Podcast Episode Details

What Should Salesforce Admins Know About User Learning Styles?

---

---

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Lisa Tulchin, Senior Curriculum Developer at Salesforce.

Join us as we chat about user learning styles and how to use them to create better training sessions.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Lisa Tulchin.

Choose the right learning style for you on Trailhead

As a Senior Curriculum Developer for Salesforce, Lisa spends a lot of time thinking about user learning styles. That's why there are two paths to learning new Salesforce skills. You can use Trailhead to go at your own pace or sign up for Trailhead Academy to work in an instructor-led group setting.

The best way to choose between Trailhead and Trailhead Academy is to think about what's worked for you in the past. When have you been able to learn something quickly, and when have you struggled? Remember that it doesn't have to be an either/or decision. You can always see how far you get working through recommended badges and trails, but consider Trailhead Academy as an option if you get stuck.

Breaking through fear in user training

Fear can be a major barrier to learning, and it's often what's behind resistance to a new process. That's why Lisa recommends starting your training sessions by "hugging the elephant." Acknowledge that, yes, this new process is tricky while also explaining how it will make their lives easier.

What makes sense to you may not work for other user learning styles—some people want to run down a checklist and others need more context. "Kids are a lot more comfortable making mistakes than we are as adults," Lisa says, "saying, 'I don't know,' is one of the scariest things for adults to admit." In any user training, make sure give your users explicit permission to ask questions so no one gets left behind.

Best practices for planning user trainings

When she's writing a new training, Lisa tries to separate what information her users need to know from what would be nice for them to know. She calls it the 80/20 rule. Generally, if you can get your users to 80% with a training, they have what they need to do their job. You can fill in the other 20% as you go.

Another user training hack is to break complicated things down into manageable tasks to make them easier to learn. Lisa explains that our brains tend to remember 5-7 chunks of information at a time (for example, phone numbers or ZIP codes). So if you're writing out a task and the individual steps get into the double digits, you might want to break it down differently so it's easier to remember.

Lisa has tons of great tips in this episode for how to keep up with your own learning and take advantage of the resources out there from Salesforce, so be sure to take a listen. And don't forget to subscribe for more from the Salesforce Admins Podcast.

Podcast swag

• Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Learn more

• Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: Elizabeth Bochanski on Starting Learning on Trailhead

• Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: New Admin Classes from Trailhead Academy with Stuart and Feroz

Admin Trailbl

---

Published on 1 year, 3 months ago