Stop teaching. Start validating.
Are you building real experts, or just "Paper Tigers"?
Before we get into this weeks topic, I’m generally skeptical when someone tells me their platform is “different.” Most aren’t.
But Sana Learn actually is. Instead of another LMS where you upload courses and hope people finish them, they’ve built an AI Tutor that understands your company’s specific context. It coaches people through real problems using your actual knowledge base. The difference shows up when your team stops asking “did they complete the training?” and starts asking “can they actually do the work?” That’s the shift that matters.
Learn more here, and thank you to Sana for supporting this newsletter - it means a lot.
Internal L&D teams have effectively used Skills-Based Learning (SBL) for years to retain and up-skill employees. It is a powerful model that should work for external enablement, too.
But if you copy that playbook directly for your customers and partners, you will destroy revenue.
This nearly happened to us. We realised that if we gave external developers (whether partners or direct customers) SBL in the same way we did for internals, the outcome would be disastrous. They would have watched the videos, taken the quizzes, and then immediately written code that crashed production.
Why? Because Internal L&D rules don’t apply outside the firewall.
The Incentive Gap
Internal L&D is designed for Employee Retention. You teach an employee Python so they feel invested in the company.
External Enablement must be driven by Risk & Revenue.
In my previous role, our audience was backend developers. We were not trying to help them “grow their careers”; we were trying to ensure they could implement our software without breaking it.
If an external developer writes bad code, the business blames the product, not the developer. That kills renewals.
Therefore, our strategy was not about “learning hours.” It was about Implementation Quality. If the skill did not directly reduce the likelihood of a support ticket or a failed launch, we cut it.
Why Friction is a Feature
Internal L&D optimises for accessibility and scale. External enablement must optimise for Validation.
If you are validating a developer’s ability to implement enterprise software, a multiple-choice quiz is insufficient. A guess-and-check quiz does not prove they can build a custom integration.
We made a controversial call: We introduced massive friction.
We ditched the exams for real coding exercises. The learner had to actually build the solution. They had to really do the work. This required a human, a hybrid Technical Trainer/Developer, to grade every single submission.
It created a bottleneck. It slowed down our numbers. And that scarcity created value.
In high-stakes enablement, scaling automation too early creates “paper tigers” - users claiming expertise they don’t possess. If the validation is easy to pass, your approval is worthless to the market.
Enable the Entity, Not Just the User
Finally, Internal L&D focuses on the individual learner. External enablement must focus on the Business Entity.
Internally, you market to the employee. Externally, we marketed to the Partner Agency or Customer Account.
We positioned these skills as a requirement for the entity’s success. By clearly documenting the requirements, we gave agency owners and customer stakeholders a roadmap to revenue.
They became our enforcers. Partner agencies told their teams to get certified so they could bid on new projects. Enterprise customers told their integrators and their own team:
“You need to prove your skills before we let you touch our production environment.”
The Takeaway
Skills-based learning is a powerful lever for scaling your ecosystem, but only if you strip away the Internal L&D context.
Map your skills to revenue outcomes, do not be afraid of human-graded assessments at the start (automate later), and remember you are enabling a business, not just a user.
AND FINALLY, THE CURATION STACK
This week I have no links to share - I have been busy enjoying what Thailand has to offer and taking some time out with my wife. There were still learning moments though:
Getting a Thai lesson from an “Aunty” in the night market in Trat. She corrected both my pronunciation, and ensure that I was referring to the dish correctly. Moo Ping is delicious - look it up if you are curious!
Navigating the streets and public transportation of Bangkok - it’s actually easier than a lot of people would have you believe. Also walking 45,000 steps in 2 days may cause sore feet - not sure that counts as new learning though :-)