Produce, design, create – a matrix for instructional design

I came into a new company that was struggling with setting boundaries and determining where the Instructional Designer’s (ID) role started and ended. We had a lot of meetings where people kept going back and forth looking for those lines where we set expectations for Stakeholders and establish our timelines based on the expected outcomes.

Prior to being an ID, I was a freelance graphic designer and creative director for over 16 years and ran into these problems constantly – at first. When you are a freelancer, you don’t have the luxury of absorbing project creep or having the project shift from one expectation to another. If you get a project wrong and don’t have a way of documenting what the expectations and responsibilities are, you lose money and waste time. So, I came up with a solution – I created a pricing matrix.

It is important to note that this matrix is not shared with the client or Stakeholder – this is specifically used to help set expectations for the work performed and set firm boundaries to manage project creep with Stakeholders. It is meant to be informational for managing Stakeholders and SMEs by defining what your expectations are and who has what responsibilities.

I remember exactly the project that prompted this. I had provided a quote for building a slide deck presentation for a construction company. I provided a price for a set number of slides based on a set number of templates, and with a specific amount and type of content. The content was to be brought to me in a ready-to-use format. The price I gave was $1,500. The client arrived with unorganized content, the expectation for me to build more content from scratch, and the expectation of three times the number of slides and templates.

I looked at all of it and said, “OK, well, it will be $4,500 plus $50 an hour to build the content.” The client was baffled.

“You said it was only $1,500!” he complained.

“That was based on what we discussed over the phone. This many slides, this many templates, and content ready to be utilized. You showed up with three times the work and you want me to build content you said was ready to be used.” I replied, calmly and professionally.

“What? It’s all the same. You are already doing the work, what’s a bit more?” he said in all seriousness.

I invited him to leave and wished him good luck with his project.

Later, I told the graphic design class I was teaching that I had just turned down a $1,500 job. They were all stunned and aghast. They asked why? I replied “Because he wanted $4,500 worth of work. Don’t ever sell yourself short.” They were shocked that this would happen. But we all know it does.

That’s when I came up with the concept of “Produce, design, create.”

Back to those meetings about project creep and unwieldily Stakeholder expectations. I am sitting there frustrated that we are still going around about what to do when lightning strikes – the same principles I used in developing my graphic design pricing structure can apply to instructional design. I quickly built the matrix and presented it. All were amazed and excited, and it was quickly adopted. Here is the link to the PDF that resulted with details as to what each means. This article could go on a lot longer than you would be willing to read, so I am only providing a cursory explanation to understand the underlying premises.

First, there are three roles: Stakeholder, Subject Matter Expert (SME), and ID.

Second, a quick definition of the scopes “Produce, Design, and Create.”

Produce
– the Stakeholder identifies a need and provides a concept
– the Stakeholder or SME provides content
– the Stakeholder dictates design
– the ID builds what the Stakeholder wants using best practices

Design
– the Stakeholder identifies a need and provides a concept
– the Stakeholder and/or SME collaborates on content with the ID
– the ID designs using best practices

Create
– the Stakeholder or ID identifies a need
– the ID develops concept
– the ID creates content in collaboration with Stakeholder and/or SME
– the ID designs using best practices

With these definitions of scope, the matrix I created determines the expectations and responsibilities for each role. Expectations are what the Instructional Designer should have for Stakeholders and SMEs, and how the ID should expect to comport themselves during the project.

With every expectation, there are responsibilities. The matrix explains the expectation and requisite responsibility per scope of work performed for each role. While the scope determines work performed, and expectations are from the ID perspective, responsibilities are for each role – ID, Stakeholder, and SME.

I present the Scope of work performed matrix. I hope you and your team find it useful in helping to define the lines of expectations and responsibilities, while providing the boundaries you need to recognize project creep.

Again, this matrix is not for presenting to Stakeholders – we don’t want them to decide what the scope is. This should be used to guide questions in the discovery meeting to determine what the Stakeholder expectations are, and then used to set ID parameters of expectations and responsibilities. Discovery will guide you to the scope of the work you perform.

I would really appreciate any feedback you may have, so please either comment or message me directly.

Also, while this matrix is copyrighted, feel free to use it and share it. I would just ask that you also attribute its creation to me and cite it to my website, rickjacobs.com.