Designing High-Performance Communication Products
May 7 to June 25 from 2:30 to 3:30 Eastern
100% online
Stop Hoping for Impact. Design For It.
You put so much time, effort, and energy into planning, executing, and disseminating communication products, hoping they’ll result in uptake.
But even when you co-create those products with your audience, there’s no guarantee they’ll drive the outcomes you envision.
You need more than input from knowledge users and co-creators.
You need a reliable, repeatable design process to bridge the gap between knowledge expression and audience response.
The Trouble with the Typical Approach
You're already thinking strategically about the messages you want to convey and the system-level results you want to achieve. You're probably also conscientiously engaging knowledge users in your processes for creating communication products.
But are you intentionally designing those products to succeed?
Are you developing specific criteria for usability and effectiveness and measuring your progress toward them?
Or are you building documents, presentations, videos, training sessions, and so on and then evaluating their efficacy at the end of the project?
If you don't have clear design standards for defining, evaluating, and refining communication products, then precious time and resources may be slipping through your fingers. And the potential impact of your research could be diluted as a result.
Introducing a Simpler Path to Success
In our new 8-week program, you’ll become proficient in a streamlined, repeatable method that removes the guesswork from creating high-performance communication products.
You’ll learn how to:
Design for impact from day one instead of hoping for it later
Predict audience reactions by using a perspective-taking approach
Unlock creativity by focusing on outcomes and embracing constraints
Generate multiple design concepts by using rapid ideation methods
Develop a focused design brief to guide the process of building a communication product or suite of products
Create a compelling communication product tailored to your audience and your desired outcomes
Assess the likely reception of your communication product before you release it into the world by using a performance-based assessment tool
Engage your audience in co-designing and co-evaluating communication products as well as co-creating them
A Collaborative, Community Experience
What sets this program apart:
Guided help with an authentic communication product. Week by week, you’ll apply what you learn to a genuine communication product you’re working on. You’ll:
Develop a comprehensive design brief
Draft a communication product
Test the communication product In Real Life (IRL) or with your colleagues in the program
Revise the communication product based on the feedback you’ve received
Supportive learning community. Work alongside peers who are facing similar challenges and learn from their experiences and insights.
Multiple opportunities for feedback. Receive constructive guidance on your authentic communication product from program facilitator Dr. Dawn Henwood as well as from your peers. Take advantage of group coaching sessions and individual laser coaching appointments (20 minutes) with Dawn.
Reusable tools. You’ll receive a suite of tools that will enable you to repeat the design process on your own, including a design brief template and a performance-based assessment tool.
Who this Course is for:
Researchers seeking to amplify their work’s real-world impact
Knowledge mobilization specialists
Communication professionals in research organizations
Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows interested in exploring careers outside the academy
Anyone responsible for translating research into action
Program Structure:
Eight Weeks to More Impactful Communication
Anchoring
Week 1
Topics
Getting to know one another
Understanding the impact-first approach
Online Session
Networking, combined
with a teaching session (1 hr)
Week 2
Topics
Getting inside the head and heart of your audience
Setting audience-focused outcomes
Online Session
Teaching session (1 hr)
Visioning
Week 3
Topics
Rapid ideation methods
Online Session
Teaching session (1 hr)
Week 4
Topics
Creating a compelling design brief
Online Session
Teaching session (1 hr)
Executing
Week 5
Topics
Independent work on communication product
Online Session
Independent work on communication product
Week 6
Topics
Independent work on communication product
Online Session
Coaching clinic; participants can book
an appointment with Dawn (20 mins)
Refining
Week 7
Topics
Testing your communication product IRL (In Real Life)
Testing your product using performance-based assessment
Online Session
Group coaching session; practice assessing a sample communication product and share their product for assessment (1.5 hrs)
Week 8
Topics
Reflecting on your progress
Creating a personal action plan for implementing and building on what you’ve learned
Online Session
Group coaching session (1 hr)
Program Facilitator
Dr. Dawn Henwood is a former English professor who understands both the arcane delights of research and the challenges of translating complex concepts into language and visuals that resonate with lay readers.
For more than 20 years, she’s been helping experts from a wide range of fields communicate with clarity and confidence, not for the sake of producing content but to drive action and results.
Dawn is the author two books on business and technical communication: A Writing Guide for IT Professionals (Oxford University Press) and Business Writing for Innovators and Change-Makers (Business Expert Press). She established the Technical Writing Certificate program offered through Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Open Learning. She has also designed, delivered, and managed a five-level writing program for IT consultants in a global professional services firm.
In the area of research mobilization and commercialization, Dawn has collaborated with such clients as the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, ResearchNB, Invest NS, Volta, Venn Innovation, One Yukon Coalition, and several Atlantic universities. She is currently working with one of those institutions on a microcredential in communication for knowledge mobilization.
What people say about learning with Dawn
Dawn is an incredible KT practitioner and educator! Her programming is unique in that her KT tools are designed to be discipline agnostic. Regardless of what field of research you're looking to generate impact from, Clarity Studios [now Clarity Connect] can help you translate your work to the audience you're trying to reach. I've had the privilege of collaborating with her in the delivery of KT education for graduate students, but have also benefitted from her workshops for more experienced researchers. Bottom line, if you are a researcher of any stage or field looking to generate impact from your work, Dawn is someone with specialized expertise you want at your side!
Kate Ellis, Senior Policy Advisor, Government of Alberta
I sought out Dawn's coaching and Knowledge Mobilization expertise for a talk I was giving with both subject matter and audience being extremely important to me. Dawn's guidance was invaluable, allowing me to narrow my focus and ensure I was giving practical and usable information. She gave me direction for added research sources related to my topic, and the feedback from my session was more positive than I could have hoped.
Alison Prescott, CAE, Program Coordinator, Canadian Association of Research Administrators
I was impressed by how much we learned just from the first half-day session. It was also great to get personalized comments about my work. Dawn pointed out some things that were directly related to my presentations so that I could improve on them right away.
The experience was amazing. I feel much more confident, and I feel like I have more skills to do presentations to people who aren't in academia.
Sandrine Poulin, MA/PhD student in Experimental Psychology
Ready to Design for Impact?
We usually deliver programs like this for a minimum of $500 per person. For the pilot of this program, we're offering you a special price of just $350 plus HST.
You'll get a hands-on, personalized learning experience that includes:
Four one-hour teaching sessions
Three group coaching sessions
One laser coaching session (20 mins to discuss your draft communication product with Dawn)
Suite of tools (PDFs) to guide you through the process of designing impactful communication products
BONUS access to our new Multi-Media Toolkit, Writing Winning Grant Applications, and our new Flash Course, Strategic Storytelling for Knowledge Mobilization, while you’re participating in the program
FREE course seat for a doctoral student or post-doctoral fellow (once you sign up, you'll receive an email with a secret registration link)
Take your learning to the next level by adding an in-depth, performance-based assessment of the final version of your communication product. The fee for this written assessment $150 plus HST.
Questions?
Please reach out to Dawn: dawn@clarityconnect.ca.