From Onboarding to Outperforming

A purposeful new hire onboarding course for new BDRs at a B2B SaaS Company

*This 14-module onboarding course was originally developed in Articulate for a specific company. To protect the company’s privacy and avoid copyright concerns, I’ve recreated one sample module which I've showcased below.

Project Overview

The Audience

New hires to the BDR team at a B2B Saas Company during first 2 weeks

Responsibilities

  • Instructional Design

  • eLearning Development

  • Visual Design

Tools Utilized

  • Articulate Rise

  • Figma

  • MindMeister

  • Google Suite

  • As an instructional designer for a B2B SaaS company collaborating with the BDR manager, we identified that our new BDR hires in their first 9o days were struggling to RAMP within the desired 2 week timeline and meet their first set of sales targets. The manager was investing most of her days in their first 3 weeks in calls, reviewing all of the information with them and there was little documentation. New hires felt unclear on expectations and the product as they started making cold calls, and this was evidenced in a low number of meetings set (corroborated with data in the RAMP dashboard in Looker.)

  • To solve the problem, I proposed an overhaul of the BDR new hire course and calendar. I sent out to design and develop a new, interactive, onboarding course that would more clearly synthesize sales fundamentals, the tenets of the company’s sales methodology, and the ROI of the different software features. 

    Some of the reasons I felt a new e-Learning course would provide the best solution:

    • It would help to turn undocumented, tribal knowledge into recorded information, providing clarity, accountability, and a back-up if there is team turnover

    • It would allow the new hire to work independently and at their pace

      • Freeing up manager time spent in 1-1 informative calls and allowing the manager to invest time and effort into mentoring and providing valuable feedback 

      • No longer having new hires waiting around for meetings with their manager and having excessive down time in their first weeks

    • The company is remote and the content is software training, so an e-Learning course is a good medium, and the content can be returned to as questions arise

    To supplement this training, we also created the following:

    • A workbook for writing out answers and adding screenshots of work done in their sandbox accounts in the software (Google Doc)

    • A features database including general GMV uplift of features & customer testimonials on feature value (Notion)

    • A new cold calling framework overview - which piece by piece was introduced throughout the courses (Notion)

    • A calendar schedule where the new hire would have independent work time, group workbook time, and feedback calls with their manager (Notion & Google Calendar)

My Process

Starting with the end goal in mind, I applied the ADDIE model to design an experience that hits on all the essentials for a new hire, while keeping in mind not to cause overwhelm and information overload in their first weeks. The goal was to present only the basics, and equip the learner with the tools to continue learning in order to advance in their sales skilset.

I proposed a 101 and 102 course, with the 101 course covering the most essential topics for a new hire to start dialing, with the 102 course covering deeper product knowledge that may be useful as the BDR advances in their role. The course presented in this portfolio was 101.

Analyze

Action Mapping in Mindmeister

I started by action mapping to identify the elements that would be of most priority in the 101 course by working backward from the end goal, out to the design plan for that objective.

First, I created a brain dump in MindMeister of all of the tasks and areas a BDR would need to understand and excel at the company, especially in their first 90 days. This included:

  • The Company structure, who's who on their team

  • Basics of the software, and where to find more answers in our CMS

  • How to use the tech stack, and getting initial logins and setup

  • Understanding sales fundamentals and the company's sales methodology

  • Learning the cold call framework

Next, I sent over specific questions to the manager to ensure I was on the right track and identify gaps. I then incorporated these into a Google Sheet for tracking purposes (see screenshot of columns below.)

Finally, I outlined all associated tasks in Asana and identified the task owner. I tagged them in the task and set due dates, as well as added regular check-ins for myself to reach out and keep the project on track.