Business Transformation

Scaling the Devlin Peck Instructional Design Bootcamp

iNStep partnered with Devlin Peck, a rising star in the instructional design world, to transform his popular bootcamp from a one-person show into a thriving educational powerhouse. We rolled up our sleeves, mentoring students and developing smart systems and processes that allowed Devlin to quadruple his student base without losing the personal touch that made his program special. By the end of our two-year collaboration, we'd not only grown the bootcamp - we'd helped to set it up for long-term success, complete with a team of top-notch mentors ready to guide the next generation of instructional designers.

Roles:

Coaching/Mentoring, Program Management, Instructional Design Consulting, Visual/UX Design Consulting, Curriculum Development, Quality Assurance, Change Management.

Challenges

Devlin Peck had amassed a prominent following of over 55K subscribers on his instructional design YouTube channel. Building on the success of his YouTube channel, Devlin launched an online bootcamp to support his followers who wanted more direct interaction with him through a hands-on program. This program proved successful at helping new instructional designers, particularly teachers transitioning from the classroom, land corporate ID roles by developing standout portfolios through Devlin's personalized mentorship model.

However, as enrollments rapidly increased, scaling this high-touch approach presented obstacles. Devlin was overwhelmed trying to provide individualized mentoring and feedback to every student himself. He added mentors to help ease the burden, but soon discovered that maintaining consistent, high-quality feedback on student portfolios across mentors became increasingly difficult. Additionally, the lack of streamlined processes for managing student data, tracking progression, and facilitating mentor interactions hindered operations. Preserving the bootcamp's trademark personalized mentorship was key for student success, but operational limitations threatened to compromise its quality and Devlin's ability to expand effectively.

Solutions

iNStep’s founder, Nicole Stephens, consulted with Devlin to strategically address these multifaceted challenges without sacrificing the program's personalized approach. She pioneered a program management system to systematically monitor student activity, deliverable statuses, feedback quality, and common hurdles. This data enabled us to identify and rapidly address areas needing support through supplemental videos and resources.

To maintain portfolio quality amidst scaling mentors, Nicole applied her instructional design and visual/UX expertise to optimize course content and refine the portfolio development process. She also standardized feedback by creating evaluation guides and performance rubrics for assessing student work consistently across mentors.

Complementing our systems-based solutions, Nicole provided hands-on student mentorship, leveraging her professional insights to elevate portfolio artifacts to industry standards through insightful feedback. She further contributed to curriculum expansion by consulting as a subject matter expert to support the launch of a new course designed to take an in-depth look at pre-development activities instructional designers perform in corporate settings. She contributed to the course in an effort to enhance students' practical experience as they prepared for new careers in the field.

As the mentor team prepared to grow, Nicole established a formalized onboarding process to uphold quality mentorship and extend Devlin's personalized, high-caliber approach to new instructors.

Outcomes

During the two-year partnership between iNStep and Devlin Peck, the bootcamp's enrollment quadrupled to over 500 active students and continued rapidly growing. This sustainable scaling transformed the program from Devlin's small startup into a well-established educational business supporting a team of instructors, rather than just himself as the sole facilitator.

Numerous graduates credited their professionally-polished, standout portfolios - shaped by iNStep's standardized feedback model - as critical for securing high-end ID positions. The formalized mentor onboarding ensured this quality was replicated consistently as more instructors joined.

Key Takeaway

This engagement showcased iNStep's ability to strategically evolve and scale educational programs without compromising on individualized support or quality. By synergizing robust operational solutions with instructional mastery and hands-on student coaching centered on holistic development, iNStep empowered Devlin Peck's vision to thrive and positioned his bootcamp as the preeminent launchpad for instructional design careers.

Business Transformation

Scaling the Devlin Peck Instructional Design Bootcamp

Roles:

Challenges

Solutions

Outcomes

Key Takeaway

Devlin Peck

Nathan Wolfe

Scott Schmidt

Devlin Peck

Nathan Wolfe

Scott Schmidt

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