To be honest, the call from the warehouse company wasn't one I was thrilled to get.
It was still in the early days of my work in XR, and I wanted to build grand cinematic pieces -- not training for forklift drivers. Still, I also wanted to make money, and figured that forklift training couldn't be too hard to build. But what I didn't know was that this training would radically rethink the way I approached every project I've built since (and if you're following my case studies, you know there's a lot of them).
I met with the warehouse managers and they told me their problem -- since they redesigned their warehouses, forklift accidents had increased dramatically. They wanted training on how to use the forklifts, with the idea that drivers were undertrained or had forgotten their earlier training. It all sounded straightforward enough, and I decided the next step would be to convene a group of drivers to see where the shortcomings in their knowledge base was so we could focus on those skills.
I am so glad I did this, rather than just rolling out some generic training, because what the drivers told me changed everything. To a person, they knew how to operate the forklift. What they didn't know was how to be spatially aware and spot hazards -- they had previously learned how to do their jobs in a warehouse with much more space and fewer risks, and never had to do too much looking out. So the issue was not one of skill, it was one of behavior -- anticipating hazards and working around them.
So what we built had nothing to do with skills -- it was all about spotting potential risks and knowing what to look for. Had we built a generic forklift training, nothing would have changed. But the training we did build meant a 68% decrease in accidents in the first year it was used.
Building great XR products doesn't start with technology -- it starts with asking questions and pushing people to diagnose real problems. Everyone interested in building in this space needs to make sure they are thoroughly researching and not just selling the first thing that clients ask for, because they often don't really know. If you're interested in learning more about how to do that, drop me a line.