Design Like You Have Nothing

What if you had to train without the tools?

L&D loves its tools. Instructional models. Learning theories. Engagement strategies. Tech stacks. Authoring software. Measurement frameworks.

We’ve built a whole industry around designing instruction without ever asking what happens if you strip it all away.

But let’s imagine for a second that you’ve got nothing. No LMS. No ADDIE. No SAM. No learning objectives formula. No “cognitive load” chart. Just you, a problem, and some people who need help doing something better.

What do you do?

Start Where the Problem Is

You talk to people. You ask what’s not working. You dig into where things break down. You find the pain points that make someone’s job harder than it needs to be.

I remember one project early in my career where the request came in like this: “We need a training module on proper documentation.” That was the whole brief.

Instead of firing up my authoring tool or pulling out a model, I walked over to the people doing the documentation. Watched them work. Asked where things got confusing. What got skipped. What managers cared about. Within an hour, I knew the issue wasn’t training. It was a janky template no one could find and a review process that made zero sense.

We didn’t build a course. We made a cleaner form, clarified the process, and put the instructions where people were already working. Problem solved.

Design Like a Human

When you can’t hide behind frameworks, you start designing like a human.

You ask:

• What would actually help here?
• If I were in this role, what would make this easier?
• What would make someone say, “Oh, that’s useful” — not just “That’s compliant”?

On another project, we had zero time and even less budget. The request was for “quick training” on a new system feature. The team was prepping a 30-slide deck with screenshots.

Instead, I drafted a short email with a side-by-side image: old screen on the left, new one on the right, with one sentence explaining the change. Took fifteen minutes. Went to 800 employees. The help desk saw a 60% drop in tickets the next day.

Sometimes being tool-less is what saves the day.

Deliver Fast. Learn Faster.

When you don’t have a system, you move.
You test something out in a day. You write a checklist on a whiteboard. You pull someone aside and show them how to do it better.

Instructional design without the overhead is just problem-solving in motion.

I’ve worked on teams where it took three weeks just to get a kickoff meeting scheduled. But I’ve also jumped into frontline chaos and had a working solution ready in 48 hours because someone trusted me to just go solve it.

The feedback? It didn’t come through a survey. It came in someone’s eyes lighting up when they said, “Oh wow, that’s exactly what I needed.”

The Myth of Strategy as a Shortcut

We lean on processes and theories because we think they save us time or guarantee results.

But sometimes, they just give us a reason to keep planning instead of doing.

The truth is:

• More strategy doesn’t make up for less clarity.
• A tool won’t fix a problem you don’t understand.
• No framework will tell you what matters to your people in your situation.

And yes, I’ve been the person who spent three hours debating the perfect verb for a learning objective. Not my proudest moment. Meanwhile, the learners just wanted a walkthrough video and a chance to practice.

Design Like It’s a Pop-Up Shop

Think of your next instructional challenge like setting up a pop-up shop on the street.

You’ve got limited time, no budget, and real people walking by who need something. You can’t waste their time. And you definitely can’t waste yours.

So you simplify.

You make it useful.

And you make it now.

Because if you can’t solve it without the tools, you probably don’t understand the problem well enough to solve it with them.

The Bottom Line?

Good instructional design isn’t built on strategy. It’s built on sense. If you couldn’t use a single tool or model, would your design still help someone?

If the answer is yes, you’re doing it right.