GrowthHub Starter Kit

GrowthHub Starter Kit is a self-initiated onboarding course designed for a fictional startup, built to showcase my full-cycle instructional design process using the ADDIE model.

The course aims to support new hires during their first week by providing clarity, confidence, and cultural alignment.

It simulates a real-world onboarding scenario where the learning experience is modular, interactive, and emotionally attuned, balancing information with empathy.

This project reflects my belief that onboarding isn't just about teaching procedures.

It's about helping people feel like they belong, from day one.

I took on this project as a solo Instructional Designer, responsible for the entire design and development process from start to finish.

This included:

• Conducting learner needs analysis based on a fictional startup context.

• Defining learning objectives aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy.

• Designing course structure, tone, and interactive learning flow.

• Writing content in a warm, clear, human-centered voice.

• Building the course directly in Rise 360, including visuals, quizzes, and learner reflection points.

• Creating all accompanying assets: learner profile, style guide, quiz settings, and evaluation form.

Through this project, I aimed to demonstrate my technical skills and my ability to design with empathy, strategy, and structure. These three pillars define how I approach every course.

The course is designed for newly hired employees at a fictional startup named GrowthHub, particularly those in their first 5 working days.

They may come from different backgrounds and teams, but they all share the same early-stage questions:

• "Where do I begin?

• Who do I talk to?

• How do things work around here?"

This onboarding experience is built to support those quiet, internal moments - when learners want clarity without feeling lost, want to contribute without overstepping, and most of all, want to feel like they truly belong.

It's designed with empathy for the “invisible” learning curve of joining a new team.

By the end of this course, new hires will be able to:

• Navigate GrowthHub’s key tools and communication channels confidently.

• Understand the company’s mission, values, and team structure.

• Complete their first task and communicate progress using GrowthHub’s workflows.

• Reach out for help effectively through the right support channels.

• Reflect on their onboarding experience and set a personal goal for growth.

These objectives were written using Bloom’s Taxonomy at the Understand, Apply, and Evaluate levels - aligned with the real cognitive and emotional tasks new hires face during their first week.

Instructional Design Strategy

• I applied the ADDIE model throughout the course, from learner analysis and goal mapping to content design, implementation, and evaluation.

• The course follows a modular structure, allowing learners to explore topics in short, focused lessons while progressing through a coherent journey. Each module builds on the previous one, not just in knowledge, but in confidence and connection.

• Activities were embedded to support active reflection, personal relevance, and first-week readiness, rather than passive content delivery.

Tone, Visual & Interaction Design

• The course voice was intentionally designed to be warm, clear, and empowering, avoiding corporate jargon while still maintaining professionalism.

• I used a conversational tone, subtle emojis, and simple visual metaphors to create a welcoming feel. Interactive blocks in Rise 360 (e.g., timelines, quizzes, accordions, sorting activities) were carefully chosen to match the content’s purpose, not just to look dynamic, but to support cognitive flow.

• The overall design balances structure and warmth, so learners feel guided without being spoon-fed.

• Articulate Rise 360 – Used as the primary authoring tool to design and build the full course experience, with a focus on modular, mobile-friendly learning.

• Articulate Content Library 360 – Sourced clean, consistent stock photos to maintain a cohesive visual style across lessons.

• Notion – For organizing the instructional design process, including learner analysis, course outline, tone & voice guide, and project documentation.

• Adobe Photoshop – Created branded visuals, course thumbnails, and promotional mockups to align with the startup aesthetic.

• Google Forms – Designed a custom course evaluation form to complete the ADDIE model with learner feedback.

• ChatGPT – Used for brainstorming ideas, refining language tone, and generating early content drafts with instructional intent.

Every tool was selected not just for convenience, but to support a seamless, well-documented learning experience from both the learner’s and designer’s perspectives.

Designing this course reminded me that good onboarding isn't about packing in more content - it's about creating space for clarity, confidence, and quiet momentum.

One of the most valuable things I learned was how to balance structure with tone. Rise 360 gives a clean framework, but the real challenge was writing in a way that felt warm, human, and non-patronizing, especially for adult learners starting a new job.

I also gained a deeper appreciation for the small moments: a well-placed emoji, a thoughtful quiz prompt, a sentence that says “you’re not alone.”

Those things don’t take extra tools, they take extra intention.

This project was not just a portfolio piece.

It was a practice in empathy, systems thinking, and designing with real people in mind.