Portfolio

Good questions.
Useful work.

Learning strategy and talent development are my main focus. These accounts show how I build teams, set direction, and use research and measurement to help people do useful work.

Start with a leadership brief, then explore the decisions, methods, and examples behind it.

01

Learning measurement & evaluation

Learning measurement leadership at Allstate

I set the direction, built a team of four colleagues, and rebuilt learning measurement and reporting across five Claims lines of business. A 90-day workplace study helped us decide where reinforcement and support were needed.

Function building, team development, and workplace research
What it shows
How I built a team, established reporting practices, and secured adoption of a wider evaluation approach.
Inside the case
The function build, data-quality work, Workday migration decision, and follow-up study, followed by illustrative artifacts.
02

Nationwide / Learning delivery leadership

Learning delivery and team development

I brought earlier stakeholder review, an intake process, and a tiered build menu into e-learning delivery. We reduced build time from six to eight weeks to about three and gave leaders clearer expectations.

Learning operations, quality standards, and team leadership
What it shows
How I set delivery standards, developed the team, and led colleagues through a migration deadline.
Inside the case
The intake and build-menu decisions, stakeholder review, course QA, and the people supporting delivery.
03

AIAM / Adult education leadership

Licensed program development at AIAM

As Director of Adult Education and Academic Dean, I led licensed program development, brought practitioners and employers into advisory committees, hired key staff, and expanded student resources during a period of growth.

Program development, staffing, accreditation, and student support
What it shows
How I connected academic leadership, staffing, employer input, and accreditation responsibilities.
Inside the case
Licensed program development, advisory committees, key hiring, and a practical investment in the library.
04

UX research / Telematics / 2019

Distracted driving research

I led two phases of interviews to understand how drivers felt about distraction and what would make an app useful to them. I used the findings to help the team consider possible features.

UX research and product direction
What it shows
How I led the study and interpreted the findings for the team.
Inside the case
A two-phase study map, analysis workflow, research themes, and rebuilt persona summaries.

Learning quality / 2018

The standards behind the learning.

I created rubric materials and an implementation plan for Nationwide Academy. The documents connect learning quality criteria with reviewer calibration and a process for collecting and reviewing scores.

  1. 01

    Define the criteria

    Describe what reviewers should look for in the learning experience.

  2. 02

    Calibrate the review

    Use the scoring descriptors and review process to discuss judgments.

  3. 03

    Review the work

    Consider instructional design, engagement, UX, assessment, and accessibility.

  4. 04

    Bring the evidence together

    Collect scores quarterly and use the review process to discuss the work.

I wrote the rubric materials and implementation plan. Rollout was still in progress in the available record.

About this work

I developed criteria, reviewer guidance, and an implementation plan to support consistent reviews of learning quality.

The work in motion

See how I approach measurement.

This example follows one handoff behavior and the evidence we could collect. Play the demo or choose a scene to see how a finding could support a leadership decision.

A closer look · 32 seconds

How I would measure learning transfer

A handoff example that connects a behavior to evidence and a leadership decision.

Practice demonstration · Synthetic example

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Make the handoff clear. Use the job aid to name an owner, the next step, and a due date.

I created this example to explain my measurement approach. The handoff and findings are synthetic, and the decision is conditional.

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  1. 01 / Define the behavior

    Make the handoff clear.

    Use the job aid to name an owner, the next step, and a due date.

  2. 02 / Plan the evidence

    Look at the work over time.

    Compare work samples before and after learning. Observe the work and ask follow-up questions.

  3. 03 / Understand the gap

    Find out why the gap remains.

    In this synthetic example, the owner is missing. Does the workflow make responsibility clear?

  4. 04 / Choose the next step

    Use the findings to choose a response.

    If responsibility is unclear, work with the process owner to clarify it. Review another handoff to see what happens.

This is a practice example. Measured improvement, adoption, and return on investment have not been established.

Explore the Allstate case

Frameworks to explore

Ways to think through the work.

These illustrative frameworks explain a method. The project accounts above describe the work I led.

Learning strategy

My approach to learning design

I start with the task people need to perform. I check whether they need practice, clearer expectations, or better tools before deciding what to build.

Illustrative framework preview

A practical flow for choosing the right intervention

Illustrative method · Created for this portfolio
01Diagnose

Clarify the performance need and the conditions around the work.

02Decide

Separate learning needs from workflow, policy, tool, or incentive problems.

03Design

Choose support that fits the behavior people need to practice.

04Transfer

Build practice, feedback, and point-of-work support into the experience.

05Measure

Check what changed and how far the evidence supports the conclusion.

A public framework explaining how I choose a learning or performance response. The stages illustrate the method.

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Approach

  • Needs analysis and investigation of the causes
  • Deciding where learning or workflow support can help
  • Instructional design standards and rapid prototyping
  • Working with leaders and distributed teams

Research and analytics

Helping leaders make sense of employee feedback

Leaders needed a clearer account of what employee feedback could tell them. The approach connects survey design to data-quality rules and reporting, with clear limits on how small groups are represented.

Synthetic public preview

A listening system leaders could use

Illustrative framework
01Survey architecture

Questions tied to a defined work episode

02Reliability rules

Check evidence quality before drawing a conclusion

03Privacy governance

Protect small groups and sensitive results

04Executive story

Explain the finding and who can act on it

An illustrative survey structure and a set of rules for reviewing feedback responsibly.

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Approach

  • Survey design and question review
  • Qualitative coding and theme synthesis
  • Dashboard layout, reliability checks, and privacy rules
  • Clear reporting and practical next steps

Research and UX

Investigating what people need in the work

The tools and policies around a task affect whether people can use what they know. I investigate those conditions before recommending support.

Illustrative fieldwork reconstruction

Using observation to find useful improvements

Illustrative workflow
01Observe

Watch people use their tools and make decisions during the task.

02Code

Organize moments of effort, delay, workaround, and recovery.

03Prioritize

Look for recurring difficulties and check their context.

04Recommend

Give the responsible team a practical next step and explain the limits of the evidence.

A reusable field-research sequence for examining the task, work conditions, and possible improvements.

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Approach

  • UX research operations and platform governance
  • Usability research, experience mapping, and task analysis
  • Research playbooks and human-centered upskilling
  • Planning for adoption and support during the work

Decisions in practice

How I approach learning and delivery.

Examples from my work in discovery, prioritization, and evaluation.

Building the measurement function

At Allstate, I led learning measurement and reporting across five Claims lines of business. I assessed the work and the team’s skills, set the measurement strategy, and grew the team from one colleague to four. We brought together learning management, knowledge management, data analytics, and instructional design.

Reporting had problems with source inputs and spreadsheets. My analytics consultant created a process to track incoming data and identify what needed cleaning. I secured senior leadership support for the work, and we rebuilt the path from Excel source files to dashboard reporting. We introduced monthly and quarterly reporting and helped the team build its Power BI skills.

The function included the Levels 1–3 strategy I wrote and a workplace transfer study. The team revised and adopted its approach across Levels 1–4. Those were parts of a wider effort to give leaders a more dependable way to examine learning and workplace application.

Investigating a training request

Training is one possible response, so I start with discovery. What’s the business problem? What are people doing now, and what should they be doing? I investigate whether the gap involves skills, a process, tools, or incentives. I talk with the requester, managers, and people doing the work, and review the data already available.

At Nationwide, I built the team’s first intake process for e-learning requests so we asked those questions before development began. The response could be a course, a job aid, or a process change. I want us to agree on what would help before we commit to a build.

Making delivery tradeoffs visible

At Nationwide, my team had more requests than we could handle. I built a three-tier build menu and an hours estimation guide. We sized requests so stakeholders could compare the effort involved in a high-fidelity build with a lighter approach.

We considered business impact, deadlines, and how many people the work would reach. When two leaders both viewed their requests as urgent, I brought them the estimates and the implications for delivery. That gave them a concrete tradeoff to resolve together.

Changing the evaluation standard

At Nationwide Academy, evaluation was focused on learner reactions. I made the case for Kirkpatrick’s New World Model, standardized our Level 1 and Level 3 surveys on a five-point scale, and rebuilt evaluation for more than 100 courses.

I presented the approach to the enterprise Nationwide Learning Leaders Council, which adopted the standard across the enterprise. The decision expanded the evaluation approach to include questions about behavior after training. My synthetic-persona example shows another way I worked with leaders to clarify what the evidence could support.

Checking application in the workplace

Completions show participation. Satisfaction surveys capture the learning experience. To assess application, I investigate behavior on the job through follow-up surveys with learners and managers, existing performance data, and conversations about what helped or got in the way.

At Allstate Claims, I created the Levels 1–3 measurement strategy, and the team revised and adopted its approach across Levels 1–4. I conducted a Level 3 study of workplace application. The mixed-method study included learner and leader interviews, surveys, and stratified sampling. We examined the frequency of job tasks after onboarding, and I worked to make performance objectives measurable so application could be assessed in the field.

When learning isn’t being applied, I investigate manager support, tools, opportunities to practice, and the learning itself. I keep the learning experience and workplace transfer distinct so we can decide where support needs to change.

Changing an approach that wasn’t working

At Nationwide, e-learning builds took six to eight weeks. We were dealing with late stakeholder feedback and rework. I moved the team to a SAM-based agile process so stakeholders could review rough versions early. I also introduced rubrics describing what good work looked like and a tiered build menu to make scope clear at the start. Development time dropped to about three weeks.

During the SkillPort-to-Meridian migration, I created a QA guide and moved us to a full review of every course. I led five direct reports and coordinated with colleagues in delivery and instructional design. About seven to eight people contributed as different consultants joined the effort. We reviewed and fixed roughly 100 courses in about two weeks.

Building licensed education programs

As Director of Adult Education at the American Institute of Alternative Medicine, I led program development during a period of growth. The work included a master’s degree in acupuncture, expanded massage offerings, medical assistant education, and a new nursing arm with LPN and RN programs. These were licensed programs with regulatory and accreditation requirements.

I brought practitioners, employers, and public members into advisory committees and hired key staff, including a nursing administrator. I also handled hiring and faculty administration, federal reporting, and accreditation responsibilities. Those decisions connected the academic work with what the school needed to operate and what employers needed from graduates.

When accreditation identified the library as a weak area, I found room in a tight budget to hire a librarian and expand the space with computers, tutoring, and student resources. The library contributed to a positive reaccreditation review.

Assessment & development

Try a coaching-plan review.

The Ideas Lab includes a rubric demonstration connecting a clear expectation, a work sample, and a development action.

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Work together

Have a learning problem you’re working through?

Tell me what the team is trying to accomplish and where people need support. I’d be glad to discuss it.

Email Dennis