I hadn't accounted for Instructional Designers as part of my UX org planning at AT&T, however through organizational shifts, downsizing, etc. I inherited a small but mighty, award winning team of Instructional Designers. I already had a content team focused on body copy, SEO tagging, error messaging, etc. so leadership saw it as the natural place to put them.
I guess I had the typical misunderstanding of the team's role, in that they were just about training material that should be internally focused, or for companies that provide educational services. Wow, what a missed opportunity up to that date. Let me explain.
Instructional design in a UX or Product Team involves carefully crafting user guides and how-to videos to help users understand and make full use of your digital product, providing them with a seamless and enjoyable experience, ultimately boosting their engagement and satisfaction. Examples might be a YouTube video walking the customer through the various aspects of their bill, how to set up account profile options, or introducing a new buying feature.
Benefits to the Business: Incorporating instructional design into your digital product design can lead to a reduction in support calls. Users prefer self-service over making a phone call, so when they have clear and comprehensive user guides and how-to videos at their disposal, they are less likely to feel the need to reach out to your support team for assistance. This ultimately saves your business time and resources, allowing your support team to focus on more complex customer issues.
Benefits to the Platform KPIs: Instructional design can greatly benefit your platform's search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Google loves high-quality and relevant instructional content as much as your users do, videos especially. You can attract more organic traffic to your platform by raising your web page Search results. This can result in increased visibility and return visitors, further solidifying your platform's position in the digital landscape.
Benefits to Customer Satisfaction: Most importantly, instructional design directly benefits the customer by increasing user engagement and satisfaction. When users can easily navigate your digital product and find the help they need without hassle, they are more likely to engage with your platform and derive value from it. This ultimately leads to increased CSat / NPS scores and building a loyal user base.
So inheriting that team years ago definitely opened my eyes to the value of this specialty skill set and one that I highly recommend adding to your team.