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Opened an adjacent market for an ed-tech start-up

  • Alps Education
  • Director of Product
  • 2014–2016
Case study content

Driven by students, not data.

Alps Education creates analytical tools and provides educational training to help every student aspire to more. alps.education

The Challenge

In 2014, Alps Education needed a new suite of complex data analysis reports, benchmarked against national datasets, to open up an adjacent market, drive revenue and stay relevant to schools.

The
Process

  1. 1

    Framed the opportunity

    • – A product brief covering the value proposition, market opportunity, route to market, risks and a discovery roadmap.
  2. 2

    Validated with real data

    • – In-depth discovery with a prototype built on real data, and insights from 10 schools and dozens of potential customers and stakeholders, to test market fit.
  3. 3

    Led delivery and testing

    • – Oversaw development and testing through to a production-ready product.
  4. 4

    Took it to market

    • – Ran focus groups to set pricing, created the marketing collateral, ran conferences and prepared the launch.
  5. 5

    Ran post-launch hypercare

    • – Made sure every system ran as planned through the busy post-exam period, and that schools were happy with their new reports.

The
Outcome

The new analysis became the core of the business.

25% of clients at launch

Taken up by a quarter of existing clients on launch, beating the revenue target.

41% of company revenue

Uptake grew year on year to 41% of company revenue, nearly doubling turnover.

Ages 11 to 18

Covering students from 11 to 18 made the whole offer more relevant to schools, and lifted sales across every product.

Mary Ahern
"I worked directly with Simon for several years at Alps and over recent years as a product coach. Simon is an outstanding product leader. He is exceptionally knowledgeable on modern product, agile and experience design, he has a sharp commercial and business awareness and works hard to understand the specific context of my business to provide meaningful, actionable advice. His insights have helped me to shape Alps into the successful business it is today. I would highly recommend Simon as a product leader and coach."
Mary Ahern - CEO, Alps Education

Key takeaways

Zero-to-one from brief to post-launch: product strategy and execution together, from the first customer conversations to running the product through its busiest weeks.

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