We Keep Building Features Learners Don't Use
Enterprise learning platforms have an unusual problem: the person who buys the platform rarely uses it. Here's what changes when you design for learners first.
I reviewed a product roadmap last month — not ours, just an industry peer sharing their planning process — and spotted something I've seen a dozen times before. Eighteen initiatives. Sixteen were requested by L&D leaders. Two came from research with actual learners.
Guess which two had the highest engagement when they finally shipped?
The Buyer-User Split
Enterprise learning platforms have an unusual problem: the person who buys the platform rarely uses it. Your Head of L&D signs the contract. Your frontline workers, managers, and individual contributors actually log in (or don't).
This creates a weird dynamic. Your buyer wants robust reporting, taxonomy management, SCORM compliance, and admin controls. Your end user wants to find a five-minute video on how to handle a difficult customer conversation without clicking through three menus.
Both needs are valid. But when your roadmap is 90% buyer-focused, you end up with powerful platforms that nobody actually wants to open.
What Changes When You Design for Learners First
I'm not suggesting you ignore buyer requirements. Compliance matters. Reporting matters. But flip the prioritization: start with the learner experience, then build the admin layer around it.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
Instead of "advanced content tagging," ask: how will someone find this content when they need it? Search? Browse? Recommendations? Mobile? Design that experience first, then build the tagging system that powers it.
Instead of "comprehensive learning paths," ask: when do people actually complete multi-step journeys vs. cherry-pick individual resources? Maybe they need both — the curated path AND the ability to grab what they need right now.
Instead of "engagement dashboards," ask: what would make someone choose to come back tomorrow? Push notifications? Personalized suggestions? Integration with their actual workflow? Measure that.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Most learning platforms have adoption problems not because they lack features, but because they're designed for the wrong user first. Your L&D buyer is sophisticated and articulate. They're in your user group calls, your advisory boards, your Slack channels. They have budget and opinions.
Your end user is busy, skeptical of "corporate learning," and will abandon your platform in thirty seconds if it doesn't immediately help them.
Design for the person who didn't ask for your platform but has to use it anyway. Make it so good that your L&D buyer looks like a hero for choosing it.
Then build them the reporting dashboard to prove it worked.