Welcome to the 2nd Episode of Chatter Box. In this episode, we break down a problem statement on building an initial roadmap and strategic problem solving
ARTICLE INDEX
The index indicates the structure of the case in point in Product Management. It is a directional rather than a rigid template as depending upon the problem in case, the structure may vary.
No | Title | Details |
1 | About the industry: EdTech (IT coding skills) | Brief on current Industry trends, competitions, past performance and future expectations |
2 | About the product: NxtWave | Brief summary of the product in case |
3 | Case Problem Summary | Problem summary and key points to solve for |
4 | Key Assumptions | Assumptions on the problem and solution side |
5 | Solution | |
5.1 | Key Problems | Summary on key problems to solve for by prioritizing |
5.2 | Key Features | Important features to build to solve for the mentioned problems |
5.3 | Conclusion | Case conclusion |
About the Industry:
It is not mandatory to write about the industry as a part of any case solution, but it is a good to have habit. It helps shape perspective and allows for setting context for the case.
Industry: End-to-end edtech solution in IT (coding skills)
EdTech in the Indian economy is thriving with roughly 60% of the population below 35 years. As the structures of education-employment shift from formal degree based to a skill-based evaluation, the young tech-savvy graduates have a host of options to skill themselves and be job-ready.
The pandemic has been a massive validation for adoption of online learning across various educational levels, though with its own flaws. The nature of consumption is shifting as well along with the nature of jobs.
Advancement in LMS platforms allows current edtech businesses to provide on-demand, custom tailored and analytical solutions for the users. Recommendations on past learning experiences, tracking and planning user progress and all-in-one activities on the platform are driving the growth in the sector.
However, at macro level: lack of adoption of technologies in tier 3-4 cities, increasing competition from existing educational institutes and at micro-level: stickiness of the product features, value proposition post getting a job still remain part of the challenges for the sector.
About the Product:
NxtWave champions to be an end-to-end provider of learning content and job opportunities. It provides packaged coding learning programs with user-friendly UI.
Users, in this case typically learners, can maintain a learning schedule, ask questions, take notes, practice coding during the session and access other features to prepare themselves for the job market.
NxtWave also provides placement services on their portal so users get an end-to-end experience creating a strong value proposition for the users.
Case Problem Summary:
In one of our programs, NxtWave offers a learning schedule to NxtWave students. In the program that is being discussed here, a student needs to complete 12 Hrs of learning content per week which includes video lectures, practices and coding assignments.
A student can gain real skills only if he/she practices and does the assignments regularly. How do you ensure that students actually practice and solve the assignments instead of just completing the video sessions?
What solutions do you suggest to solve this problem? You can suggest solutions w.r.t product, behavioral science etc. Mention your thought process and assumptions as detailed as possible.
According to you, which of these techniques would be your top priority and why?
What metrics will you use to understand if the desired behavior is being achieved?
Key Assumptions:
Three key elements are present on the portal: Video Recording, Practice cases and Assignments.
Video recordings: Recorded videos the user can access and contains features like code playground, ask questions in his or her learning journey
Practice cases: Self-learning coding practices to harness the learnings from the video recordings
Assignment: MCQ Questions to test coding skills
Definition of Regular practicing and solving assignments: A user who skips the practice sets and assignments in the journey or solves after completing all the videos, in case of compulsory completion, is tagged as an irregular. In other cases, where the user solves the case just after the assignment or after a few (2-3) videos is termed as a regular learner.
There is no direct relation found in year of graduation and number of left practice sets.
There is no geographical relation to the problem in point.
However, to pilot and build upon the feedback, the solutions shall be tested in two states: one with the most engagement (the highest DAU) and one with the least engagement (the lowest DAU)
The timeline to solve the problem is 6 months
12 HRs of learning is overall and there is no information on distribution of time spent on each of the three elements: Video recording, practice cases and assignments
Conducted Root Cause Analysis of the problems by tracking following metrics: For both the states:
Practice engagement left ratio: No of practice sets left/ No of overall activities left (Lower the better)
Assignment engagement left ratio: No of assignments left/ No of overall activities left (Lower the better)
Practice - Video left ratio: No of practice sets left / No of videos left
Assignment - Video left ratio: No of assignments left / No of videos left
User group study with current active students is also conducted to find the root cause of the problem.
We also would check on existing feedback data to find if there have been issues pertaining to upskilling or difficulty getting a job which may have happened because of lack of practices and assignments
The word learner and user are used interchangeably
Target Primary Persona:
Name: Ankit
Course: CCBP 4.0
No of courses enrolled: 2
Year of graduation: 2022 - Final Year (Other target personas: In early years of graduation, refer assumption number 2)
No of videos completed: 14
No of assignments completed: 4
No of practice sets completed: 3
Primary objective of course: Getting a job (Other target personas: Upskilling, self-development)
Solution:
Key Problems:
In terms of importance order, with A being the of the highest importance
A. Lack of motivation
B. Lack of awareness
C. Feeling time constraint, in a hurry to complete the course
D. Using alternative practice methods
Features:
Below are the list of features priority wise that shall be planned to develop.
Motivating Flashcards for practices and assignments
To address: Lack of motivation , Lack of awareness , Feeling time constraint, in a hurry to complete the course
Summary:
What?:
After completing the video that is played just before a practice or an assignment, these flashcard pop-ups create awareness and motivate the learner to go for practice exercise or an assignment.
If the user still presses the skip button, it again shows up a message to push the user to take up the assignment.
Constraint: If the user skips more than 2 practice sets or assignments, then only this feature is activated.
Why?:
This is an attempt to psychologically drive users to focus on the importance of assignments and encourage them to take the same.
This technique would be developed first because of its ease in implementation. If the assumption: problem is lack of awareness and motivation holds true, this would help users drive towards regular practices and assignments.
How?:
User Journeys:
Flashcard designs:
Success Metrics:
i. Conversion post first pop-up (No of users going to take assignment after first pop-up/ Total no of active users in the course)
ii. Conversion post second pop-up (No users going to take assignment after second pop-up/ Total no of active users in the course)
Developing badges for learners
Developing badges for learners as an additional level of information for the recruiters to drive learner behaviour by helping them get more value on efforts on assignments and practice sets. The below two features are a subset of this main feature.
To address: Using alternative practice methods Lack of motivation
B.1 .Leaderboard for top-scorer of assignments with Topper batch to show for recruiters:
This feature is developed for two critical reasons:
i. Gamification adds fun element to the learning process
ii. One of the key objectives for learners is to get a job post upskilling
Summary:
What?:
Developing course-wise leaderboard with aggregated assignment scores. The top 1% students post-course completion shall be provided with Topper badge for that particular course. This badge shall be visible to the recruiters giving students an incentive to attempt assignments and stay at the top.
Why?:
This feature is developed for two critical reasons:
i. Gamification adds fun element to the process
ii. One of the key objectives for learners is to get a job post upskilling
How?:
Low fi design:
Success Metrics to track:
i. Overall Assignment-video left ratio: to track is there is decrease in this ratio which would infer that left assignment tests are decreasing w.r.t to videos watched.
ii. Attempt to total questions ratio (Overall total attempts/ overall total questions): to track overall engagement of assignment tests.
iii. Placements conversion ratio for the badge owners: to check for value addition occurring because of the badge
B.2 .Practitioner badge to show for recruiters:
Summary:
What? To provide a badge for students who do not miss more than 2 consecutive practice sets. The number of tests threshold can vary depending on feedback and data post feature launch.
How? This can be tracked with by building a logic around the skip button. If there are more than 2 consecutive skips on the practice sets, the learner misses the chance of earning the badge.
Why?
This is to motivate learners to earn the practitioner badge which would reflect in front of recruiters.
This feature helps learners in increasing chances of getting placed or differentiating himself or herself from the rest of the candidates.
In absolute sense, there can also be a case where almost all the students enrolled in the program earn the practitioner badge. This helps in showcasing the overall strength of the batch to the recruiters as well.
Conclusion:
For learners not practicing and solving assignments regularly, these features intend to drive the behaviour of the learners by using techniques like flashcards, competition, improved profile to show recruiter. Constant feedback from the users shall help improve upon the techniques leading to a long-term feature adoption enriching the vision of the product.
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