Summary: I created an accelerated training program designed for large group onboarding that could replace our traditional approach of 1:1 or 1:2 training. The new curriculum moved us away from whole-task training methods, emphasizing isolated, repeated practice of core processes targeting specific bottlenecks instead. 

This was the primary technique I utilized as a musician and teacher, and it mapped here perfectly.

Outcome: A 14% improvement in average full build time (~28 minutes) and a 47% improvement on a key bottleneck (~13 minutes), across a pilot group of four trainees.

A bit of extra context: New hires often have little to no soldering or controller modding experience, which requires targeting the curriculum largely at an audience with minimal baseline skills for the job. The curriculum is still successful for trainees who do have experience, however — they simply ramp up more quickly.

Some terms redacted due to NDA.

• Identified bottlenecks ([Process 1] and [Process 3]) through timing analysis of previous training groups at the Period 4 review.

• Targeted those bottlenecks with a redesigned training program focused on isolation, spaced repetition, and proactively building good habits instead of reactively fixing bad ones.

• Progression throughout the early weeks follows this general flow: Demonstration -> Guided attempts -> Solo repetition -> Mini-tests to check progression in a performance context. 

• The pilot group saw a 47% speed improvement (~13 minutes) on the [Process 1] bottleneck at the Period 4 review compared to past groups, and was already approaching veteran speeds by the end of Period 1. 

• Implementation was partially constrained by business needs, limiting potential gains: live production demand reduced flexibility for isolation and repetition on [Process 3]. Despite this constraint, the result was a roughly 28 minute improvement in average build speed at similar QA pass-rates.

• Initial development of the curriculum took an afternoon. Due to a compressed preparation timeline, I iterated on the specifics over the next couple of days in collaboration with our training lead and trainers, and it went into production at the start of the next week.

• To facilitate timing analysis and skills tracking, I developed a comprehensive assessment document for the Period 4 review, used by trainers to track competencies and confidence at each individual step in the build process, while allowing them to organize their feedback for the trainees.

See the work

This is the complete internal planning document for the training curriculum. The first page is a single-page summary, while the rest of the document contains detailed explanations. Document is heavily redacted due to NDA.

At the end of the PDF, I've also included the final page of the assessment document mentioned in the case study. The full assessment has five additional pages, but would require such heavy redaction that they wouldn't meaningfully contribute.