In this Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work Podcast, Rachel Cooke, Chief Operating Officer, sits down with Mika Kuikka, visionary co-founder of Valamis and leader in product management and innovation. With 22 years of experience in the learning technology space and nine years building the Valamis business in the US, Mika brings deep expertise in digital transformation of learning. Their conversation explores how organizations can successfully implement personalized learning at scale while balancing business needs, learner engagement, and the realities of modern workforce development.
Key Discussion Points:
- The Evolution of Personalized Learning: Tracing personalization from ancient times through the master-apprentice model to today’s challenges—exploring how the “golden age of LMS” inadvertently disrupted learners with massive content libraries that made finding relevant learning nearly impossible, and why time-to-relevance has become the most critical factor in modern learning design.
- Defining Skills in the Modern Workplace: Understanding that a true skill is the combination of theory plus practical application in one’s work context—not just book knowledge but the ability to apply it effectively—and how organizations must align skills taxonomies with strategic business goals, defining the roles needed and the proficiency levels to track.
- Building Strategic Skills Taxonomies: Practical guidance on creating skills frameworks that start with strategic skills (often just five core skills initially), then expand through sub-skills or broader categories, using reference frameworks or custom taxonomies while leveraging AI to help narrow down options and propose relevant structures.
- Data as the Foundation for Insights: Emphasizing that organizations must start collecting fine-grained data now—learning activities, completions, skills progression, and performance indicators—because without data collection today, there will be no analytics or insights tomorrow, particularly as AI-powered analysis capabilities continue to advance.
- AI-Powered Learning Intelligence: Exploring how AI transforms learning data into actionable insights by identifying internal experts and potential mentors, spotting high-performance patterns that can be replicated, detecting low-performance red flags early for intervention, and providing personalized recommendations that drive engagement and skill development.
- The Business Case for Personalization: Connecting personalized learning directly to business outcomes through the interconnected cycle of retention, engagement, and performance—supported by research showing 94% of employees would stay at companies that invest in their skills development, demonstrating that personalization isn’t just good for learners but essential for organizational success.
- Creating Interconnected Ecosystems: Moving away from “islands” of HR systems, performance management, talent management, and learning platforms toward unified ecosystems with one master skills taxonomy at the core, where skills developed anywhere in the organization unlock opportunities everywhere—in learning, career progression, and role changes.
- Starting the Personalized Learning Journey: Practical first steps including examining business goals and required roles, defining just five strategic skills to start, ensuring learning opportunities exist to develop those skills, reviewing existing taxonomies to keep them simple and strategic, and remembering that even the best skills taxonomy is worthless without pathways for employees to reach those proficiency levels.
The conversation reveals that successful personalized learning at scale isn’t about overwhelming learners with options but about providing the right learning at the right time. Mika’s insights emphasize that while technology and AI enable personalization at unprecedented scale, the foundation remains understanding business needs, defining clear skills pathways, collecting quality data, and creating interconnected systems where skills development translates directly into growth opportunities. The future of learning is personal, data-driven, and seamlessly integrated into the flow of work.
Social Media Handles
Valamis:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/valamis/
- Website: https://www.valamis.com/
Mika Kuikka:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikakuikka/
