The Small Business Development Center was a primary resource for people across the state who wanted to start a business. Instructor-led courses addressed planning, financing, and launch, and one-on-one consulting helped would-be proprietors move from idea to execution. Demand, however, consistently exceeded the available trainer and consultant hours. Looking more closely, the center found that many clients arrived eager but underprepared, without the grounding needed to make productive use of either classes or consulting time.
The constraint
Faced with growing demand, the SBDC initially looked to put its introductory instructor-led course online. The content already existed, and the staff who taught the course could provide the necessary expertise. However, instructors in live sessions routinely adjusted on the fly, answering foundational questions and helping participants figure out where to begin. Moving the material online would still assume learners already knew how to approach the problem of starting a business, even though many did not.
The decision
The question became what the online experience should actually do. Instead of trying to turn the introductory course into a set of web pages, the focus shifted to helping people get oriented. Building a decision support system could help learners figure out where they were in the process, what they needed to decide next, and how to use classes or consulting time more effectively.
To support that kind of orientation, the online environment could not behave like a lesson. Many learners had not been students recently, and some had never been comfortable with school-based instruction at all. Instead of explaining concepts directly, the site was built around short stories that showed people working through the same kinds of questions prospective business owners often brought to the SBDC. Characters talked through ideas, hesitated, changed direction, and asked questions out loud, giving learners a way to see themselves in the process rather than feel tested by it.
Navigation reinforced that same approach. Rather than organizing the site around topics, the main menu was written as questions, inviting learners to follow their own priorities and concerns. Someone unsure where to begin could explore broadly, while someone preparing for a class or consulting appointment could jump directly to the questions they needed to answer next. Together, the stories and question-based navigation made the site feel less like a course to complete and more like a place to think through decisions.
