At first, her job was to get lots of new courses onto the platform. Then she switched to didactics to make learning on the platform even more effective. Later, she moved into marketing. Most recently, she returned to her old position as "Head of Content". Lena has changed positions four times in four years. Lena explains how she did it and why it made sense for Masterplan.com.
Lena, how did you get started at Masterplan?
I already knew the founders very well from their previous company "meinprakitkum.de/meineausbildung.de". When I started at Masterplan as Head of Content in 2018, the basic course for digital transformation with Rolf Schrömgens, Frank Thelen and Co. had just been published. This course quickly became very successful and was something of a breakthrough for us. My task was to scale this initial success, i.e. to produce equally high-quality content in series and to build up a team for this.
What was the reason behind switching your position at the company the first time around?
We had created the basis for producing "Netflix"-like courses on various topics such as rhetoric or conflict resolution in a short time. However, there was still room for improvement in the question of how we convey knowledge in such a way that it sticks and how learners can also apply this knowledge in their professional practice.
Because I am also personally very interested in the topic of learning didactics, I brought myself into the conversation as "Head of Education". In this role, we introduced course assignments, systematically improved the questions, and expanded our approach to training companies on how they can produce excellent content even with small resources.
Then came probably the most radical change – you joined the marketing team!
Yes and no. The role in the Customer Journey department largely involved classic marketing tasks, but was project-based and overarching. One of our unique selling points is that learners learn more and more effectively with Masterplan than with other learning platforms. My job was to build on this strength and identify exactly where we still have room for improvement. This was, for example, revising our website to reflect our new software focus, but also user communication to suggest the best new courses to learners via email.
The exciting thing here was to work with many cross-functional teams from all areas of Masterplan to make our learning experience even more holistic than it already is. But: My heart has simply always beaten for good content. And that's why I became "Head of Content" again.
What have you learned on your path to becoming Head of Content again?
The deep understanding of learning theories and our complete customer journey helped me get a much clearer view of the challenges in the content department. When you've worked with so many different departments, you're much better at bringing your own team together with other parts of the business, sorting out problems and understanding and incorporating different internal needs.
What was one of your biggest achievements so far?
My greatest personal success is a change in perspective: I no longer measure my value by whether I myself can write the best text, create the most beautiful concept or the most efficient strategy, but to what extent I can enable others to go beyond themselves.
For me, it's great to see what great things can happen every day when you have a team that works together in such an independent, self-reflective, and ambitious way to design great learning experiences for other people.
When did things go wrong and what did you learn from it?
Looking back, I would do two things differently: First, take more time to support younger team members and develop their potential. I'm a big fan of giving people a lot of responsibility from day one, but I didn't always give them the guidance they needed to not only challenge them, but also help them grow.
Second: keep it simple, stupid. It's definitely harder to explain something in simple terms or create something that's easy to use than it is to cite all sorts of research. Clarity in communication comes before stylistic beauty.
What is your biggest lesson so far?
If you want to grow, you need a change of perspective. For some, that may mean changing companies. But I think it can be particularly appealing to make that change of perspective within a company. That way you can grow on new tasks, but at the same time get even more out of your internal network and your company-specific knowledge. It's kind of a shame that that's exactly what gets lost every time you change companies.
Do you think this will be your last job change?
You should never say never. Nevertheless, I feel like I am where I am supposed to be for now and I'm looking forward to accompanying the team over the next few years.
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Masterplan Team
