CPD Toolkit (2016) - Product Manager
Product: CPD Toolkit
The Customer: UK Schools (Ages 11-18)
The Users: Teachers
The Challenge
Time for continued learning and development is something of a luxury for teachers. Teacher-training hours have reduced while the need and funds earmarked for training have actually increased. In response, we built a micro-learning service based on short, high-quality learning units provided at low cost to UK schools.
The Approach
A group of teachers was recruited to test the theory that a well-designed targeted product can overcome a deficit of time to devote to CPD.
Firstly, they helped me subdivide a block of e-learning content into smaller 10-minute units. Then over a period of 10 days they completed one unit each day; noting when, where and how they completed each task, or if they could not, why not.
This was followed up with interviews to reach beyond the diaries to learn what else the assignment taught us.
Key Insights
- Mobile-friendliness matters: If it’s not mobile and tablet friendly, the content won’t be accessed. More often than not, tasks were done on the sofa in the evening. Teachers wanted to avoid using school IT and the likely distraction of emails and to-dos.
- Long form and short form e-learning require different approaches: Repurposing long form content is unsatisfactory. Language needs to be simpler, instantly engaging and more personal to counter fatigue.
- Avoid pressure and stress: Users will be accessing content in their own time and after a long day at school. Completing a task and a sense of accomplishment must come easy.
The Outcome
A complementary service to our CPD Online offering; providing UK teachers with access to training built from scratch to meet the demands of busy, over-stressed, time-limited users.
Bundling this with our other CPD offerings we increased the value and hence stickiness of our subscription offering, reducing churn and increasing average lifetime customer value due to owning the training content directly compared to our previous licensing and partnership strategy.
