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March 3, 2025
•
Kate Udalova
When designing microlearning courses, I always stress the value of iterative improvement. Today, I'd like to share a personal story of practicing what I preach through a self-imposed challenge: creating a Growth Mindset microlearning course in 15 minutes, then spending another 15 minutes refining it. The results surprised even me, and the cognitive science behind the improvements reveals fascinating insights about how we learn.
I set my timer and rushed to get the core content down.
Here's what I created on the first pass:
📌 The foundation of great management: the growth mindset (Version 1)
During my coffee break, I realized several things:
With a fresh cup and fresh eyes, I transformed the content:
📌 Discover how the world's best managers use growth mindset to transform team potential (Version 2)
In this analysis, I'm focusing purely on content transformation and cognitive optimization. While the final version of the course got a beautiful visual treatment from our design team later, that's a separate process. The improvements discussed here are all about content structure, messaging, and learning psychology — elements that any Instructional Designer can optimize regardless of their design resources.
Version 1:
The foundation of great management: the growth mindset.
Ready to supercharge your leadership skills?
Version 2:
Discover how the world's best managers use growth mindset to transform team potential.
Ready to join their ranks?
Your leadership evolution starts now.
In my first version, I fell into the classic expert trap — jumping straight to definition without creating emotional buy-in. The cognitive science principle of primacy effect tells us that first impressions are crucial for engagement. My refined version uses:
Version 1:
Growth Mindset 101:
Believe that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.
Talent is just the starting point!
Version 2:
Imagine every challenge as a stepping stone, not a roadblock.
That's the growth mindset — where your team's abilities aren't set in stone, but ready to be sculpted through effort, strategy, and persistence.
The initial version committed the classic "curse of knowledge" sin — I assumed the concept would be inherently engaging. The refined version applies the cognitive principle of concrete imagery ("stepping stone," "sculpted") to create mental hooks. This aligns with dual coding theory — when we process information both verbally and visually, retention improves dramatically.
Version 1:
Key growth mindset phrases:
✅ "Let's learn from this mistake."
✅ "This is challenging, but we'll figure it out."
Version 2:
Your Growth Mindset Toolkit:
🌱 Replace "I can't" with "How can I?"
🌱 Turn "This isn't working" into "What else can we try?"
🌱 Transform "We're stuck" into "We're figuring it out"
My initial version listed examples, but the refined version creates transformation pairs. This applies the cognitive principle of comparative learning — we understand concepts better when we see direct before/after relationships. The plant emoji (🌱) also creates a consistent visual metaphor for growth.
Version 1:
Key growth mindset phrases:
✅ "Let's learn from this mistake."
✅ "This is challenging, but we'll figure it out."
✅ "What strategies can we try next?"
❌ Avoid: "You're just not good at this."
Version 2:
The Magic Word: "Yet"
Transform any roadblock by adding "yet":
"We haven't mastered this process... yet"
"The team isn't meeting targets... yet"
"I'm not an expert at this... yet"
Watch how this tiny word opens huge possibilities!
This transformation exemplifies a core principle of microlearning: it's not about saying less, it's about making what you say more immediately actionable and memorable. Single focus ("yet") makes implementation dead-simple — just add one word!
Our team testing showed that learners were 3x more likely to actually remember the "yet" technique compared to remembering generic positive phrases. The simplicity made it stick.
Version 1:
Rate your team's growth mindset
How brightly does your team's growth mindset shine?
Use the star scale below
Version 2:
Growth Mindset Check
How would you rate your team's current growth mindset culture?
⭐️ = Fixed mindset dominates
⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Growing but room for improvement
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Thriving growth mindset
The key improvement here was removing the "meta-language" (instructions about the instructions) and letting the scale speak for itself. In our team testing, completion rates for this assessment jumped by 64% with the simplified version.
Remember: your assessment scales and action prompts are not just evaluation tools - they're learning moments in themselves. Design them with the same care you'd give to your core content.
What fascinates me most about this exercise is how much improved with just 15 additional minutes of focused refinement. The key wasn’t adding more content, but rather:
Remember, we're not just creating content — we're crafting learning experiences that change behavior. Sometimes it takes a second look at our own work to really deliver on that promise.
As a perfectionist, I could keep refining this course forever. However, I've learned to use these checkpoints to know when to stop:
When these boxes are checked, it's time to ship and gather real user feedback.
You can put these principles into practice right now in 7taps (100% FREE). Challenge yourself to this 15+15 exercise and see how your content transforms.
🎄 Bonus: Exclusive festive Christmas themes are already unlocked — perfect timing to make your microlearning content both effective AND delightfully seasonal!
