If you’re like some of my mentees, you can’t seem to get out of the teacher's perspective. And I get it. When you’re teaching and creating portfolio items, the desire to kill two birds with one stone is strong.  

But you don’t have to throw out your academic expertise to build something for your portfolio. You just have to shift your perspective a little. After all, a science teacher has a lab safety lesson every year. I’m willing to bet a corporate lab has safety compliance training with similar content. 😉

Three Questions to Ask

Remember, instructional design solves problems with learning. So whatever topic you choose, make sure you can provide specific answers to these three questions:  

• Does my topic solve a problem?
• Why/How does this problem matter to the organization?
• Does learning solve the problem?

Focus on solving a problem and how solving that problem supports the business, even if it’s a hypothetical business. Focusing on a specific learner will also sharpen your approach to the topic. “Marketing” is too broad a topic. But “How to write a marketing email” narrows it down. You could narrow the topic further by defining the industry and learner skill level. (Are they fresh out of college or veteran professionals?) 

Idea Generating Activity

If you’re still unsure about what topic you want to pursue, here’s an activity. I lead my mentees in IDOL courses Academy through this activity to support them in leveraging their academic expertise for a corporate topic while also combatting some of that decision fatigue. Hopefully, it will help shake loose something your ya. 💜

You’ll need to use this worksheet. (Downloading it will let you type within the pdf.) Play the video below and answer the questions that come up. 

I hope you’ve found this activity as helpful as my mentees have. Feel free to share your ideas and creations with me! I love hearing from y’all. 

Written by: Mandy Brown

💜Mandy Brown (she/her) is a fiercely neurodivergent, trauma-informed, all-boats-rise kind of person. You can see some of her work here, and she’d love to connect on LinkedIn. 😉