An 18-month curriculum initiative to build supply order training across three European contact center regions, covering 85+ learners across the UK, France, and Switzerland.
EMEA contact centers had no formal training infrastructure. No shared baseline, no structured path, no documentation to build from.
The VP of Global Inbound Customer Experience had built a training infrastructure in the US operation. EMEA had nothing comparable. Each of the three regions handled supply order processing differently, relied on informal knowledge passed between employees, and had no structured path to competency for new hires. No formal training documentation existed in any region. SMEs could point to loose process guides, but nothing was built for instruction. The VP chartered this initiative to close that gap and bring EMEA in line with what already existed stateside. Before learning objectives were written, I needed to understand each region’s process well enough to teach it.
With no source material to work from, I scheduled working sessions with each SME to be walked through the supply order process step by step. That hands-on discovery approach gave me direct process knowledge before any curriculum structure was designed. Nothing was built from assumption.
Every deliverable, ILT materials, slide decks, eLearning modules, participant guides, and training schedules, followed the same sequence: English draft based on SME walkthroughs, AI-assisted translation into the target language, SME review for accuracy and terminology, and written sign-off before development began. For eLearning, Synthesia produced audio and video in each region's language and dialect. Nothing moved to development without that approval.
The UK went first: English-language, two SMEs, and the cleanest starting point for establishing the workflow before localization-heavy builds began. France followed with full French localization and two SMEs. Switzerland came last with one SME and Swiss German localization. Each region benefited from what the previous one had taught about the process, the tooling, and the collaboration model.
All five SMEs were in Europe on Central European Time, seven hours ahead. I adjusted my schedule from day one to hold biweekly standing meetings at 7:00 AM CT, which put the call at 2:00 PM for the SMEs. Consistent access meant consistent progress. This was a planned project constraint from the start.
“Early in the France build, the regional team asked to own the development themselves.”
They wanted direct access to Articulate 360 and preferred to build their own training. I declined. This project was scoped to build curriculum across multiple departments and regions. Redirecting toward tool training would delay delivery across all three builds and produce inconsistent results that would undermine the initiative.
I reframed the conversation toward a design partnership model where the French SMEs collaborated on content decisions without owning the development. That boundary held the project scope and produced stronger SME engagement during train-the-trainer delivery.
The IDD was the anchor document for stakeholder alignment before any development began. It established the design rationale, regional strategy, and approval chain across five stakeholders in three countries.
Prepared prior to development. Covers design rationale, regional plans, and stakeholder sign-off with sequential approval locking.
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