Creating effective training videos takes more than just good filming and editing. Liam Mead shares five essential questions L&D teams should answer before production begins, from defining learning objectives and understanding audiences to managing approvals and deliverables, helping organisations avoid costly mistakes and create videos that genuinely support workplace learning.
What if your training video is destined to fail before anyone even picks up a camera? Organisations can spend considerable time and money producing polished, professional learning videos, only to find they have little impact on employee performance. The problem often lies not in the quality of the filming or editing, but in the decisions made before production begins.
Even the most engaging video can miss the mark
Without a clear understanding of the learning objectives, target audience, delivery requirements and approval process, even the most engaging video can miss the mark. Getting these foundations right from the outset can save time, reduce costs and make the difference between a video that simply gets watched and one that genuinely supports workplace learning.
A short written brief fixes most of this. It takes an hour, and it saves days of rework later. Here are the five things worth agreeing first.
1. What should the learner be able to do afterwards?
Start with the change in behaviour, not the topic. “Cover manual handling” is a topic. “A new starter can lift and move a standard box safely without help” is an objective. Video is good at showing a skill being done, so check that your objective is something a person can see.
If you cannot state the objective in one sentence, the video is not ready to commission. Several short videos with one objective each usually work better than one long video covering everything.
2. Who is the learner, and where will they watch?
Describe the viewer:
- Are they new or experienced?
- Do they watch at a desk, on a phone between tasks or in a group session with a facilitator?
- Is it for a group session so that it can be paused for discussion?
- Is it to be watched alone?
Any video needs short sections and a clear point in the first few seconds.
Check where the video will be hosted too. Whoever manages your learning platform can tell you the file formats, length limits and accessibility requirements before you commit.
3. What is the delivery format?
Decide the length, the style and the language early.
- Will it be a filmed demonstration?
- A talking-head explanation?
- A screen recording
- A mix of the above?
- Will it need a second language?
- Will it be updated when the process changes?
That last question matters more than people expect. If the procedure changes every year, film the parts that stay the same separately from the parts that change, so you only redo the second half.
4. Who approves what, and by when?
Name the single person who gives final approval. Then name the specialists who check accuracy, such as a health and safety lead or a legal reviewer, and agree when they will see the script and the first edit.
Projects stall when five people each see a different version at a different time. Agree a fixed number of review rounds and a deadline for each. Late feedback is the most common reason a video misses its launch date.
5. What are you handing over, and what counts as done?
List the deliverables, such as:
- The final file
- A version with subtitles
- An SRT file for captions
- A short version for email
- Thumbnail images
- Project files if you may want to edit later
Say who owns the finished video and where the source footage will be kept.
Define “done” in the brief. A video that plays, is accurate, meets accessibility needs and has been signed off by the named approver is done. Anything beyond that is a change request, and everyone should know it.
Putting it on one page
You do not need a long document. One page covering these five points, written before you speak to any production team, gives everyone the same starting position. It also makes quotes easier to compare, because each supplier is pricing the same job.
Airframe Media publishes a free video production brief template that follows this structure and that you can copy and adapt.
Liam Mead is Director of Airframe Media
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