design around the moments that matter
Once you understand the behaviour and its barriers, you can decide where practice will make the greatest difference.
Consider a manager who needs to handle a difficult conversation. Reading five principles of good communication may build useful knowledge, but the real challenge arrives when another person becomes defensive, emotional or evasive. A branching scenario can put the manager inside that moment, ask them to make a decision and allow them to see where different approaches lead.
A new software rollout creates a different design challenge. People may need realistic practice completing the tasks they will perform most often,alongside simple support they can access while using the live system.
The technology should follow the performance requirement. Branching scenarios, simulations, video, AI-enhanced learning, games and other approaches all have different strengths. Choosing between them becomes easier once you know exactly what people need to practise.
Measure from the business goal backwards
Measurement deserves attention during design because it changes what you build.
Completion rates and assessment scores provide useful information about participation and knowledge gained.If the original problem concerned adoption, proficiency or another change in performance, you will need evidence closer to that goal as well.
Start with the result the business cares about and work backwards. Identify the behaviours that should contribute to it, decide which signals could show whether those behaviours are changing, and agree which learning data will help you assess progress.
For a system implementation, that might mean looking at completion and practice data alongside patterns of system use. A capability programme might combine learning evidence with observations of proficiency or relevant operational measures.
This approach also helps avoid making claims that learning data cannot support. Business performance has many influences, so measurement should build a credible picture of learning’s contribution rather than force a simple causal story.
Make the course earn its place
Custom elearning course development gives organisations considerable freedom over what they create.Making the most of that freedom begins with restraint.
Follow this process to make the most of your custom elearning courses:
- Diagnose the business problem carefully.
- Define the behaviour that needs to change.
- Understand what prevents it today, then design the learning around the moments where practice, knowledge and support can make a meaningful difference.
By the time you reach the question of what to build, you should know exactly why it deserves to exist.
Need custom learning that starts with the business problem?
Sponge works with enterprise teams to diagnose performance and capability challenges, define the behaviours that matter and design custom learning around the realities of work.