Learneo Ecosystem Strategy

Solving a critical, ubiquitous pain point in deposition analysis & extraction

Problem Statement

Course Hero is an online learning platform & marketplace that provides access to study resources, textbook solutions, and tutoring services for students. It solves critical and urgent pain points around understanding complex topics & practicing core material in preparation for assessments.

However, numerous adjacent pain points and entire user journeys remain unaddressed, such as (i) support in tangential subject areas, (ii) deeper assistance in mastering key material, and (iii) help with assignments.

We embarked on a journey to think through build a multi-product suite of tools to solve the adjacent pain points that exist for students

Process

  1. 50+ user interviews to identify the JTBD’s and needs across the key workflows of students along with current tooling and processes. Run user surveys along with interviews to understand how prevalent key Map out broad journey and overlay needs, empathy map.

  2. Secondary discussion to stack tack ranking focus areas based on key decision matrices (e.g. importance vs satisfaction) to identify pain points to focus on.

  3. Overlay competitive analysis on other offerings in the space for context. Discussion on problem space & solutions: perform build v buy v partner analyses on key verticals of interest.

  4. Use prioritization frameworks (e.g. RICE) to determine (i) launch plan for new products and (ii) acquisition stack ranking.

  5. Acquire key companies & hire "synergy" product team to execute against cross-product experiences (e.g. building writing tools on reading platform) . Build team charter, goals & OKR's

  6. Perform user research across surveys, interviews & pre-existing analytics to determine problem spaces to focus on for cross-product experiences. Work with engineering leaders and prioritize roadmap for cross-product experiences across business lines.

  7. Develop phased rollout plan -> Assess product-level metrics & continuously meet with customers to determine bugs fixes, prioritization of feature roadmap

Interface

Solution

Build a multi-product ecosystem that captures multiple pain points.

  • Acquire or build key products in stack ranked vertical areas.

  • Launch cross-product experiences & bundled offerings to drive retention & defensibility

  • Continue to gather data from users and leverage data to identify the next

Worked with C-suite executive team on stack ranking of verticals, competitive landscaping and build vs buy vs partner analyses

Hired and worked with hired PM's, engineers, designers to build roadmap, execute against cross-product initiatives like integrating writing tools on literature guides

Phased Rollout:

Phase 0: Build deeper into math reading, writing, math by launching key products, acquiring companies like Symbolab (math solver), QuillBot (AI writing tool, #5th most used AI tool globally), CliffsNotes (Literature guides), Scribbr (writing suite)

Phase 1: Launch integrated experiences first:
-(a) QuillBot writing tools embedded into LitCharts & Course Hero
-(b) LitCharts tools (e.g. theme wheel) launched on CliffsNotes
-(c) Launching multilingual QuillBot tools on Scribbr
-(d) Updating subscription & cancellation flow based on key learnings for Symbolab

Phase 2: Launch bundle across products & launchpad for easy access

Interface

Build deeper into math reading, writing, math by launching & acquiring key products, building cross-product experiences
Growth from $1.1B -> $3.6B, driven by ecosystem expansion strategy
Connected Experiences & Bundles

Key Metrics

-> 2X+ user growth
-> XXM+ revenue growth
-> X% lift in LTV

Interface