Meta Capability

In a fiercely-competitive, fast-evolving business world, corporate learning and development have become critically important in enabling business to achieve success. Although businesses have deployed Learning Management Systems (LMS) or other online learning platforms, they are struggling to reap the desired outcomes and results. As LMS platforms prove ineffective, a majority of the companies are looking to replace them with fully integrated modern learning solutions that better meet their business needs and objectives.

The major barrier for companies using current LMS platforms is engagement with the learner. The conventional online learning system fails to engage learners and have poor user interface, UX and lack personalisation, which kills the interest of the learner. Also, many businesses run on tight budgets, and often employees take on multiple roles outside of their area of expertise to make sure the organisation progresses. In this situation, investing a lot of time in training becomes a challenging endeavour. In simple words, what organisations need today is an advanced digital learning eco-system that is personalised, comprehensive, engaging, valuable, and designed in a way users want to consume while delivering an engaging learning experience.

One company transforming the digital learning landscape’s status quo by applying 20 years of experience they have in building a compelling digital learning strategy is Meta Capability. They are on a mission to solve the biggest problem with digital learning platforms – engagement. The company partners with membership bodies and corporate sectors to co-create bespoke digital learning solutions and engaging CPD Solutions. “We do not offer off-the-shelf digital learning platforms. Instead, we work with businesses to co-create learning solutions that specifically meet their needs and give them a competitive advantage,” says Byron Ward, Co-founder & Director, Meta Capability.

Trigger And Engage The Learner

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic and the stringent norms have forced organisations to evaluate and analyse digital learning channels’ implementation to improve training experiences while abiding to the regulations. Although it is a devastating time for everyone, Meta Capability has decided to stay positive and tap on the opportunities that come along the way. The company has developed tried and tested digital learning modules over the years, which are customised to meet various organisations’ unique requirements. “Our CPD platforms and digital learning solutions have been proven to deliver an addictive user experience, potential new revenue streams and business impact,” proclaims Ward.

Creating an Engaging User Journey and Experience

The main purpose of deploying a digital learning solution is to engage and develop employees’ skills, capability and knowledge of a subject or in a role they perform in the business. If this purpose isn’t served then it will be a waste of time and money. For that reason, Meta Capability begins the client ‘envisioning’ onboarding process by investing time to understand their strategic objectives and product or platform vision and road map.

Meta Capability strongly believes that every organisation is different and has different user needs. To design unique user journeys, diagnostics (trigger events) and create bespoke platforms, the company follows an innovative four-step approach.

Our CPD platforms and digital learning solutions have been proven to deliver an addictive user experience, potential new revenue streams and business impact

The first step is Explore and define, where the Meta Capability team works with clients to define the product vision, product road map, and create a unique engaging user experience that enables them to achieve their strategic and commercial goals. The next step is to Design and Specify. In this process, the company runs several workshops to understand the platform’s user journeys, workflows and integration needs. They also design user interfaces according to client’s needs and produce an interactive prototype that can be used to demonstrate the look, feel and flow of the learning environment to potential users/clients. On top of that, a detailed report on the technical architecture and how Meta Capability plans to integrate its platform with client’s CRM, LMS, CMS, payment gateways and website is delivered.

Further, the company’s team will then develop a learning platform to the exact specification in the previous stage and integrate it with all of the client’s necessary systems. Once the client sees what they are capable of, they will want to develop a learning environment further in an agile and iterative way. “Our team will continue to research the learning world for new ideas and technology and bring those to bear in the evolution of every platform we co-create,” explains Ward.

Another unique aspect of the digital learning and CPD platforms Meta Capability build is that they are always fully integrated to all types of their client’s existing platforms (CRM, LMS, and Content Warehouses, amongst others). “We focus on building a fully integrated learning ecosystem across all the platforms and parts of businesses,” states Ward. The company’s bespoke solutions can also automatically link relevant events, courses and personalised bite-sized content, focused and organised based the learner’s specific needs, so users can learn and develop on the go.

Creating New Commercial Opportunities

With such unmatched core competencies and a unique approach, Meta Capability has ignited several success stories since its inception. In one instance, one of the company’s clients, Andrew Perkins, had the vision to build a platform called Kaplan Performance Academy (KPA) in 2016. He recognised that traditional e-learning was not what people wanted. They wanted to create a digital learning platform for the future that reflected the diversity and needs of different users because, without that, learning would be rejected.

The educational service provider approached Meta Capability as they shared a similar vision. In September 2018, Kaplan asked Meta Capability to design and specify the platform with a diverse Kaplan team in the UK and USA. The project was led and managed by platform design expert – Byron Ward, Meta Capability Co-founder. The end product of the exploration and design stage was a highly detailed functional specification document and an interactive prototype delivered in April 2019. The client was so impressed with the platform designed they commissioned Meta Capability to build and develop the platform over 20 months. The first iteration of Kaplan Performance Academy went live in May 2020, and the first client went live in July 2020.

Tapping on its unparalleled capabilities, Meta Capability has been rapidly growing every year, and they have no reason to believe that will change. The company is excited about launching in the second quarter of this year, a team diagnostic and development product they have been building over the last 12 months.

Meta Capability wishes to work with more clients to co-develop products that they are looking to implement. All-in-all, by co-creating bespoke CPD and engaging platforms, Meta Capability stands tall as the right partner in laying the ground for a future-ready digital learning ecosystem.