CASE STUDY
Business Challenge
SALES ENABLEMENT
Business Acumen + Soft Skills:
How Microsoft Is Using Online
Collaborative Learning for
Public Sector Sellers
OVERVIEW
Industry
TECHNOLOGY
Distribution
GLOBAL
Learner Level
MID-CAREER
Learning Design Approach
CORPORATE MOOC
“Intrepid’s
learner-centric
approach to
modern learning
has transformed
our sales
enablement
training at
Microsoft.”
— Ludovic Fourrage, Head
Virtual Learning, Microsoft
Microsoft wanted their global public sector sellers (non-profit and
government) to better engage with and connect to customers
while making the case for Microsoft products.
Intrepid Learning collaborated with Microsoft to design and
deliver an innovative corporate MOOC solution on the Intrepid
platform. “Leading the Way in Public Sector” debuted summer
2016 to their global public sector salesforce.
The program’s first run generated hundreds of actionable
customer plans for critical customers through peer-reviewed
final assignments, produced both high job readiness and
learner satisfaction ratings, and has revolutionized the public
sector sellers’ approach in alignment with Microsoft’s
overall business transformation.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Microsoft is gaining momentum with their recent significant
business transformation to becoming a “Cloud-First, Mobile-First”
software provider. This strategic shift has required their sales
organization to adapt to fundamental changes in “What They Sell,
How They Sell, and Who They Sell To.”
So it has been critical for the entire sales force to learn how
to quickly shift from selling primarily on-premise enterprise
software via multi-year enterprise agreements to buyers in IT
organizations, to instead selling cloud and devices solutions
through subscriptions to business decision maker (BDM) buyers.
1
PUBLIC SECTOR’S SPECIFIC CHALLENGES
Goals for “Leading the
Way in Public Sector”
•Deliver world-class
executive education
knowledge of
economics and
finance essentials, as
well as business-ready
‘soft skills’
•Tightly tie course
curriculum and
assignments
to Microsoft’s
overall business
transformation
•Shift global salesforce
field readiness from a
consumption model
to a demonstrated
capability model
•Respect the learners’
time, intelligence, and
desire for consumergrade online
experiences
Within the larger sales and marketing organization, Microsoft’s
3,000 global public sector sellers have additional challenges related
to their vertical. For instance, purchasing and decision-making is
approached differently by public sector buyers than for-profit clients,
involving different types of stakeholders and processes.
In addition to a shift in knowledge and approach, successfully selling
to the public sector in this new paradigm requires learning a great
deal of ‘soft skills’ such as empathetic listening, relationship building,
and other collaborative interpersonal skills traditionally viewed as
nearly impossible to effectively learn in an all-online environment.
LEARNING STRATEGY ON THE INTREPID PLATFORM
Microsoft built on the wildly successful approach of their previous
award-winning sales enablement MOOCs delivered on the Intrepid
platform. With the Intrepid Learning team and the London Business
School they created a customized program tailoring a MOOC
(Massive Open Online Course) model for the Microsoft’s public
sector sellers—the first time public sector sales training had been
done online at Microsoft. The team was particularly excited to “up
the ante” on the use of social and collaborative interaction features
to meet the soft skills learning goals.
•Offer learners a
chance to learn from
peers and connect
emotionally with
a global learning
community
•Embed real on-the-job
application during the
learning experience,
so sellers could not
just take, but really
learn from the training
2
Each week’s content consisted of a multi-modal blended
learning approach with:
•Video lectures
•Online discussion forums
•Case studies, selected specifically for their relevance
to Microsoft customers
•‘Mission’ exercises: strategically-placed opportunities to
immediately apply key learning to their customer portfolio.
“[Our sales
success] will be
thanks to the
foundational
training I gained
through this
program. The
highest impact
is on positioning,
the value
narrative, and
the motivators
for potential
members.”
In order for participants to immediately apply key pieces they were
learning, the team introduced a structure with exercises (“Missions”)
sprinkled throughout, rather than just one formal assignment at the
end of each lesson. Each week had Objectives and Access Points,
so learners knew what they were working towards and how the
final assignment of the 6–week course was to create a full “value
proposition” account plan for a critical customer (i.e. a customer
the learner was actively engaging or pursuing). Thus, the real-world
application of the course included both weekly activities completed
with their broad portfolio of clients in mind, and a final assignment
focused on their most critical customer.
— Learner
3
MOTIVATING & ENGAGING
Video content was recorded onsite in the classrooms at London
Business School in order to connect the learners to the LBS
environment and professors. The homepage design features art
commissioned for London Business School, a striking visual design
which helped to brand the course. Imagery of the London skyline
can be found throughout the experience.
“One of the
most focused
trainings I have
ever had. Very
valuable.”
— Learner
This cohesive course branding in conjunction with the efficacy of
the short-form content approach allows learners to access and
learn in-depth, complicated topics within the rhythm of their busy
workday—and convenient, easily-accessible, highly-relevant learning
is always motivating and engaging.
DYNAMIC & BI-DIRECTIONAL
Discussion forums allowed learners to engage with one another
and along the way explore topics at length with peers, professors,
and subject matter experts. Forums were curated by moderators
to highlight particularly relevant comments and surface common
threads and questions, and frequently also included a short
web-video response from a professor (shot on their laptop webcam
or phone) answering discussion forum questions or adding more
Microsoft context to a strategic concept.
4
Program Overview:
•6–week course
•Amalgam of topics:
Macroeconomics
Public Sector
Finance, Stakeholder
Management,
Innovation, and the
Value Proposition
•Delivered via
corporate MOOC
modality with content
rolled out weekly
•Content included
videos, discussions,
reflections, and
frequent assignments
(“Missions”) for
applied learning.
Even though all of the videos had been pre-recorded, the team was
able to create a compelling and bi-directional online experience for
the learners leveraging not only the dynamism of the professors,
but the platform’s myriad built-in social and collaborative features.
The students participated in discussions on targeted weekly topics
as well as broader forums where they could ask questions of the
Professors and of Microsoft experts. Moderators participated in
discussion forums to guide and encourage participation, while
professors and internal subject matter experts at Microsoft joined
to ask and answer questions.
Learners went above and beyond in the discussions, even though
that was not where their grade was coming from – they did it
on their own time, for their own edification, and of their own
volition. These discussion sections allowed for true interpersonal
connections and engagement, which highlighted the value
learners placed on peer-to-peer sharing of strategy and the
continual refining of a customer approach.
•Guiding questions
each week directly
contributed to
final cumulative
assignment
•Learners who pass
the course achieve
an Online Executive
Education Certificate
of Completion, which
includes an open
digital badge usable
on their LinkedIn
profile.
•Program design
heavily leveraged
Intrepid’s threaded
discussions, shareable
field reports, and peer
review
5
“An amazing
experience to
understand
the market
conditions,
what’s out there,
the challenges
we face with
customers.
Every time it’s
forced me to
put everything
I have learned
and apply the
solution … It
helped us a lot
to close our
business very
quickly and
[clients] feel that
Microsoft is here
to solve a lot of
problems they
are facing day in
and day out.”
FLEXIBLE PACE FOR LEARNERS
Learners have maximum flexibility to absorb the content at their
own convenience and pace, while still benefitting from moving
through the course with a cohort of peers. The shared deadlines
at the end of each week keep individuals on pace with the overall
course, but also allow them to learn at their own convenience
throughout the week.
REAL-WORLD APPLICATION OF LEARNING
The course ensures practical absorption of abstract concepts. The
guided “Missions” or real-world exercises feature of the courses
encourage learners to take newly-learned skills, apply them
directly into the context of their actual job, and then upload a
“field report” which is shared via the platform with other learners.
This not only ensures business impact but also facilitates peerto-peer learning. For each course’s final assignment, sellers
apply their “Leading the Way in Public Sector” learnings and
demonstrate their new capabilities using their “critical” customer,
the most strategic of their portfolio.
— Learner
In addition, thanks to Intrepid’s peer review feature, each learner is
required to review 5 other final assignments and offer feedback on
its efficacy according to criteria from the learning team, another
example of this program’s benefit of harnessing ‘the wisdom of
the crowds.’
6
QUICK TIME TO LAUNCH
From film shoot to launch, building the course took less than
8 weeks, due in large part to the platform’s flexibility. The
team’s ability to “live build” the course as professors’ segments
were being filmed, meant easy rapidly iterating and approval
processes for things like course architecture and module
scaffolding, asset flow, “grouting” (asset descriptions and
“what is this and why do I need to know it” explanations), and
exercises. This allowed the team to not only meet the overall
business demand of rapid change, but get approval for and
tweak the design without burdensome rounds of feedback or
storyboarding—the course was fleshed out within the platform
itself and the experience the learners would get was therefore
easy to see.
“Being able
to show our
many internal
stakeholders
the Intrepid
platform was
pivotal in getting
the initial green
light, and then
updating them
and getting
feedback.
The visual
nature and ease
of build made
this process so
much easier
and ‘real’ for our
stakeholders.”
— Hilary Albert
Learning & Development
Specialist, Microsoft
Administrative view
7
RESULTS
The high expectations were matched by the first run of the public sector
program, with 74% of the 505 participants-to-date completing all the
required content and passing their final project to earn a certificate.
In addition, Microsoft’s public sector sales team measures all training
through course evaluations, during and after training. The criteria is rated,
and expressed in the net satisfaction (NSAT) and Readiness Impact Score
(RIS). 140/200 is considered to be a solid RIS. The RIS for this first run of
“Leading the Way in Public Sector” was 168/200, as was the NSAT, both
very robust for training at Microsoft (online or otherwise). These postsurvey results reflect the careful blend of an engaging online learning
experience via the Intrepid Learning platform and highly-relevant, tailored
content from London Business School.
In addition, learners were excited to exchange ideas with a globallydispersed, diverse cohort of sellers. The MOOC program has helped
Microsoft sales managers and salespeople build relationships across the
globe, from Britain to Oman to Bahrain to Mexico, sharing struggles and
insights with selling strategies in a manner not possible with their old
training models. This, in addition to the learner satisfaction and strategic
alignment of course takeaways like the customer plans with on-the-job
requirements and rubrics, has made Microsoft’s learning leadership very
happy with the results and enthusiastic about continuing this program.
Client Testimonial
“Intrepid’s learner-centric approach to modern learning has
transformed our sales enablement training at Microsoft.
“Leading the Way in Public Sector” has proven that online
learning is effective for not just imparting knowledge and
enabling collaboration, but nuanced interpersonal and “soft”
skills as well. The program has been delivered once already with
similar business impact to the amazing results we’ve seen from
our other corporate MOOCs on the Intrepid platform.”
— Ludovic Fourrage,
Head, Virtual Learning, Microsoft:
INTREPIDLEARNING.COM
206.518.9870 | [email protected]
8