In this conversation, a Lionakis Design Technology representative (Speaker A) and Christopher Parsons discuss the evolution of Lionakis’s annual Design Technology Bootcamp. Originally a 10‑week, 240‑hour in‑person program aimed at cloning the company’s Revit expertise, the bootcamp required new hires to be away from projects for three full days a week, included soft‑skill components, and relied heavily on instructor‑led click‑through demonstrations. Over time, the team recognized the high cost to project work and limited learning effectiveness, prompting a systematic reduction of content. The curriculum was trimmed to a focused 54‑hour program delivered in 1‑2 hour virtual sessions spread throughout the year. Training shifted from passive, step‑by‑step instruction to brief introductions followed by hands‑on exercises, embodying the “desirable difficulty” principle where learners must struggle and actively solve problems to retain knowledge. Participation in the Synthesis LMS beta allowed the team to pre‑record concise introductory messages, further reducing unnecessary tangents and improving instructional clarity. The overall narrative highlights a move toward efficient, learner‑centered training that balances project demands with skill development.
Chapters
So our Design Technology Bootcamp, it's our annual training program. So we've been doing it 12, 13 years now where we take a select group of individuals, usually representation from each market service office. We take them through this intermediate to advanced Revit training, and the goal is to have a network of people out in the studios that work on projects In DT, we are, we're all overhead and we can talk about, we can get in that more if we need. But though it just creates that network for us, eyes and ears out on the projects that help connect with us with DT. So when I was talking about the full days, that was actually in reference to like a, a new hire, average new hire for Revit for 3 full days. The beginning of bootcamp was 3 full days for 10 weeks straight. And so 240 hours. We were basically trying to clone ourselves a little bit in DT because that early adoption of Revit, and we just need more people to be able to work on these projects more efficiently and just know everything about Revit. And we even went through soft skills and we had a book club and everything. And it just, it was a lot. It was a lot to take people away from projects to begin with, let alone the effectiveness of the learning. And it was a lot for learning. So we crammed everything we could think of to teach someone how to know what we know in DT into those 10 weeks.
I mean, that's like 3 college course. It's a lot.
It was a lot. I look back and I'm so surprised that we went out the gate that way. It was definitely effective in so many ways, I'm sure, right? We developed those individuals. They became a part of our team. I'm sure they learned a lot, but it was a lot even from taking away from projects, investing that much time in people. If we wanted to repeat this year over year, did we really want to invest that much time and was it effective? So we just kept dialing it down, trimming the fat off of it. What do they really need to know? We don't need to clone ourselves. They just need to be effective in helping their projects. So we dialed down the curriculum and just became really focused and intentional about what we needed them to know and what outcome we were looking for. So over the years, it's been pretty consistent now at around 54 hours of training. Mm-hmm. Before the pandemic, we would still have everybody travel up to one office to be together. And because of the traveling, we would have to fit it into maybe a week at a time. Mm-hmm. And then the pandemic allowed us to be a little bit more flexible and rethink that we can do this virtually, therefore we can break it down further. Because I think we knew we should break it down, but some of the traveling and being together limited that. So since then it's been in 1 to 2 hour sessions spread across a few weeks and across the entire year for that boot camp cohort. And even within those 1 to 2 hour sessions, they started out with a lot of talking at them. And just showing them click by click by click what we're doing, and then maybe having them repeat it while we're doing it, which I, I recognized that at one point that they're following along with us during training, which means they're just repeating what they're seeing. Mm-hmm. And they're not really absorbing much of it at all. There needs to be a component of them working independently. And not repeating and mimicking. And so that led us to more of a talk a little bit and then have them work on an exercise. And the more we found their, their light bulbs were turning on, gears were moving as soon as they started to do the exercise. And even when we shortened the amount in the beginning where we're talking at them, we found immediately as soon as they started their exercise, they were like, wait, what, what did you just say? So, so even 15 minutes of talking was too much to each almost just need them to dive in and see what happens. But you need a little bit of something to get them going, to just set the stage that we're talking about this topic, you know, access that part of your brain and here's a little bit. Now here's an exercise.
There's a term in learning development called desirable difficulty, which I think is what you're getting at, right?
Yes.
Where you need to put them in a position where they have to struggle. 'Cause that's how they're gonna learn and remember.
Exactly.
Versus the thing you talked about, just clicking along and following Christina ain't gonna cut it for that.
No. No, no. So, so that started to really feel like something was working there with the exercises. And since then we've focused on exercises quite a bit. And, and now we're trying to deliver that message in the beginning as concisely as we can. We were part of the Synthesis LMS beta program. And, and we've started to develop online courses through our learning center, which allow us to prerecord that message in the beginning. And when we think about prerecording it, I, I listen back to, you know, we would always record those 1 to 2 hour sessions. I listen back and I think I really could have said that more clearly, more concisely. I went off on a tangent that they didn't need to know at that moment. Added a little bit more nuance that probably cluttered their brain as they're listening and trying to learn. So I cut all of that out and being able to pre-record that message has forced me to be more concise with it. And I'm finding that I'm, I can become a better instructor by doing that and being conscious of how much time I'm spending delivering that initial message.
