Budget-Friendly Evaluation (with The Ultimate Question)

Evaluation is my favorite part of learning design.

Yeah - you read that right. 

Every single objective accounted for, every performance metric documented and measured, and all of it wrapped in a perfect little bow to deliver to stakeholders. 

There simply isn’t anything more satisfying than saying, “This training worked, and I’ve got the receipts.”

But the demands of our job don’t always allow for that type of effort. Many of us are just barely making it from one deliverable deadline to the next. We certainly don’t have the time, budget, or headcount to create the evaluations we know we need.

So here’s my best advice for the shoestring budget learning department - one evaluation metric to rule them all.

Also known as: The Ultimate Question

Net Promoter Scores (NPS)

The NPS was developed by Fred Reichheld for use in marketing departments to determine if current customers will return as future customers. He constructed this question while searching for a single measure to indicate customer loyalty:

“How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?”

However, this score is not a simple average. Responses are categorized into Detractors, Passives, and Promoters.

The percentage of detractors is subtracted from the percentage of promoters to reach the NPS. 

Image from Retently

It’s an incredibly simple metric that is always calculated the same way and can be standardized across all of your training areas. (Unlike attendance, quiz scores, and other surveys).

NPS with Training

So why am I recommending this metric? After all, it looks like the “how would you rate this training” question that many of us use.

“How would you rate this training” is a subjective question. Some learners may focus on the quality of the instructor. Others may focus on the quality of the course materials, or whether they learned something.

But very rarely will they consider the totality of the training quality and whether it was truly worth their time to be there.

That’s where the NPS comes in. 

The NPS represents a complex opinion incorporating the quality of training, whether the respondent believes learning occurred, and whether they can apply the training.

According to John Heffernon and John R. Mattox II, authors of the Predictive Learning Impact Model 2.0, a high NPS score is associated with higher likelihood that learning occurred and that the learner will apply it on the job.

And if the training had a proper analysis, then we can feel confident that applied learning means improved performance. 

Wrapping Up

It’s not often I recommend only using one metric to inform learning design - even the NPS has blind spots.

But if I had to choose one metric for the 2-person training department to pay attention to, it’s this one. No contest.