How to Identify Training Needs
How to create a training course that solves your colleagues’ real problems? The answer is by deeply understanding their needs, pain points, and goals. This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to prepare and conduct an in-depth interview.
Why do you need an in-depth interview?
- To understand existing gaps and challenges, helping you identify the most relevant topics and materials for the course
- To clarify goals and expectations in the future learners’ own language, ensuring the course content and format are relevant to their needs
- To adapt learning methods and formats to the audience, increasing engagement and learning effectiveness
Interviews can be conducted before the course starts, during the course, and after. Before the course, problem interviews are conducted to identify learning needs.
How to prepare for the interview?
- Formulate key questions: what exactly do you want to find out in the end, what result are you aiming for?
- Define your audience: are the people in the future group diverse or homogeneous? If the group is homogeneous, the question pool will be the same for everyone. If the future students are different (e.g., a wide range of roles or seniority levels: executives, team leads, juniors), the question pool should vary slightly depending on the group, because their experiences differ.
- Prepare a pool of questions and gather respondents.
Key blocks of an in-depth interview
On average, plan for at least 45 minutes for an in-depth interview. Typically, it lasts 1–1.5 hours.
1) Introduction (about 5–7 minutes)
1) Introduction (about 5–7 minutes)
- Introduce yourself.
- Explain the purpose of the interview (e.g., you are here to learn about ___ in order to better ___).
- Briefly describe the format: how long the interview will take and how many sections it includes.
- Help the respondent feel comfortable (e.g., “We really want to understand your experience, so please feel free to ask for clarification and answer as honestly as possible. There are no right or wrong answers — this interview is only for course development purposes.”)
2) Formal questions to better understand the respondent’s context (10–15 minutes)
2) Formal questions to better understand the respondent’s context (10–15 minutes)
- Can you tell me about your role in the team/company?
- Can you describe your team (how many people are there, and how do you typically interact with each other)?
- What are your main tasks? Can you walk me through a typical workday?
3) Problem exploration (30 minutes)
3) Problem exploration (30 minutes)
Typically, in an interview we want to test certain hypotheses — we already have some assumptions. But in these interviews, it’s important to maintain balance and not over-direct the respondent.
Why?
It’s possible that our hypotheses and the problems we have in mind are not actually the most important ones. So if we immediately start asking about specific problems, we steer the respondent in only one direction and hear only what we expected to hear. This makes us miss other, sometimes more important issues that the respondent could have told us about if we hadn’t narrowed the discussion from the start.
Therefore:
Why?
It’s possible that our hypotheses and the problems we have in mind are not actually the most important ones. So if we immediately start asking about specific problems, we steer the respondent in only one direction and hear only what we expected to hear. This makes us miss other, sometimes more important issues that the respondent could have told us about if we hadn’t narrowed the discussion from the start.
Therefore:
- When preparing for the interview, it’s better to draft questions that nudge the respondent in different directions.
- It’s best to start the interview as broadly as possible, then follow what the respondent says and dive deeper into the problems they raise. If the respondent can’t recall or say anything on their own, then you can use the pre-prepared prompting questions. For example:
- Do you often need to prepare presentations at work?
- Can you tell me about the last time you prepared a presentation?
- What was particularly challenging about it?
Sample questions for a pre-course interview
Opening questions
Opening questions
For example, if you are planning soft skills training:
- In your daily work, what situations require you to use soft skills?
- Which skills do you consider the most important in your role?
- How would you rate your current level of ___?
- What are the main challenges you face when interacting with colleagues or clients?
- What do you find most difficult about communicating within your team?
Follow-up questions (examples)
Follow-up questions (examples)
- Can you tell me about the last time when ___ (for example, you had to prepare a report or experienced a conflict within your team — depending on what the respondent mentions)?
- When you need to ___, what do you usually do? How do you handle it?
- You mentioned “___”. Could you explain why you think that is?
Learning experience and expectations (20–30 minutes)
Learning experience and expectations (20–30 minutes)
- How often do you receive training at your company, and how does it usually happen?
- Tell me in more detail about the last training you took. What did you like, what didn’t you like?
- Describe the best learning experience you’ve ever had.
- What does ideal training look like to you? Which methods or formats are most effective for you?
- Have you taken any soft skills training before? What was it? What did you like, what didn’t you like?
Closing
Closing
Thank the respondent for their time and leave your contact information. Offer them the chance to write to you if they remember anything else and want to share it.
Common mistakes when conducting interviews:
1) Closed or leading questions
1) Closed or leading questions
Using questions that suggest a one‑word answer (“yes” or “no”) or steer the respondent toward a particular answer. For example, “Did you use Google when you last prepared for a presentation?” is a bad question. Better to ask: “Tell me how you prepared for your last presentation.”
2) Prompting the respondent
2) Prompting the respondent
Don’t offer your own answer options when the respondent can’t answer a question.
For example, they can’t say what difficulties they face in soft skills. You can ask follow‑up questions:
For example, they can’t say what difficulties they face in soft skills. You can ask follow‑up questions:
- “Do you often prepare reports? Tell me how you do it and what takes the most time.”
It is a good question. This nudges in a certain direction but doesn’t reveal the problem.
- “When preparing a report, do you often have trouble with presentations?”
3) Lack of flexibility
3) Lack of flexibility
This guide is a helpful tool. But if the respondent says something unexpected — that’s great. Explore that topic, ask deeper questions, and don’t force the respondent back to the script or the planned track until you’ve gotten to the problem that matters most to them.