Virtual Training: Bridging the Experience Gap

Transforming Knowledge Transfer in Critical Infrastructure: When aging power plant operators retire faster than they can be replaced, decades of critical operational knowledge walks out the door. Traditional training methods, i.e., paper manuals, classroom sessions, and months of shadowing, simply can't keep pace with the urgency of knowledge transfer in safety-critical environments.

The Challenge

A major Canadian power company faced a crisis: retiring workers taking irreplaceable expertise with them, while new hires struggled to master complex Lock-Out Tag-Out (LOTO) procedures that could take months to learn safely. The multi-step safety protocols, involving dozens of components and strict regulatory compliance, created bottlenecks that required flying in specialized engineers for validation, costing time, money, and operational efficiency.

My Approach

Through intensive on-site workshops and stakeholder discovery, I mapped the complete ecosystem of concerns, from CFO efficiency demands to operator usability needs. Working directly with plant personnel, I uncovered the core insight: workers weren't just learning procedures, they were learning to navigate complex industrial environments where a single mistake could have catastrophic consequences. With new hires needing to be ramped up immediately, I designed two complementary AR solutions: a comprehensive LOTO training application (detailed through extensive storyboards) and a virtual compressor training prototype. We prioritized building the compressor training system first, creating an immersive learning experience that allowed workers to explore complex equipment at full scale in a safe, virtual environment, dramatically accelerating technical competency development.

The Impact

The virtual training prototype reduced specialized equipment training time from 3 days to 3 hours, allowing new hires to safely explore complex compressor systems at full scale before working with actual machinery. This immersive approach eliminated the traditional bottleneck of waiting for equipment downtime for hands-on training while providing unlimited practice opportunities in a risk-free environment.

Strategic Outcome

What began as a client-specific training challenge evolved into industry-wide influence. The frameworks, interaction patterns, and implementation strategies developed for this power company became foundational elements in Microsoft's approach to industrial AR training, proving that thoughtful, user-centered design can scale from solving immediate business problems to shaping entire product categories.