One of the most necessary elements in a successful coffee shop is a well trained barista. From learning how to prepare espressos to solid customer service, barista training is a vital part of any modern cafe.

In this training course, I designed step-by-step instructional content to help prepare new baristas to work at a local coffee shop. Here baristas learned history, coffee preparation methods, and received customer service training.

Note to hiring managers: This is a fully developed course with a lot of content. Lesson progression has been unlocked so that each lesson is independently viewable.

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The Process

Analysis

Scenario: A local coffee shop was in need of asynchronous online training for baristas. Given busy schedules and an increased desire to have new baristas enter the shop already familiar with coffee making, the owners wanted a course that could train new hires prior to stepping behind the coffee bar.

The Problem: A major pain point for the owners was hiring new baristas who were unfamiliar with making coffee. There was an increase in customer complaints about the quality of the coffee being served by inexperiences baristas, along with complaints from more experienced employees about the efficiency of their work and lack of knowledge.

The Solution: To create an online course that new hires can take to familiarize themselves with methods of making coffee before their in-person training. It is meant to be a primer, so that the in-person training can go smoother, and they will enter with better background knowledge and skills.

Design

The design elements included identifying key learning objectives for new hires that could be learned online, processes used in the shop by experienced baristas (SMEs), identifying ready-made videos that baristas have used and approved, and content related to customer care service.

Key Learning Objectives:

Baristas will understand how coffee beans are processed for coffee making
Baristas will be able to make espressos and espresso-based drinks
Baristas will be able to make pour-overs, french press, and aeropress coffee
Baristas will serve patrons with best practices for effective customer service

Textual and graphic storyboarding was used to design the layout of the course in a framework that was easy to follow and built to be systematic and progressive as the course continued.

Development

After the layout of the lessons was designed, the course was developed including text, visual and audio media, links to outside resources, activities, quizzes, and immersive scenario-based scenes using Articulate Rise 360.

Implementation

Scenario: The coffee shop was able to implement the training materials and videos as a primer course prior to new hires serving customers. Posters were created as an additional resource to hang up in the coffee shop with tips on coffee making processes that new hires and experienced baristas alike could use as a reference tool.

Evaluation

Scenario: Customer complaints dropped, and new baristas had a better understanding of making coffee and service customers as they began working behind the bar.