How we worked with Nest to improve its eLearning

Part of Google’s Hardware division Nest, is one of the most recognised names in smart home automation. They asked us to build its first point of sale displays. Shortly afterwards, when its existing eLearning provider fell short of expectations, it called on our expertise again.

It was a great opportunity. We usually roll out both the content of an eLearning course, and the LMS it runs in, but this project was quite different. We were taking over from an incumbent and designing for Nest’s existing co-authored training tool.

Obvious attractions

Despite having worked together before, it was by no means a certainty that Nest would choose us for its next project. Overseen by a separate department and commissioned by a different Nest insider, winning the eLearning contract required our team to prove it was up to the job.

Nest’s project lead came to visit. She was impressed by our past work, liked the team we have in place, and appreciated that we have our own in-house creatives, and we’re based in the UK. Although we have clients all over the world – as Nest does – working with a creative agency in the same time zone was a draw.

Although managed by Nest’s UK office, and developed for use through EMEA, the modules we delivered were rolled out worldwide.

Working within an existing framework

Everything we produced needed to meet the requirements of Nest’s co-authoring platform. Once we’d uploaded our modules, they were translated into multiple languages and fed into Google’s Retail Training Platform.

This makes them available to sales staff in all the territories where Google maintains a retail operation, allowing them to login and complete their training online.

It goes beyond what a lot of eLearning platforms can deliver. The training is well-structured, and rather than making candidates wait until the end of each module to test out their knowledge, it gives them ongoing feedback on their development. A couple of weeks after they’ve finished a module, their learning is reinforced by completing a written assessment.

It was important that we could facilitate these additional features, and that our team could work with Nest’s existing suppliers. The client already had its own illustrator and an established house style. Any work we generated had to fit in with this, so our illustrators worked closely with the project teams to ensure a consistent style, which threaded right through the resulting eLearning content.

Looking ahead for NEST

The modules we produced for Nest are SCORM-compliant, so will work in any industry-standard LMS. Google is a resolutely web-focused company so has asked us to also provide HTML5 versions so they’re accessible through a regular browser, either on Nest’s own website, or a retailer’s own portal.

Looking ahead for ORCKID

Since delivery of this project we have ditched the co-authoring platform, due to its limitations, and created our own learning content delivery framework. We have enhanced the user experience whilst making the content five times quicker to develop, test and deliver.

The platform has been used to deliver training for Nura and Cambridge Audio.