What is Instructional Design?

A new client recently sent me more than 40 documents from their shared drive. It included everything they’ve been using for training and SOPs. They were organized, responsive, and ready to move. They said they had all of the content but just needed it organized and put into a system. I think they thought they were paying for copying and pasting. I could share this same story for most of my clients, all of whom are great teams with strong businesses.

What they don’t consider is that these documents are usually written by different people over several years, usually in response to a specific issue or one-off situation. Every time a problem pops up, someone creates a new document to fix it but no one looks to see what is already there. As I read through everything, I find different versions of the same workflows. In one department, a task is owned by the admin. In another, it is assigned to the manager. And across all of them, there isn’t a single clear definition of what “done” looked like.

This is where instructional design gets misunderstood. Good documentation isn’t about writing down every thought or covering every edge case. It’s about zooming out, identifying the critical actions, and creating a version of the process that’s clear, repeatable, and aligned across the team.

I don’t just copy and paste the files into a system. I review and make sense of it all. I ask questions. I push for clarity and consistency. I look at each detail from the learner's perspective. I build something the team can actually use.

Systems minimize confusion, not create more of it.