Training Hunters and Farmers

Seth Godin recently posted about the kinds of people who might want your product/service/technology/{enter your passion here}.

He offers a great insight to successful communications, which is to recognize the mindset of your audience, and tailor your messaging accordingly. 

When designing a training programs for said {passion}, the first step is to understand the audience:

• what is the user level of expertise?
• is this a new tool that requires transitional materials?
• what are the takeaways (goal of the sessions...desired outcome)?

And finally, as Seth describes, we must determine if the learners are Hunters or Farmers, then build the training around those expectations. This is what we know about how Hunters and Farmers learn:

Hunters prefer wikis, blog feeds and knowledgebases for learning about new applications, while Farmers want a bound copy of the user manual on their desk. When it comes to online training, Farmers prefer to join "how-to" webinars, or watch detailed instructional videos, while Hunters join forums and interact with bloggers about what they say. Hunters are more likely to record and post their own "how-to" videos on the web. Farmers, on the other hand, expect the Help links to have the answers.

As trainers, we know that everyone learns differently, that some folks are visual learners, others relate better to vocal cues, and even others want a hands-on approach. Adding the "Hunter and Farmer" philosophy to your training programs will only make your content better and more effective.

Originally posted: February 03, 2010 at 12:34 PM