Welcome back to I’m Learning Out Loud!

I’m excited to share with you my next update, including my course topic ideas. So let’s dive right in.

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I knew from the get-go picking a course topic would be tricky. Having worked as an in-house designer for most of my career, I’m used to having my employer decide what the training topic will be.

But for this self-directed project, no one is assigning me a topic or group of learners. I’m calling all the shots, making sure my decisions align with my project goals.

It’s also worth mentioning instructional designers typically work with a subject matter expert (SME) to help create and vet the course content. This is someone who is knowledgable and experienced in the topic at hand.

Without a SME to work with for this project (and no budget to hire one), I’ll need to pick something I have expertise in myself.

Finding a Course Niche

The most common advice you’ll see for new creators is to first figure out your niche. A niche is a specific interest that appeals to a small, specialized group of people.

Defining your niche is key because it’s impossible to cater your content to everyone or specialize in everything. It’s much more feasible to speak to a specific audience about a specific topic.

To find a high-demand niche, marketing folks suggest using tools like Google Trends and AnswerThePublic to find out what lots of people search about online. But after 30 mins of plugging in keywords related to “instructional design” and “graphic design”, I gave up. I couldn’t find any meaningful data, which was frustrating.

Suddenly, I got a strange idea. I did something I’d never done at the beginning of a new project—I slowed down. I took a moment to ask myself this key question:

Who do I want to help? And what skills do I want to help them learn?

I reflected on any knowledge, skills, or experiences I have that others might want to learn from. Two ideas came to mind:

Option 1: I want to help novice graphic or UX/UI designers with developing their soft skills

Every now and then, something cool happens on my LinkedIn. I’ll get a message from a design student or new grad asking for some first-job advice or portfolio feedback.

A lot of the time, their struggles are related to low confidence or interpersonal skills. They’re not sure how to word their cold emails, terrified about their upcoming first day, don’t want to look foolish in front of their manager or team, etc.

Most design courses tend to focus on technical skills. I think there might be a gap here I could address.

Option 2: I want to help course creators with their learning design skills

This is the audience I see myself working with when I formally launch my freelance biz/consultancy. So there’s an opportunity for this course to eventually lead prospects to my services.

However, I’m facing a challenge with this potential niche. I’m not seeing enough course creators inquiring about how to improve the learning design of their courses. They seem to be more focused on how to improve their marketing/sales strategy. Perhaps I’d need to make a demand-generation play with this one. 🤔

Initial Idea Validation

Here’s the research I’m currently doing to help me choose which niche to go with:

• Paying attention to social media and online communities to find out what new designers or course creators are asking about

• Reviewing existing courses or publications that already target these audiences to find any gaps I could fill (aka competitor research)

• Asking straight up! I’ll be posting on forums and messaging some people directly

• 👉 SUBSCRIBERS VOTE 👈 Which course idea do you think I should work on? Cast your vote here or let me know in the comments!

Stay tuned!

My next update will be Progress Report 3: Validating My Course Topic + Analyzing the Knowledge and Skills Gap.

I’ll be taking an extra long weekend, so it may arrive to you a few days later than usual. I hope you’ll be taking a work break too!

Thanks again for following along, and enjoy your Easter weekend 🐰

Laraine