The Smart Learning Stack: Prove Value Before You Pay
This article is Part 6 of my series on Customer Education from scratch.
You've decided to build an education program. The first step is to research and buy a big, expensive Learning Management System (LMS), right?
Wrong. This is one of the most common and costly mistakes a team can make, not just in licensing fees, but in implementation time, dedicated staff, and the risk of a clumsy platform dictating your strategy.
A learning stack is the integrated set of tools used to create content, manage learners, deliver educational experiences, and measure a program's impact on the business. Your technology should exist to support your program's strategy, not define it. The key is to start simply, prove the value of your core content, and only invest in more complex technology when your program's scale demands it.
Phase 1: Your "Low-Software-Cost" Starting Stack
In the beginning, the focus is on proving that your educational approach works, which means being scrappy and resourceful. While these tools have low or no direct software costs, be mindful that your real investment is in time: the time to create content, manually manage learners, and connect the pieces of their journey.
For Building and Hosting Content: You don't need expensive authoring tools. A well-formatted Google Doc, a clear slide deck, or a simple screen recording from a tool like Loom is perfect for creating your initial learning materials.
For Delivering the Learning Experience: Forget a dedicated platform for now.
Use a simple Notion page or a Google Site as your central program hub. Maybe your company has a Content Management System in place already - speak with your marketing team if you have one to see what options you have.
Host videos privately on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo.
Meet customers where they are by embedding educational experiences in your existing help centre or knowledge base.
Critical Considerations for Phase 1:
The Learner Experience (UX): A scrappy stack must not create a confusing journey. Ensure you provide a clear, guided path for learners to follow. High friction in the early stages of your program will lead to high drop-off and make it impossible to prove value.
Discoverability: A program is only effective if learners can find it. Your starting stack must include a communication plan to connect learners with your program, whether that's a simple email campaign, in-app notifications, or clear links from your main product interface.
A Critical Warning on Using AI
For those with technical skills, a custom GPT or chatbot trained on your documentation can seem like a great way to create an interactive learning guide. This comes with a critical security warning: Check with your legal team before uploading proprietary documentation, internal processes, Intellectual Property (IP) or customer data into a public AI tool. This can lead to serious data leaks. Only use enterprise-grade, private AI environments that guarantee the security of your data.
Phase 2: The Tipping Point—When Program Management Demands Investment
Eventually, your manual methods for managing the program will start to show their limits. This is a positive sign as it means your program is succeeding and you have a real need to scale. You can now build a powerful business case for investment by calculating the cost of inaction. For instance, if your team spends 10 hours a week manually enrolling users and tracking completions, the cost of that labour may already exceed the price of an entry-level LMS.
The time to invest is when you experience these programmatic triggers:
You can no longer manually track learner progress and completions across your user base.
You need to automate the assignment of learning paths for events like new customer onboarding.
You need to provide personalised coaching and feedback at a scale that is impossible to deliver with human instructors alone.
You need robust data and analytics to prove the impact of your entire program to stakeholders.
You need to manage a large, diverse learner base with different roles and permissions.
You have a strategic need for program-level features like formal certification, e-commerce, or social learning forums that your simple stack cannot support.
Phase 3: Evaluating Platforms to Scale Your Program
When you reach the tipping point, you can begin evaluating formal platforms designed to manage a complete learning program at scale. Before you look at features, consider your Content Migration Strategy. How will you move your existing content into a new, structured system? The ease or difficulty of this process should be a primary consideration.
When evaluating platforms, don't get distracted by flashy features. Focus on the criteria that solve your specific scaling problems and support your entire program:
Integrations: Can the platform connect seamlessly with your core business systems (e.g., your CRM or support desk)? This is critical for automating tasks, personalising the learning experience, and measuring business impact.
Analytics & Reporting: Does the platform provide clear, actionable data on learner progress, content effectiveness, and the program's overall health?
Learner Experience (LX): Is the platform simple, intuitive, and easy for your customers to navigate?
AI-Powered Learning Capabilities: Does the platform offer a true AI Tutor that can personalise learning paths, provide adaptive feedback on exercises, and answer complex learner questions contextually? This demonstrates a commitment to modern, scalable pedagogy.
Administrator & Author Experience (AX): Is the platform easy for your own team to use? How quickly can you build a new course or pull a report? A great LX with a terrible AX will cripple your program's agility.
Vendor Support & Viability: Are you entering a partnership with a reliable vendor? Evaluate their customer support, product roadmap, and long-term stability. Talk to their Product team if possible, not just for roadmaps but to gauge the team, their mindset, and their willingness to listen. Talk to their other customers where feasible. Look for expertise outside of where the company points you. Places like the Customer Education Community Slack are full of people who have used every tool out there.
By following this phased approach, you avoid premature investments and ensure that when you do spend money, it is to solve real, existing problems with your learning program.
Your Challenge:
Audit the tools you and your customers already use every day. Can you deliver the first module of your learning program using only a Notion page and a private YouTube video? Sketch out what that would look like before assuming you need to buy a new platform.
What’s your take on today’s topic? Did I miss something, did something resonate?
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