Ship Happens is an interactive workshop designed to help Learning & Development professionals think and operate like product managers. Instead of building courses by request or compliance, participants will be challenged to approach the request like product managers who validate assumptions and iterate before investing time and energy into long-term products.
In this session, attendees will step into one of three fictional organizations facing realistic learning challenges. Using these scenarios as their sandbox, they’ll explore how product thinking elevates ADDIE, uncover hidden root causes behind training requests, and practice translating stakeholder “asks” into strategic outcome statements.
The workshop culminates in the creation of an outcome-based roadmap: a practical tool that aligns learning efforts to business impact through clear North Star results, small testable pilots, and evidence-driven scaling.
This workshop equips L&D professionals to challenge assumptions, design with intention, and ship solutions that genuinely change performance because learning doesn’t matter until ship happens.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Cara North is an award-winning product-minded learning leader who helps organizations stop launching courses and start launching outcomes. She began her career as an “accidental” L&D professional in telecommunications, where a surprise promotion into training revealed a talent for simplifying complexity and improving performance. Nearly two decades later, her work spans corporate, higher education, and consulting environments with organizations including Amazon, The Ohio State University, Silfex, Medical Mutual and JPMorganChase.
Cara is the author of the award-nominated book Learning Experience Design Essentials and serves as adjunct faculty at Boise State University. She is also the founder of The Monthly 60-a community of practice for learning and development professionals to network and sharpen skills in one high-impact hour each month. Cara also serves as a certificate program facilitator for the Association for Talent and Development. She resides in Columbus, Ohio with her partner and their four cats. When she’s not working, you can find her in an Orangetheory Fitness studio chasing her next benchmark score, watching esports, or gaming her stress away. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caranorth11/
8:00 AM – 9:30 AM; Doors open at 7:45 AM with networking available until 10:00 AM. Continental Breakfast will be provided.
Conveners: Kim Breeze, Bob Riess, Jonathan Wilson
