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Role and Project Overview
Role and Project Overview
Role: Senior Instructional Designer, Project Lead
Company: GoHealth
Audience: Medicare Sales Agents
Timeline: 2023-2025
AEP is the most demanding season for Medicare agents and brokers. Plan information changes every year, timelines are tight, and the regulatory stakes leave no room for error. For three consecutive years, I led the design and development of AEP training, rebuilding and refining the program each cycle to keep pace with new plans, updated compliance requirements, and the demands agents faced.
The goal was always to equip agents to handle complex enrollment decisions with accuracy and consistency.
Strategy
Strategy
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Months before AEP, I worked with stakeholders to align on training topics and secure agenda approval early, giving teams enough time to plan across departments. Because Medicare plan details are released on a rolling timeline, I mapped out when information would likely become available and built that into the content development schedule, so nothing was rushed or incorporated at the last minute.
The training followed a multi-path approach. Both groups covered updates to plans, compliance requirements, and nuances relevant to the current year. Newer agents, particularly recent hires, received more comprehensive coverage alongside those updates, while experienced agents focused primarily on what changed.
From there, I helped shape a staggered rollout that balanced readiness with business continuity, preparing agents for AEP without sacrificing too much floor time at once.
Challenges
Challenges
Preparing for information that was not available:
Some Medicare changes weren't released until after AEP had already started, which meant agents needed to be ready for a season where not every detail was known in advance. This required designing a program that balanced preparation with flexibility, helping agents build confidence in core concepts while staying ready to adapt as new information emerged.
Supporting readiness in a high-pressure season:
AEP is demanding, and anxiety around the season often affected how prepared agents felt and how they performed. Technical knowledge and sales skills were only part of the picture. The training also needed to create space for honest conversations around self-management, support, and sustainability. Building that in helped acknowledge the reality of the season while giving agents a stronger foundation to perform under pressure.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
I partnered with many of the same stakeholders involved in GoLearn, with collaboration tailored to the specific demands of AEP. Together, we worked to align priorities, gather the right content, and ensure the program reflected what agents actually needed going into the season.
Strategy: Aligned training priorities to AEP business goals, seasonal performance expectations, and critical readiness needs.
Facilitation: Coordinated delivery plans, facilitator readiness, and learner experience considerations.
Compliance: Partnered on licensing requirements and timing to ensure agents were prepared to sell ahead of AEP.
Compensation: Incorporated AEP-specific compensation updates and clarified how incentives and pay structures would apply during the season.
Quality Assurance: Used QA insights to reinforce performance expectations, address common gaps, and align training to quality standards.
Sales: Partnered on AEP sales process expectations, performance needs, and the realities of high-volume enrollment conversations.
Agent Success Coaches: Gathered feedback on readiness gaps, common coaching themes, and areas where agents needed additional support before AEP.
Subject Matter Experts: Collaborated on Medicare updates, plan changes, and enrollment guidance that shaped training content.
Instructional Design Team: Coordinated project work, assigned deliverables, and maintained consistency across materials.
Marketing: Incorporated AEP campaign messaging, plan positioning, and member-facing language agents needed to communicate clearly.
Technology
Technology
Articulate Rise: ILT course materials, participant guides, and supporting eLearning courses.
Second Nature AI: Scenario-based sales practice.
Vyond: Animated videos used for concept explanations, scenario-based learning, and ongoing agent reference in the internal knowledge system.
Camtasia: Tool demos and supplemental support content that reinforced systems, processes, and on-the-job tasks.
Impact
Designed mandatory AEP training for GoHealth's full agent workforce each year, supporting a company that helped over 2 million Medicare members in 2023 and nearly 3 million in 2024.
Prepared agents to handle high-volume enrollment conversations accurately and compliantly, contributing to more than 481,000 plan enrollments during the 2024 AEP season.
Designed curriculum that reinforced readiness and supported consistent agent performance across a complex, fast-changing Medicare environment.
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