Episode 73

How One Instructional Designer Prepares Successful Videos (and You Can Too) with Lee Rodrigues

Instructional videos are a cornerstone of many training programs, onboarding processes, and team communication. But if you have never produced your own videos, it can be a bit of a daunting project.

There’s producing, editing, camera equipment, audio equipment, and then distributing the content to think about. In this episode, we’re focusing more on the steps you need to take before you start rolling. How do you plan your content for maximum impact?

Lee Rodrigues, Senior Instructional Designer at Sunrun, joined this episode of The Visual Lounge to talk more about this planning stage. As part of our ten-week series on instructional videos, Lee is the latest guest to discuss instructional design and producing the best videos possible.

Lee has had 15 years of experience in the technology, training, and multimedia production fields. He uses a number of tools and tactics to develop and evaluate blended learning solutions for measurable and improvable behaviors.

Learning points from the episode include:

  • Why all big projects should start with a prototype
  • How planning a video is a bit like planning a recipe
  • The difference between workflow-based instructions vs. knowledge transfer
  • The Five Moments of Need and how to set objectives
  • How Lee scripts his videos and uses the zero draft approach
  • How to read a script on camera

Important links and mentions:

Learn more about the TechSmith Academy.

To read the blog post on the topic or watch the video, click here.

About the Podcast

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The Visual Lounge
Discussions about the power of visuals and videos and how to make them even better.

About your host

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Matthew Pierce

Matthew Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador from TechSmith Corporation, has created videos for learning and marketing for over a decade. He is the lead behind TechSmith Academy, a free platform teaching video and image creation for business, which has been used by tens of thousands of users. He is the host of The Visual Lounge Podcast from TechSmith, which streams live on Youtube and LinkedIn weekly. Matthew is a regular speaker at multiple learning and development-focused conferences and is a regular contributor to various training publications. Connect with him on LinkedIn.