You Don’t Need an Instruction Design Team to Build Great Training

What today’s learning leaders already know—and what’s finally possible

If you’ve ever said, “I wish we had an instructional designer for this…”

You’re not alone.

For years, building great training meant relying heavily on instructional designers (IDs). And they’re amazing—don’t get us wrong. But here’s the reality for many learning and development (L&D) teams today: there’s no dedicated ID team, no extra budget, and definitely no time to wait around for a training course to be built from scratch.

And yet, you’re still expected to deliver engaging, scalable, and measurable learning experiences across your organization.

Sound familiar?

The Traditional Model of Training Development Is Broken

In many organizations, traditional course creation still follows a slow, outdated process:

1. A subject matter expert (SME) hands over a PDF or policy document

2. The L&D team rewrites and storyboards it

3. An ID designs turns it into a formal course

4. It gets submitted to your learning management system (LMS) for review

5. Weeks later, it finally goes live—and already out of date

This process is time-consuming, resource-heavy, and completely out of sync with the rapid pace of change of business today.

And when you’re a small but mighty L&D team trying to keep up with compliance, product updates, onboarding, and leadership development? This model just doesn’t cut it.

So What’s the Alternative?

The good news? It’s not about replacing IDs—it’s about empowering your entire team to build smarter, faster training without needing deep design expertise.

Thanks to modern tools (and a healthy dose of AI), building great training is no longer limited to those with an instructional design background.

Here’s what’s possible today:

• Upload a policy doc and turn it into interactive training in minutes

• Give your SMEs the ability to build or update content themselves

• Use templates, microlearning formats, and gamified elements that are proven to boost engagement and knowledge retention

• Policy doc changes? Roll out updates instantly without rebuilding everything from scratch

This approach eliminates bottlenecks and shortens turnaround times. No more waiting in line for design support.

Just real, useful learning—created by the people who know the content best.

Great Training Is About Relevance, Not Perfection

Here’s the truth: your employees don’t need flashy animations or perfectly formatted courses. What they need is accurate, timely, practical training that helps them do their jobs better—right now.

When SMEs and L&D teams can co-create content quickly, you get:

• More accurate, up-to-date training materials

• Stronger collaboration between teams

• Faster responses to new products, policies, and procedures

• And a stronger, more agile learning culture overall

It’s not about lowering the bar—it’s about clearing the path.

The Final Squeeze

You don’t need a full ID team to build great training. You just need the right tools—and the trust to let your experts shine. Because when training is easier to create, it’s easier to keep up to date. And when it’s easier to keep up, it actually gets used.

Let’s make training that works for your people—and for you.

Ready to build training without waiting on design support? See how LemonadeLXP empowers your team to create engaging learning experiences—no instructional design background required.

Book a Demo!