Technical training business talk.key

Is technical training the right niche for you?

Reuven M. Lerner • Freelance Remote Conf February, 2016

1 Technical training business talk.key - February 24, 2016

Who am I?

• Programmer, consultant, developer

• Long-time Python (+Ruby/Git/PostgreSQL) user

• Linux Journal columnist

• PhD in Learning Sciences from Northwestern

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My stuff• Newsletter: http://lerner.co.il/newsletter

• Blog: http://blog.lerner.co.il/

• Daily Tech Video: http://dailytechvideo.com/

• Or @DailyTechVideo on Twitter

• Mandarin Weekly: http://MandarinWeekly.com

• Or @MandarinWeekly on Twitter

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But lately…• About 80% of my time has been spent as a

technical trainer

• In other words: I go to companies, and teach their programmers how to use the technologies that I know and love

• Mostly Python, PostgreSQL, Git; also Ruby, data science, and regexps

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I’m so happy!• No more arguments about schedules, product scope, or

cost overruns

• I’m helping companies to be better at what they do

• I’m helping people to be better at their jobs

• Companies come to me, asking for courses

• I’m booked solid through March, and 50% through September 2016. Wow!

• And the pay is pretty good, too!

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Today’s agenda

• What is technical training?

• How does the training business work?

• How can Learning Sciences help me train better?

• Q&A


What is technical training?

• Hi-tech moves very fast

• Everyone must always learn new technologies

• Most people cannot learn new things themselves — they lack time, discipline, experience

• Thus, companies bring in trainers to bring their employees up to speed


Training is outsourced

• Companies have in-house trainers

• But that’s generally for basic things, or in-house technologies

• A huge amount of training is done by external contractors


What do I mean by “training”?

• Live lessons and lectures (in person or virtual)

• Not pre-recorded videos

• Not shared slide decks

• Not books

• All of these are good, but I have focused to date on in-person training


Trainers are catalysts• The aim is to speed up the learning of material

• Analogies

• Perspective

• Pitfalls

• Experience

• Mental models


Training is big business• In 2013, training in the US alone was $141 billion

• By all accounts, this number is rising rapidly, perhaps by even 10% each year

• Technology companies typically spend more than others

• Not all of this was for frontal lectures, but a lot of it was


Training companies• Many companies specialize in training

• You can work for them!

• The good news: They take care of marketing, sales, negotiations, and payments.

• The bad news: They take a very large chunk of the income, often 50 - 80% of the income from a course

• They often have non-compete clauses, so mixing your own training with theirs can be problematic


Doing it yourself• If you’re a consultant, then you’re probably used to

dealing with companies

• But training is a bit different

• You’re pitching a product (not a service)

• You’re pitching to non-technical people

• The budgets work differently

• The feedback (and future opportunities) are different


Can I do this?!?• Many people are unsure if they can train

• No, it’s not for everyone

• You need technical chops + ability to teach

• (Most people have one or the other)

• You can certainly improve

• Also: How many others know the technology as well as you and can teach and are available to teach during the day?


Content knowledge• You need to know what you’re talking about

• This doesn’t mean that you need to know everything — indeed, I often learn great things from my students!

• But you should be familiar and fluent enough that if someone asks a question, you’ll be able to be at their level, rather than sound like an ignoramus


Pedagogical content knowledge

• More important than content knowledge is pedagogical content knowledge

• The ability to explain the content — which is at least as important as knowing the content itself!


Training manager• Most companies have a training manager

• Some even have a training department

• This person is the coordinator of training

• This person is your primary contact — for pitching, coordinating, budgeting, and future work.

• In many ways, the training manager is your client. Make their life easy, and satisfy them, and you’ll get lots of work.


Technical people• The training manager usually doesn’t have a

technical background

• They won’t approve syllabi, or give you feedback on the content of your course

• Rather, they coordinate needs, and provide feedback

• The training manager will often ask one or more technical people to approve syllabi and/or ask you questions


Training budgets• Companies typically budget for training

• Your job, in some ways, is to convince them that their budget should be used on your course

• The money is almost always there; the question is whether it’ll be spent on you or someone else.

• Thus: Make sure that your syllabi match the company’s expectations. Make sure that you are offering a course that will benefit the company


Pricing

• Yeah, but how does pricing really work?

• There are several models:

• Per day: A global rate, no matter how big or small the class is.

• Per participant: A daily rate for each participant


How many participants?

• I typically say 16, but I’ve had classes with 20-25

• (Depends on payment and culture.)

• Always tell them what the maximum number is!

• Some people will likely drop out, depending on their company policies


Assistants?

• TAs?

• I don’t use them, but I know some people who do

• This depends on your style, the size of your class, whether they’re available


Authorized vendors• Most large companies will require you to be an

“authorized vendor” in order to sell to them.

• This process can take a while, and might require that you agree to certain payment terms (e.g., net + 60)

• That said, it’s a fairly standard and painless process — and once you’re in the system, you can expect to get paid on time


Internal marketplaces• In some big companies, any authorized vendor

may propose any course, for any price.

• People can sign up if they want the course, perhaps with their manager’s approval.

• Whether the course happens depends on how many people register, which is a function of the topic and price.


Special-order courses• Sometimes, a group in a company will want a

course just for them

• Everyone has the same needs, background

• They want a custom syllabus

• Automatic internal approval, without waiting for a class to fill up

• This can be great!


Proposals• Syllabus: What do you want to teach?

• The more focused the class, the better

• I’ve gotten increasingly focused, and that helps to attract the right people

• Proposal: Money, schedule, and your expectations

• Projector, whiteboard, lunch, Internet connection

• Travel and hotel also, if you’re traveling


Getting to big companies• It’s hard!

• So start with small startups

• Cold calling them might work

• Survey them while building the course; make them your partners for their needs

• Get noticed by the tech community — speak at conferences and meet-ups

• Blog often, so people can confirm you’re an expert


Advanced courses• These have often been problematic for me

• People without experience will often sign up for an advanced class

• “Advanced” isn’t an intelligence test, but rather a measure of how well they know the basic material!

• This can cause real problems and friction

• Find out what a company can/will do to filter out inappropriate participants


Open-enrollment courses

• Instead of going to a company, you open it to anyone interested

• You can charge (much) more for these, but it’s much more work intensive

• Marketing, location, registration, etc.


Online classes

• I’m going to start offering online, real-time classes this year

• This is a new experiment for me, but I want to try it out — and it’ll allow me to reach many new people

• This increases potential audience, while reducing the need for me to find a venue, lunch, and so forth


Successful training

• So, you’ve got the gig.

• What do you do before, during, and after the training to ensure success?


Easy for you? That means nothing!

• Sometimes, I feel like I shouldn’t discuss a topic, because it’s so obvious and easy.

• I mean, really — do we need to discuss variable scoping in Python? It’s so obvious!

• I’ve found that no one in my courses knows anything about such seemingly simple topics

• Include them, and review them — people will really appreciate your exposing the inner workings


Before• E-mail your slides (in PDF) to all participants

• Maybe I’m dumb for doing this, but my slides aren’t all over the Web, and I still have work!

• Configuration, installation requirements

• Language, libraries, or (if you want) a VM to download

• Don’t send this the morning of the course

• Maybe: A questionnaire, 1-2 weeks before the course


Also before• Practice, practice, practice

• How long will things take? When will you do each exercise?

• Can you live-code the exercise solution while talking, keeping it fluid?

• If not, then don’t do this and/or practice lots more

• I often use Webinars and/or meet ups to practice new material


Questionnaires• Especially with advanced courses, I’m often

suspicious that people aren’t that advanced

• (Having been burned on this many, many times)

• Thus, I will sometimes send participants a questionnaire, asking (on a scale of 1-5) how well they know a bunch of topics I want to cover

• People are often far less advanced than they claim, until you pin them down on specific subjects


Review, improve slides• Always be looking for ways to expand, improve

your slides

• Better examples, explanations

• Rephrasing of things

• Reordering of topics

• Spending more time on certain topics


Start the day• Go around the room, finding out about people

• Ask their names

• Why are they here?

• What is their background?

• What do they want to get out of the course?

• Use this information when teaching, to help draw connections with what they already know


Each day (other than the 1st)

• Start the day by asking if anything wasn’t clear the previous day

• About 50% of the time, someone will ask something

• This is almost certainly useful to everyone, not just the person who asked

• It also points to subjects that could use extra explanation


Exercises• Do lots of them. The more, the better

• They will learn more, they will like the class more, and you don’t have to lecture as much!

• Must only rely on what you’ve covered so far

• Force choices

• Force integration of knowledge

• Force corner cases that sharpen mental models


Same exercise, different solution

• I’ve recently started doing something new: I give the same exercise multiple times, asking them to use a different solution technique each time

• This has been surprisingly successful

• With beginners, this is way better than, “Decide which data structure to use on your own”


Exercise types• Challenges

• Learn by doing a task, using information presented so far in print or in person

• Often, re-implementing something they know is a good exercise

• Walk-throughs

• Copy the instructor and/or a manual, to become more familiar with something.

• Projects

• Day-long sessions, in which you specify a project and (partly) walk them through everything from planning to coding

• Much more open-ended, appropriate for intermediate/advanced learners


Pair programming• I encourage people in my classes to work in pairs

• It’s very clear to me that those who pair achieve more, and learn better

• Pairing forces metacognition

• It’s a shame that almost no one in my classes actually does this


Give perspective• The most important thing for technical training:

Don’t give information that they can read on their own!

• Provide insights, stories, and perspectives that demonstrate your experience

• Show lots of “aha” moments

• These are some of the most effective parts of my courses


Live coding• I love love love to do live coding

• I find that it helps things to flow, and to provide demos

• (It helps to touch type)

• Also, this helps to show not just how the final answer should look, but how the process of coding should look in your favorite technology


Stories• I love stories!

• They can really help to drive a point home

• Plus, they make things more entertaining

• Collect stories — especially funny stories — and tell them

• Dump the ones that go flat, keep the ones that do well, and then keep improving them

• You’re sort of like a stand-up comic or one-person play


Slides• I make lots of slides, but use them less and less.

• (More live coding and demonstrations)

• I now have about 100 slide decks, each on a different topic, numbered in the rough order I want to use them

• A course is thus a combination of slide decks

• If I research/add a new topic, it becomes a new deck

• I can expand each deck, as I learn more about topics I want to cover


Questions

• Questions are the best! Encourage them often.

• Take them very seriously. Face the person. Thank them for their question.

• Many times, questions have led me to deeper (better) material and exercises


Things to bring• VGA and HDMI video adapters (especially Mac

users)

• Power adapter — this is crucial!

• Working copy of the language you’ll use

• A copy of your slides, in PDF, somewhere you can get to them (e.g., your server or a USB drive)

• Optional: Snacks!


Schedule and breaks• I generally give two 15-minute breaks (morning and

afternoon)

• I usually take one hour for lunch

• Make lunch as late as possible without torturing your participants!

• People are less attentive after lunch

• Sometimes they need more than one PM break


After• Each day: Send them a zip file of everything you’ve done that

day

• Slides in PDF (including updates)

• Exercise solutions

• Live-coding examples

• After the entire course:

• Tell them about your (free) mailing list

• Connect to them on LinkedIn


After-session questions• Some people will come up to you afterward, to ask

questions

• Answer them! These people are motivated

• They usually ask good questions (which can be used in future exercises and courses)

• They’ll appreciate the attention and give you high ratings, so there’s some self-interest here


Surveys• Take these very seriously. This is your grade.

• Ask people to fill them out. The higher the n, the less likely outliers will determine your grade.

• If you do well, then you’ll be invited back for more courses.

• If not, you will either get a warning or not be invited back

• Besides the survey, ask for feedback from them!


Keep on learning• Keep up your technical skills

• Read blogs

• Newsletters

• Trends

• Look for questions on Stack Overflow, Reddit


New courses• Upselling: Good for you, and your customers

• More products (courses) to sell

• Learn more things, making yourself more valuable

• Additional slide decks you can mix and match

• Teach the same people multiple times, multiple courses — you’ll get groupies and advocates


Ideas for new courses• Many participants have similar needs, which you can’t service in a generic

course. So create a specific follow-on course!

• Python for system administrators

• Python for data science

• You don’t cover something as much as you’d like

• Regular expressions

• Some people feel left out

• Python for non-programmers

• Advanced python workshop


Thanks! Any questions?

• You can always find me at:

• [email protected]

• http://www.lerner.co.il/

• http://blog.lerner.co.il/

• http://lerner.co.il/newsletter

• @reuvenmlerner on Twitter


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