Product Consulting Case Studies
Case Study 1: Transforming Education Delivery
Initial Situation
A project-based learning company serving K-12 schools across 18 states was struggling to scale their innovative educational programs. Despite strong educational outcomes in pilot schools, their digital learning platform had low teacher adoption rates of just 15%, and districts were hesitant to renew contracts. While their curriculum content was pedagogically sound, the digital delivery system was fragmented across multiple tools, creating confusion for teachers and students. User feedback was overwhelmingly negative, with educators spending more time troubleshooting technology than facilitating learning.
Key Challenges
- Disjointed Learning Experience: Multiple disconnected tools forced teachers to juggle various platforms
- Teacher Adoption Barriers: Insufficient onboarding and complex workflows deterred even tech-savvy educators
- Data Silos: Student progress metrics scattered across systems, making assessment difficult
- Scalability Limitations: Manual processes prevented efficient expansion to new school districts
- Curriculum-Platform Misalignment: Digital tools failed to properly support the project-based learning methodology
- Implementation Gaps: Lack of standardized implementation proccess created inconsistent results across schools
Our Collaborative Approach
1. Comprehnsive Discovery & Assessment
- Conducted field research in 14 schools across diverse demographics
- Shadowed 28 teachers during project-based learning sessions
- Interviewed 35 stakeholders including educators, administrators, and students
- Analyzed platform usage data to identify pain points and abandonment patterns
- Benchmarked against leading educational technology platforms
2. Strategic Realignment
- Facilitated vision workshops with education experts and product teams
- Developed teacher-centered platform strategy and experience principles
- Created prioritization framework balancing pedagogical value and implementation feasibility
- Established clear success metrics aligned with learning outcomes and teacher satisfaction
3. Implementation Planning & Process Optimization
- Redesigned the platform architecture to create a unified learning experience
- Developed integrated assessment framework connecting projects to standards
- Created teacher onboarding journey with contextual support systems
- Designed implementation playbooks for different school environments
4. Execution Support & Capability Building
- Provided embedded product leadership for 8 months
- Established agile development process with educator feedback loops
- Conducted bi-weekly workshops to build team capabilties
- Created documentation and training materials for sustainable growth
Measurable Results
- Teacher Adoption: Increased from 15% to 67% within one academic year
- Time Efficiency: Reduced teacher prep time by 58% through streamlined workflows
- Student Engagement: Increased project completion rates by 43%
- Business Growth: Expanded to 74 new school districts in 12 months
- Contract Renewal: Improved renewal rate from 62% to 90%
- Learning Outcomes: 28% increase in standards-aligned assessment scores
- Platform Satisfaction: Teacher NPS improved from -28 to +52
Case Study 3: Social Commerce Innovation
Initial Situation
A global social commerce platform was facing increasing competition and needed to strengthen relationships with top-tier influencers who drove significant platform engagement. Their executive team recognized the need to develop a dedicated mobile app and supporting infrastructure specifically optimized for influencer needs, rather than continuing to adapt their consumer-focused tools. Despite having clear business objectives, they lacked experience in building for this specialized user group and were struggling to define the right product strategy and organizational structure.
Key Challenges
- Influencer Retention: Top creators were being poached by competing platforms offering better tools and monetization
- Technical Architecture: Legacy systems were not designed to support influencer-specific workflows and analytics
- Organizational Structure: Uncertainty about how to structure and staff a dedicated influencer division
- Time Pressure: Market window required rapid development and launch within 6 months
- Divided Vision: Leadership team had conflicting views on product priorities and scope
- Global Complexity: Need to support diverse influencer business models across different markets
Our Collaborative Approach
1. Discovery & Assessment
- Conducted in-depth interviews with 40+ influencers across different tiers and categories
- Analyzed competitor offerings and emerging platform features
- Performed technical assessment of current architecture and integration points
- Facilitated alignment sessions with executive stakeholders to harmonize vision
- Developed influencer journey maps highlighting key pain points and opportunities
2. Strategy Development
- Created comprehensive influencer experience strategy
- Designed modular product roadmap with phased implementation plan
- Developed organizational blueprint for new influencer division
- Established clear KPIs for measuring platform and business success
- Created monetization strategy balancing platform and influencer revenue needs
3. Implementation Planning
- Designed technical architecture leveraging existing systems while enabling new capabilities
- Develop team structure and hiring plan for the new division
- Created detailed product specifications for MVP and subsequent releases
- Established rapid development methodology with lightweight governance
- Designed influencer onboarding and engagement program
4. Execution Support
- Provided interim product leadership during division formation
- Facilitated agile development process implementing core features
- Conducted weekly influencer feedback sessions to validate concepts
- Created analytics framework to measure platform adoption and business impact
- Supported recruitment and onboarding of permanent product team
Measurable Results
- Time-to-Market: Successfully launched influencer app within 5 months
- Creator Adoption: Secured 86% of top-tier influencers on the platform within 3 months
- Engagement Metrics: Achieved 4.5/5 app store rating with 72% daily active usage
- Business Impact: Increased influencer-driven commerce by 124% YoY
- Creator Retention: Improved retention of top-tier influencers from 62% to 91%
- Team Building: Successfully staffed new influencer division with 96% offer acceptance rate
- Platform Growth: Influencers brought 18.2M new consumers to the platform in first year