The five moments of need are the five situations in which people need to learn: when they learn something new, when they want to learn more, when they apply it, when they solve a problem, and when things change. The framework, created by Bob Mosher and Conrad Gottfredson, matters because formal training only serves the first two, while performance is won or lost in the last three, which happen in the flow of work. Josh Bersin found employees have barely 1% of a work week, about 24 minutes, for deliberate learning.
What are the five moments of need?
The five moments of need are New, More, Apply, Solve, and Change. They map every situation where someone needs knowledge or a skill to perform:
- New: learning something for the first time.
- More: deepening or extending what you already know.
- Apply: acting on what you learned, often under pressure.
- Solve: fixing something when it breaks or behaves unexpectedly.
- Change: adapting when a tool, process, or rule changes.
The power of the model is that it reframes learning around moments of performance, not courses. The question stops being "what training should we build" and becomes "what does this person need at this moment to do the job."
Who created the five moments of need?
The framework was developed by Bob Mosher and Conrad Gottfredson, two practitioners who argued that learning should be designed around performance in the workflow rather than around formal events. Their core claim is simple and uncomfortable: most of what determines performance happens after training ends, at the moment of need, where traditional learning gives the least help.
It is a close cousin of learning in the flow of work and the foundation of performance support and EPSS. Where those describe the delivery, the five moments give you the diagnostic: a way to decide, need by need, whether to train or to support.
What happens at each moment of need?
Each moment calls for a different kind of help. Treating them the same, usually by defaulting to a course, is why so much training goes unused.
| Moment | What the person needs | Best support |
|---|---|---|
| New | Foundational understanding | Structured training, onboarding |
| More | Depth and nuance | Advanced training, practice, roleplay |
| Apply | A nudge at the point of action | Job aids, in-app guidance, checklists |
| Solve | A fast, specific answer | Search, troubleshooting, an in-context assistant |
| Change | Help unlearning and re-learning | Proactive prompts, updated guidance in the flow |
Why do the last three moments matter most?
Because Apply, Solve, and Change happen in the flow of work, away from any classroom, and that is where performance is actually decided. Yet traditional training concentrates almost entirely on New and More, the two moments a course handles well, and leaves the other three to chance.
The timing problem makes it worse. Nobody stops to take a course when a customer is on the line or a system just changed. Bersin's finding that employees have roughly 1% of the week for formal learning means the moment of need will not wait for a scheduled session. If help is not there, in context, in seconds, people guess, ask a colleague, or give up. Designing for Apply, Solve, and Change is how you reach the silent majority that formal training never touches.
How do you design for the five moments of need?
Start by mapping a real workflow to the moments. Walk through a role's week and mark where each moment occurs: where someone is learning new, where they apply under pressure, where things break, where change hits. That map tells you what to build and, just as important, what not to.
Then match support to moment. Use structured training and an LMS for New and More. Use performance support, in-app guidance, and quick answers for Apply and Solve. Use proactive, in-context prompts for Change, the moment most often ignored. This blended approach is the heart of good learning in the flow of work strategies: formal where it fits, support everywhere else.
How do the five moments connect to learning in the flow of work?
The five moments are the "why" and learning in the flow of work is the "how." The framework proves that most needs occur during work, not before it; learning in the flow of work is the practice of meeting those needs inside daily tools, at the moment they arise.
Together they move L&D from a library of courses to a system of support. The tools of learning in the flow of work exist precisely to cover Apply, Solve, and Change, the moments an LMS alone cannot reach. The five moments tell you what to deliver; the flow of work tells you where.
What do the five moments look like for a new hire?
Take a new sales rep in their first quarter. New: onboarding teaches the product and the sales process, a classic course that fits the moment well. More: a few weeks in, they go deeper on a complex product line through advanced training and roleplay. For these first two moments, formal training is the right answer.
Then the real moments arrive, and they arrive mid-task. Apply: on a live call, the rep needs the objection-handling answer now, not a module to schedule, so an in-app prompt or a quick card wins. Solve: a prospect raises a pricing edge case they have never seen, and they need a specific answer in seconds or they lose credibility. Change: the pricing model updates mid-quarter, and they have to unlearn the old one and adopt the new fast.
Three of the five moments, the three that decide the deal, happen in the flow of work where a course was never going to help. Map any role this way and the same pattern appears: the first two moments justify training, the last three demand support. That is the framework earning its keep, and why onboarding alone never produces a confident performer.
What are common mistakes when applying the five moments?
The first is answering every moment with a course. If your only tool is training, Apply, Solve, and Change all get a module nobody has time to take, and the gap stays open. The second is building support that is not actually reachable at the moment of need: a job aid buried three clicks deep in an intranet fails the Solve moment as surely as no job aid at all.
The third is forgetting the Change moment entirely. It is the easiest to ignore because it is episodic, yet process and tool changes are exactly when performance drops and support is scarcest. The fourth is mapping needs once and never revisiting them; workflows shift, and a map from last year sends help to moments that no longer matter. Treat the five moments as a living map, not a one-time audit.
None of these are failures of the framework; they are failures to deliver on it. The map is only ever as good as the support waiting at each moment, which is why delivery, not diagnosis, is where most programs stall.
What are the limits of the five moments framework?
It is a planning and diagnostic tool, not a delivery system. Mapping needs is useless if the support you promise is not actually there, fast and findable, at the moment of need. The framework also will not write your job aids or keep them current; it only tells you where they belong.
And it does not rank needs by business value on its own. You still have to decide which workflows are worth the investment, usually the high-stakes, high-frequency ones. Used well, the five moments focus effort; used as a checklist, they can sprawl into support nobody needs. Pair the map with judgment about what actually moves performance.
How a Learning Agent supports all five moments of need
A Learning Agent lives inside the tools people already use and covers the moments a course cannot. For New and More it serves training and practice; for Apply and Solve it answers in context, in seconds, without leaving the screen; for Change it is proactive, prompting people when a process or tool shifts. One system, all five moments, in the flow of work.
That is what the framework asks for and what traditional training cannot deliver alone. It fits the full corporate trainer remit. In one Salesforce enablement rollout, a MeltingSpot customer reached roughly 245k euros in annual ROI, detailed in our customer story.
Frequently asked questions
What are the five moments of need?
New (learning for the first time), More (deepening knowledge), Apply (acting on it), Solve (fixing problems), and Change (adapting to new tools or rules). They cover every situation where someone needs to learn to perform.
Who created the five moments of need?
Bob Mosher and Conrad Gottfredson, who argued that learning should be designed around performance in the workflow, not around formal training events.
Why are the five moments of need important?
They show that most learning needs happen during work, in the Apply, Solve, and Change moments, where formal training gives the least support. Designing for them closes the gap between training and performance.
Which moments does formal training cover?
Mostly New and More. Apply, Solve, and Change are better served by performance support delivered in the flow of work.
How is the five moments of need different from performance support?
The five moments are the diagnostic (what need, when); performance support is one of the answers (help delivered at the moment of need, especially for Apply and Solve).
How many moments of need are there?
Five: New, More, Apply, Solve, and Change. Some practitioners add a sixth, informal, moment, but the core Mosher-Gottfredson model has five.
How do the five moments relate to the 70-20-10 model?
They are complementary. 70-20-10 describes where learning comes from (experience, others, formal courses); the five moments describe when a need arises and what support fits. Use the moments to design, 70-20-10 to balance the mix.
Conclusion
The five moments of need, New, More, Apply, Solve, and Change, reframe learning around performance instead of courses. Formal training covers the first two well; the last three decide the job and happen in the flow of work. Map your workflows to the moments, match each to the right support, and deliver it where work happens. Do that, and learning finally shows up when people actually need it.
