Richard WashamSenior Instructional Designer

Résumé

Senior instructional designer, 10+ years developing eLearning for global organizations. Works in ADDIE and SAM, from needs analysis through launch and measurement. Manages stakeholder groups and contracted design vendors.

Davenport, IA · Remote · washam.rich@gmail.com · linkedin.com/in/richard-washam

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Experience

Visa Inc. Senior Learning Designer

Feb 2023 – Present

Design and deliver enterprise learning for global product and sales organizations.

Global Sales Enablement Series — 10 modules, 700 specialist sellers

  • Product manager and lead designer for a ten-module series on fraud prevention and cybersecurity products, mapped to Visa’s sales methodology; 700 specialist sellers trained, average NPS 70, 70% completion on non-mandatory training.
  • Cut production time 30% in three months, through an 80-task project plan per module, enforced three-day stakeholder review windows, and contracted design capacity. Other designers adopted the plan as the team default.
  • Managed two contracted designers building Rise modules from my storyboards; ran performance conversations and reviews until both met brand, editorial, and learner-experience standards.

Product Lifecycle Management Cohort — six weeks, 1,400 learners

  • Lead learning experience designer and LMS administrator for a six-week cohort program, shipped in three months on a platform new to the company, delivered in waves against a population of 5,000+ product managers and a year-end adoption target.
  • 87% completion in the first wave of 1,400 learners, NPS 54. Led post-training focus groups to evaluate the program. The program was later adapted into synchronous onboarding and is now required for all new product practitioners.
  • Built applied exercises around an identified adoption barrier; produced eight Synthesia videos and prototyped a Microsoft Copilot agent to answer learner questions. Learners earned a Credly badge upon completing the exercises and final assessment.

Tokenization Sales Training — 400+ sellers, global markets

  • Ran a needs analysis and reframed a single-product request into a program covering two tokenization products plus the underlying technology, then secured approval for the expanded scope.
  • Delivered in two months with no subject matter expert available, learning the material from dozens of source documents; 400+ sellers completed globally, NPS 69, 62% increase in selling confidence measured pre/post.
  • Built diagrams mapping the sell-in path for both products, wrote an editorial guide unifying terminology across two products, and consolidated 200+ feedback items into a single tool to find patterns across sources.

Other Visa work

  • Replit AI Policy Training. Course on Visa’s AI usage policy; 800+ employees completed it as a prerequisite for a license.
  • Accessibility testing tool. Built with Claude Code and Playwright. Evaluates HTML courses against the 20 highest-priority checks in Visa’s accessibility requirements, returns a compliance score, and automates roughly half the test suite.

Richard Washam LLC Instructional Designer / eLearning Strategist

Feb 2022 – Present

Own consultancy, running alongside employment.

Consultancy clients

  • Visa Inc. (2022–2023, before I joined as staff). Lead designer for the Visa Product Showcase, a two-month competition where 200 product managers submitted pitch videos.
  • Addison Group. Four-module manager soft skills series with animated explainers and simulations.
  • Johnson & Johnson (2022). Six-month freelance engagement building training on Johnson & Johnson’s Product Quality Vigilance (PQV) complaint-intake system, in Articulate Storyline.

Try It Now Training LLC Senior Instructional Designer

Sep 2015 – Mar 2022

Chicago, IL.

Agency client work

  • iHeartMedia. Lead multimedia developer over five years, roughly a dozen trainings, including a full re-versioning of the ethics compliance training and a multi-hour FDA compliance course.
  • Gilead Sciences. Veeva Vault governance platform training.
  • Converted 20+ instructor-led courses to asynchronous formats using Storyline, Rise, and Camtasia.

Tools

Primary tools

  • Articulate Storyline 360
  • Articulate Rise
  • Claude Code
  • Copilot Studio
  • Synthesia
  • Vyond
  • LearnUpon
  • Cornerstone
  • Playwright
  • WCAG 2.2 AA

Everything else

GenAI and prototyping

  • Claude Design
  • Replit
  • Microsoft Copilot 365
  • ChatGPT
  • Adobe Firefly
  • Perplexity
  • Gemini Notebook

Multimedia

  • Camtasia
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Audacity
  • PowerPoint

Platforms

  • Degreed
  • Intrepid
  • SharePoint
  • MS Office Suite

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts (minor: Information Technology) · Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL, 2005

Professional development: ADDIE/SAM, adult learning theory, multimedia learning principles, WCAG 2.2 AA