A Year of Transitions: Classrooms to Virtual, L&D to Management, Focus on DEI

September 1, 2021
4 minutes
Sravani Tammiraju joins IDIODC

I think it's safe to say that over the last 18 months the #1 concern for training professionals has been moving live face-to-face classroom courses to online virtual classrooms.  

Many of us are still redesigning those courses, improving and adapting them to the new world of work. DEI initiatives are at an all-time high with L&D departments challenged to re-train employee populations.  And with disruption comes opportunities like moving into management roles.

In this episode of Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee (IDIODC) we talked with Sravani Tammiraju, Product Manager at VISA.  She's worn many hats over the last few years and one of those hats was in Learning & Development.  She shared how her team successfully transitioned a highly interactive five-day face-to-face onboarding program and redesigned it for as a 100% virtual online experience. She shared the project constraints, challenges, and roadblocks, and explored the solutions her team put in place.

We also asked Sravani about how she went from being a software engineer to a L&D professional with an MBA, and then into Product Management.  And with so many initiatives around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), we also asked about her experiences producing a DEI conference and get her feedback on how L&D can have an impact.

To see all the comments from the chat, check out the full session right here.  

And to ask more questions, or participate in extended conversations about this episode, please join us in the IDIODC LinkedIn Group.  

About Sravani Tammiraju

Sravani Tammiraju is a Sr. Product Manager in the Innovation & Design team at Visa where she uses Human Centered Design to solution positive experiences that influence purchasing decisions for various clients. She previously worked in the Learning and Development organization at Visa University on designing and developing various learning solutions for the technology employees. Sravani is a Learning 30 Under 30 alum, has her work published as a case study in ATD’s Designing for Modern Learning, and has spoken at several conferences about Learning methodologies & Future of virtual learning with attendees from across the world. Sravani was on the regional board for Junior Achievement until August 2020.  

Sravani graduated from Boston University in 2018 with an MBA. Prior to joining Visa, Sravani worked as a software engineer with now Charter Communications (then Time Warner Cable). She holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering.

About IDIODC

Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee (affectionately known as IDIODC) is a weekly live videocast and podcast that helps instructional designers with pain points and provides best practices and industry insight.  

Every Wednesday morning at 10am ET hosts Brent Schlenker and Chris Van Wingerden guide us through an upbeat and candid conversation with their guests from the elearning and training world. The live cast session encourages peers to participate in the chat and share their own personal insight! After airing live, you can catch the learning podcast on all major streams such as Spotify, Apple and Google Play podcasts, as well as on YouTube.

IDIODC is a Top 40 Hit!

We could have been #1 but chair dancing was not a judged element. But no matter, we’re just happy to be selected. Check out this amazingly short press release: “IDIODC was selected as one of the Top 40 Learning and Development Podcasts on the web.”

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