We’re passionate about turning technological insights and tools into real learning impact. This year’s conference theme—Shake It Up!—is the perfect prompt to think about the untapped potential we can unlock when training programs responsibly leverage digital tools, AI, and data. When we move beyond traditional methods and embrace scenario-based, data-driven learning, we accellerate learning transfer, ultimately leading to improved workplace performance. And that’s why we’re pleased to be sponsoring this years conference.

Check out your conference tote bag for a handy Say Yeah notebook and capture all your favourite conference insights.

Topics covered in this year’s program include measuring training ROI, upskilling and reskilling, and the neuroscience of learning. We’re also excited to see two of our favourite topics on the agenda: adaptive learning technology and learner accessibility.

What you can expect at the I4PL 2024 Annual Conference

From hands-on workshops, to thought-provoking keynotes, to learning from peers, there’s a lot happening at this year’s conference. Here are a few sessions we’re particularly looking forward to:

• Keynote presentations by Dr. Helen Papagiannis and Dan Pontefract
• Behaviour Change: The Bridge to Measuring Impact with Chris Taylor
• Practitioner Created, Research Validated Design Principles for Online Learning with Dr. Elizabeth Childs
• How Might AI Affect Your Work as an Instructional Designer and L&D Professional? with Saul Carliner & Giuliana Cucinelli
• Powerful Prompt Engineering for Instructional Design with Garima Gupta
• Maximizing Impact: Creating Authentic Learning Experiences and Measurable Results at TD Wealth with Randy Sabourin & Courtney Appleby
• Shaking Up the Traditional Train-the-Trainer Model with Moe Poirier

View the full conference schedule

Ready to transform your training programs?

Let’s elevate your training programs with human-centered learning technology. Together, we’ll help you more effectively meet learners where they are and set personalized pathways for improved workplace performance.

Let’s talk

The post I4PL 2024 Annual Conference, November 21-22, 2024 appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Presented at TESS 2024 by Lee Dale & Christine Zaza, with Chris Fernlund, the faculty guide to unlocking accessibility in eLearning presentation deck offers an overview of accessibility-related:

• Opportunities & Impact
• Untangling the Confusion
• Recommended Resources

The top resources selected to help educators and educational organizations confidently deliver more accessible eLearning include:

• Say Yeah’s Educator’s Guide to 
Delivering Accessible Online Courses
• University of Waterloo’s 
Postsecondary Course Accessibility Guide
• eCampusOntario’s
Digital Accessibility Hub

Download the deck PDF

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The post A faculty guide to unlocking accessibility in eLearning presentation deck. appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Here’s your official invite to the 2023 edition of FITC Toronto.

Whether you work in design, or digital development, finding inspiration and learning from industry leaders benefits your professional development journey.

FITC Toronto is your opportunity to gain professional insights and practical solutions to sharpen your skills. FITC is a two-day in-person and online event showcasing the best the world has to offer in design, digital development, media and innovation in creative technologies.

Talks we’re excited about

• Creating Experiences In The Age Of Futurisity with Stephen Martell
• Standing Out in a Saturated Medium with Erin Sarofsky
• Help for Humans with Jared Ficklin

Full event agenda

FITC Diversity Initiative

FITC is offering complimentary tickets for people from underrepresented groups in tech to attend the event, either in-person or online. The program is aimed at those who are unable to secure a ticket through their company or cannot afford a ticket themselves.

Apply for a free seat

Save $100 on FITC Toronto tickets!

Don’t have a ticket yet? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Save $100 off in-person tickets with code “fitcnews” and 25% off your online ticket with code “twittervip”.

Attend online or in person.

The post FITC Toronto, April 17-18, 2023 appeared first on Say Yeah!.

This event is dedicated exclusively to digital marketers in the financial services industry, the only one of its kind in Canada. As a proponent of digital excellence and customer experience, particularly in the financial services sector, we are excited to attend this unique summit and see how we can further connect the dots between marketing and digital product strategy.

Immerse yourself in two days of interactive sessions, keynotes, panels, and lots of networking opportunities. Here is your chance to build connections with 600+ financial marketing leaders and like-minded peers.

Discover what digital marketing strategies top financial companies are implementing, explore the latest industry trends, and learn best practices from 40+ senior FinServ marketers.

We can’t wait to hear these talks:

• Ready, Set, Digital: Accelerating Engagement for FSI Organizations with Jill Grozalsky, Wednesday at 9:40 AM
• Optimize Your Self-Service Customer Experience: Proactive, Seamless, Intelligent with Peter Tessier, Wednesday at 11:10 AM
• Building Organizational Agility to Minimize Roadblocks and Achieve Long-Term Digital Process Excellence Success with Annu Gulati and Julian Mills, Thursday at 9:30 AM
• Is Your Future Digital Marketing Strategy Robust Enough for the Next 5 years? with Nathan Gervais and Elizabeth Walford, Thursday at 3:15 PM

Full summit schedule

Don’t miss out

Get tickets for virtual and in-person access starting at $995. Limited availability. All attendees will have on-demand access to view sessions for 3 months post-event.

Save your seat

Ready to grow your business and excel in the connected age?

With our approach to digital transformation, we can help you improve organizational efficiency, drive customer engagement, and uncover new growth opportunities.

Get in touch

The post Digital Marketing for Financial Services Canada Summit, June 8-9, 2022 appeared first on Say Yeah!.

From November 8-10, we’ll be attending the Toronto Global Forum 2021.

Some of the sessions we’re excited for:

• Moving towards inclusive capitalism: how financial institutions can lead the way, with Guy Cormier
• The future of education in digital economy (panel)
• Redefining a new prosperity (panel)
• The mutual impacts between health and the economy, with Anna Van Poucke and Robert B. Koopman
• Diversity and inclusion encompassing economic opportunities, with Wes Hall

Discover the full program

Register today to get access to this jam-packed event

Tickets are free for virtual-only access. In-person tickets start at $700.

Register here

The post Toronto Global Forum 2021, Redefining a New Prosperity, November 8-10, 2021 appeared first on Say Yeah!.

As individuals, we’ve adapted our behaviour to give ample space to passers-by, and expanded our vocabulary to include ‘social distancing’ faster than crafty sewers can stitch facemasks.

As we peer into our colleagues’ homes from our new home offices, or share our gratitude for frontline workers, we reassess our relationship with work, and our work’s meaning in the world. Unwittingly, and for the better, this has made us all see what an inclusive approach to work looks like.

For the fortunate white-collar workers who remain employed, videoconferencing and other online tools make working from home the new normal. Unlike most ‘long-game’ transformations with labour—from safety standards to embracing diversity—this change has been abrupt and drastic. We’ve seen the ‘softer side’ of previously faceless institutions and once stoic spokespeople.

The smartest leaders have used this turbulent time to exhibit empathy and explore opportunities in this crisis. While this is no time for ‘egos or logos,’ the pandemic offers time to reflect on how to improve our workflows, hone technological solutions, and better share information and resources.

Whether we witness sign-language interpreters alongside political leaders at press conferences, or appreciate the simplicity of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)’s online application forms, we’ve become acutely aware of the need for clarity, consistency, and inclusivity.

Like all adaptations, we must first accept this reality before we can thrive in what will be a fundamentally reshaped global economy. For organizations, new practices must engage, encourage, and enable all staff, partners, and patrons. These are all principles of inclusive design.

Inclusive design goes beyond accessible services and accommodations. It recognizes an individual’s complex and ever-changing experience and needs.

A familiar example is the sloped curb on the corner of a sidewalk. Initially developed for wheelchair accessibility, this accommodation also benefits parents with strollers, or someone with sore knees—and many others with similar needs.

The same happened with video captions, which make accented speakers easier to understand or keeps our watching from disturbing others around us, but which were initially created to unlock content for the deaf or hard of hearing.

As millions more remote workers experience an upsurge in empathy, it’s time to harness this shifting perspective to create an inclusive approach to delivering products and services. Innumerable studies have proven that to uncover new markets and break through with innovative products, a diverse network of stakeholders and colleagues is key.

The natural extension of this is for more leaders to embrace inclusive design. This means accepting the complexity of the market and the variability of individuals, and connecting intentionally with diverse audiences.

To lead with real insight and innovation, we must abandon the myth of the ‘average’ person.

Going forward, people will expect adaptable, accessible, efficient, and inclusive solutions. This includes ongoing accommodations for remote work, online access, and a more thoughtful consideration of our shifting needs as we move between home, office, and the many ever-changing stages of our lives.

We’ve never experienced anything like this in our world’s history. Now is the time for leaders to embrace this unique opportunity, tap into our growing empathy, and realize the capability of their teams to deliver more inclusive products and services.

Not sure how to get started with an inclusive approach to digital transformation?

From our inclusive public sector work to our insurance, banking, and other private sector work, we continue to develop our inclusive design practice and bring impactful service design and product strategy outcomes to the organizations and communities we work with. Let’s use the unprecedented change we’re facing today to continue to deliver more inclusive products and services for tomorrow.

Get in touch

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1. Common digital transformation practices
2. The 150 year old myth that’s screwing up your service model and product strategy
3. The three levels of inclusive maturity
4. Level 1: Recruit a diverse team
5. Level 2: Establish a welcoming corporate culture
6. Level 3: Design inclusive products and services
7. What can you do to level up your inclusive maturity?

Common digital transformation practices

As digital transformation has been an increasing enterprise and public sector priority over the past decade, we’ve been charting industry-wide progress in meeting digital transformation objectives across both operational and consumer-centric areas of service. Working with organizations across myriad industries over the past decade, from enterprise to startups, public sector to not-for-profits, we’ve seen some common patterns emerge in how prepared and capable organizations are when it comes to digital transformation and digital excellence. A key part of our service design and product strategy work is executing an organizational digital maturity assessment. By measuring the digital maturity of an organization, we can gauge where challenges in planning, decision-making, and execution can be expected, and work with this knowledge to support improving service delivery and customer experience.

For years this has formed the basis of our work in helping organizational “level up” in the processes they use to develop more capable teams and improved product and service outcomes. But this is not enough.

Digital and technology literacy training, service design and product strategy processes, and mapping organizational ecosystems and markets, however mature these processes may be, have historically been modelled based on an 150 year old myth.

This presents a challenge for organizations of all backgrounds when they’re growing their digital capability through training and hiring, and continuing age-old practices that underdeliver value.

So let’s take a brief look at this myth and how it’s impacting your product and service offerings.

The 150 year old myth that’s screwing up your service model and product strategy

There’s a commonly held tenet that by designing for the “average” person we can serve 80% of the market. That we need to focus on the “average” and avoid the edge cases for efficiency and scale.

Why is this a fallacy? Simply put: because there is no average person.

As a species, we have never looked like, been built like, or acted like any kind of average. Certainly, societal ideals and standards of behaviour lent a false credibility to the average fallacy over the decades.

But as we have accelerated our geographic and cultural mobility toward multiculturalism, pluralism, and mixed relationships, the lines have been radically blurred from those legacy ideals.

And an increasingly self-aware society blurs those lines even further in recognizing gender identifies, neurodiversity, and other characteristics and behaviours. Characteristics that move us so beyond a possible average that we can hardly justify grouping people into any kind of archetype or persona.

“Personas often contain a compilation of ‘average’ characteristics that, put together, actually represent no one.” ~ Margaret Price, Kill Your Personas, Microsoft Design, 2018

This is made all the more complex because, even as individuals, we are hardly static in our own behaviour, beliefs, and identities, which can change by mood, life status, or simply day to day needs.

Microsoft’s Inclusive Design Persona Spectrum highlighting different states of being. Across touch, sight, hearing, and speaking, every one of us can have permanent, temporary, or situational changes in ability. Understanding and designing with these variables in mind helps us deliver products and services for everyone.

This means that when we design for the average we are increasingly designing for no one. That impacts the quality, capability, and credibility of our products and services themselves, how we articulate value to markets, and how markets perceive those products and services.

For a deeper dive, read the full “average” fallacy article

Thankfully, there is a better way. And that is to work to serve the diversity of the markets your organization operates in by thinking individuals over archetypes: moving beyond the average, beyond the archetype, and working toward understanding all the nuances of individuals. Embracing fluidity, intersectionality, and a diversity of market. That’s what diversity, equity, and inclusion helps organizations achieve, and that’s why it’s the only path to effectively serving diverse markets and the individuals who are a part of them.

To get there, you need to work through a series of processes that are baked into our DNA to reshape your organization and outcomes. But before you make the leap to process and activities, understanding where your organizational maturity sits across the three levels of inclusive maturity is the knowledge you’ll need to highlight gaps, opportunities, and priorities. In other words, as much as it’s important to uncover and track an organization’s digital maturity, so too is it essential to understand and shape your organization’s inclusive maturity.

So let’s look at those three levels of maturity on the path to diversity, equity, and inclusion excellence.

The three levels of inclusive maturity

Many companies have embarked on their own diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) journey. With plenty of data and examples of how more diverse workforces can deliver more effective products and services, for-profit and public sector leaders have been working increasingly hard to bring these capabilities to their organizations.

In a study done by Boston Consulting Group, “companies with more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenues due to innovation”- World Economic Forum

In addition, when companies are more diverse, they inherently are more likely to innovate outside of existing solutions, driving significant increases in revenue for the company, and better product and service outcomes. Companies with above-average diversity had nearly 20% more average revenue created from innovation. 

When organizations begin their DEI journey, they typically begin a 3-step journey across three levels of maturity, which is not to oversimplify this journey. There are challenges at each level and they cover distinct organizational units, each requiring leadership support to achieve success.

Let’s look at these three levels of maturity in detail.

Level 1: Recruit a diverse team

This is a natural place for an organization to start their DEI initiatives. When leadership understands the value of establishing a more diverse workforce, recruiting is tasked with reaching out to a broader spectrum of candidates, and the path to inclusive maturity begins.

The objective: you have a homogeneous workforce, therefore you look to hire a diverse workforce.

From a process point of view, your organization will establish inclusive recruiting processes to fill gaps in the current mix of employees. This involves being intentional about how you present the organization, job opportunities, and how and where you post opportunities. This will include reaching out to organizations, communities, recruiters, and established educational institutions to connect with a broader range of potential recruits. You may go so far as supporting or establishing additional training and youth programs to support a next generation of diverse talent. You will absolutely review hiring practices, tackle topics like unconscious biases, and be considerate of wage gaps and opportunities for people who do not identify within the makeup of your currently homogenous team.

The challenge: you hire a diverse group of people, but they are not welcome within your culture.

Hitting this Level 1 wall is a big hit to your organization. All the effort that’s gone into recruiting and hiring practices is undermined if those hires aren’t supported once they start work.

Diverse employees who are brought into homogenous cultures last an average of 6 months before they need to get the heck out of there!

Think of how this impacts an organization: recruiting efforts are costly; then you train to get people up to speed. You bring excellent talent into the organization and have the opportunity to learn and improve from their experience and unique perspective in your otherwise homogenous culture, but they are not only not set up to success, but chances are you’ll lose them within months.

Not only is there the cost of a failed hire, but there’s opportunity cost here in failing to deliver product and service enhancements because you lose that expertise and perspective.Worse still, you risk losing access to entire employee markets if your corporate culture is deemed toxic for some people.

As a result, you must mature into establishing a welcoming corporate culture.

Level 2: Establish a welcoming corporate culture

There’s a natural progression here. As you hire more diverse employees into a homogenous culture, you need to establish protocols and processes to support this more diverse group of individuals. When people can bring their authentic selves to work, have the comfort to be themselves, and feel a sense of belonging, they can excel. More importantly, they can dramatically impact the capability of the team to deliver exceptional products and services.

A report on the importance of belonging in the workplace noted that ” Feelings of belonging have been related to a variety of positive work behaviours and, for some employees, can be an even greater motivator than compensation. In addition, scientists claim that humans cannot be healthy—emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or physically—without feeling connected to others. Consequently, implementing belonging strategies will result in organizational benefits.” ~ Feminuity, “What about belonging?” report

There’s been a lot of tech community work, research, and practice around efforts to establish processes around developing more inclusive work cultures. Internal organizational priorities within Human Resources—and the advent of the Chief Diversity Officer and related roles—have led to significant capability and focus in achieving inclusive cultures within organizations.

The objective: through inclusive workplace practices you develop a more welcoming and inclusive work environment.

This has helped address the retention issues of Level 1 focused organizations. Where inclusive workplace environments retain diverse talent and offer an opportunity for people from many varied and intersectional backgrounds to succeed.

In fact, established diverse product and service teams are both empowered to and successfully shape product and service. However, it’s not enough to attempt to build a diverse organization in the hopes that the outcome is a product or service that meets the requirements of a diverse market.

The issue being that even with a more diverse team, two factors come into play:

1. Teams default to designing for themselves. The more diverse your team, the more likely they’ll develop products and services that serve a greater number of people because there are different voices, different experiences, and different perspectives at the table.
2. But the complexity of the market means that you can’t hope to hire a diverse enough product and service team to serve all the facets of the individuals that make up that market by relying on your team to naturally meet all those individual and intersectional expectations.

Serving the varied individuals that make up a broadly diverse market doesn’t happen by accident, it requires intention to move beyond an internal team and connect with the people the organization serves directly and authentically. And that’s where Level 3 of inclusive maturity becomes a necessity.

Level 3: Design inclusive products and services

Level 3 is all about intention. There’s a clear segue from recruiting to establishing a welcoming workplace. You’re focusing on strengthening, growing, and scaling your internal capabilities in order to deliver better products and services. But the very nature of this relationship between Level 1 and Level 2 highlights the gap: it’s insular. You’re focused on your internal culture, and missing how your organization manifests itself to the market.

The key to Level 3 is shifting perspective from inside the organization to who the market is and being intentional about engaging with the diverse individuals who make up that market.

The objective: by establishing practices to engage in an authentic manner with the diverse makeup of your market, you can provide products and services that capture more market share.

The requirements to achieve this objective include having a comprehensive approach to delivering products and services that focuses on usability, accessibility, and inclusion. Together, these core values ensure that no user is left behind, and your products and services thrive by serving a diverse market.

Usability: ensuring a frictionless, engaging, and delightful experience.

Accessibility: ensuring there are no barriers to serving someone.

Inclusion: welcoming diverse market segments to engage authentically with your organization.

The challenge: product teams have to break the cycle of designing for the average and find ways to connect with and serve diverse individuals.

Breaking the cycle of designing for the average through personas and archetypes is a challenging effort for most product teams as it goes against much of what has been taught and learned. The best product and service teams have taken steps through methodologies such as use cases, jobs-to-be-done, and the behavioural objectives and outcomes of users. But this still is not enough if there aren’t processes to welcome the broad spectrum of the market into the discussion.

Pinterest has expanded its makeup search results to include a skintone selector, ensuring that people can narrow makeup searches to those products that work for their skin. “This feature is a result of our technical and Inclusion & Diversity teams working closely together.” Learn more about how this works with this post from Pinterest’s Laksh Bhasin.

Diverse product and service teams have the added benefit of already having some breadth of the market in the room by virtue of the different voices and perspectives they already have in the room, but if the tendency remains to just design for the voices in the room, the market will still remain underserved.

That’s why it’s so essential to follow inclusive design practices that go beyond Level 1 and 2 DEI objectives. And be intentional about connecting with and learning from the diverse people who make up your market.

What can you do to level up your inclusive maturity?

By implementing inclusive practices within your organization, from recruiting to workplace culture to inclusive design practices, you’ll be prepared to serve more diverse markets more effectively.

Understanding your organization’s inclusive maturity at each level is the knowledge you need to uncover the gaps, opportunities, and priorities that will help you connect and capture the full scale of the market you serve. This knowledge sets you up for being more capable and intentional with your DEI strategy.

Organizational assessments and inclusive design practices are baked into our DNA.

Let’s talk about how we can work together to level up your inclusive maturity.

Get in touch

The post The next phase of organizational transformation: inclusive maturity appeared first on Say Yeah!.

In this upcoming episode of the Industry Experts interview series, Say Yeah sits down with Marcus Tzaferis, CEO of Cannect, leaders in automating home financing in ways that help Canadians borrow for less.

Cannect aims to disrupt the mortgage and lending industry by introducing more transparency and providing unbiased lending through automation.

“If we can communicate better and use technology better to identify the needs of our borrowers, we know we will win them over.”

~Marcus Tzaferis

Stay tuned for the full interview with Marcus Tzaferis as we take a deep dive into the Canadian mortgage and lending landscape and see how Cannect is prioritizing customer experience in order to establish a foothold in the market.

More interviews coming soon!

We have a great line up of Industry Experts interviews with some of the top thought leaders across financial services, insurance, and more.

Stay tuned for:

• Mark Dowds, CEO, Trov
• Dani Gagnon, CEO, Dani G Inc
• John Schrag, Director of Experience, Autodesk
• …and many more!

Be the first to hear when each interview is released.

Sign up to our mailing list to be among the first to hear about our next Industry Experts interview feature.

The post Coming soon: Say Yeah sits down with Marcus Tzaferis from Cannect appeared first on Say Yeah!.

In celebration of Say Yeah’s 10-year anniversary, we gathered experts from our team and trusted service providers to answer your burning digital transformation questions.

Held at The Spoke Club in downtown Toronto, the event featured a cross-section of industry experts, from digital strategy to team building, public relations to research, content to building a culture of innovation.

The early evening started off with cocktails, hors d’ourves, and great conversation. Attendees and experts got to know each other over their favourite end of day drinks. Then, it was time for the ask-an-expert breakout sessions.

Our lineup of digital transformation questions were facilitated through the following topics:

• Challenges in bringing digital excellence to your team with Lee Dale, Say Yeah!
• Digital foresight with Janice de Jong, Say Yeah!
• Building your team with Trina Boos, Boost Agents
• PR for emerging products and services with Morgan Craig, Eighty-Eight
• From research to actionable insights with Nick Drew, Fuse Insights 
• Content in the digital age with Tara Hunt and Carlos Pacheco, Truly Social
• Coaching towards innovation with Mark Kuznicki, The Moment

Attendees alternated between breakout groups to get a dose of insight and ask their burning digital transformation questions across each topic. Others were comfy on the outdoor couches whilst in in-depth conversation.

Nearing the end of the event was a defining moment for the Say Yeah team. CEO Lee Dale shared his congratulations with Say Yeah President Matthew Rintoul and the rest of the team for reaching 10 years at Say Yeah! Hearty thanks to the clients who got us there and those who joined us for the evening followed.

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“The design industry has changed so much over the past 10 years and we’ve had three major arcs in our business over that time. I couldn’t be happier with where we’ve taken the business, both in being able to serve our local community through impactful work and helping our clients reach new heights by coaching them towards digital excellence.”

~Lee Dale, CEO 

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The sound of toasting champaign glasses filled the patio as everyone cheered with excitement.

To conclude the night, attendees relaxed beneath the setting sun and enjoyed the ongoing conversation with their peers.

Don’t miss out on our next Disrupting with Digital event.

Sign up to our mailing list to be among the first to hear about our next Disrupting with Digital event.

The post Say Yeah celebrates 10 years by answering your burning digital transformation questions, Sept. 19 appeared first on Say Yeah!.