A transparent EdTech platform strategy has become a primary part as the sector has been drastically evolving. After a lot of years have passed during the expansion phase, the demand shoots up, and the funding flows in, during which many educational platforms have been facing different challenges in terms of practicality. Moving on, it follows a slow rate of growth, a rise in consumer costs for acquisitions and also improved pressure to showcase business expansion models’ scalability significantly
Further, for startups or any other enterprise funders, as well as high-ranking executive officers like CXOs or CFOs all over the world, building EdTech platforms has observed that the barrier no longer surrounds rolling out a plan for the new product or its features. It is about building systems that can sustain and scale growth across markets, segments, and user types — a challenge that increasingly requires the rigour of strategic planning consultants and business management consultants who understand platform economics at scale.
However, many still see it through the rose-tinted lens that first highlights the features of the products as the first-hand approach to prevent barriers or challenges.
In practice, that is where the problem begins.
Most EdTech Platforms Start with the Wrong Growth Assumption
Most EdTech companies assume that growth is primarily a function of better content or stronger product features.
This allows for driving an approach that focuses on only investing in making the product and its development with enhanced features of UI and UX to improve the experiences of learning modules. On the other hand, these improvements of the features are surely ensuring a better seamless learning experience in education platforms, but they rarely focus on the core issue that limits expansion.
Further, e-learning platforms in the EdTech sector are not dependent on how the product is built or its features. Rather, it is dependent solely on how well it performs and how seamlessly it interconnects or forms a collaborative network between the product, then the distribution channel, then the funding and lastly the dynamics of the market that form an interconnected system.
Thus, without any incorporation of this approach within systems, it has been observed that it results in strong product features, even struggling to convert and attain sustainable growth & expansion.
What is the major reason behind taking up a systematic-level approach by global EdTech markets:
It has been obtained that in the SaaS sector, many EdTech platforms have many diverse operation sectors that they have been working with, which involve learners in the form of students, working professionals, and also many institutions and big enterprises that have training or upskilling segments within their enterprises. Therefore, each has distinct requirements and buying potential based on their needs.
In the markets globally, this problem has been increasing significantly. Moreover, learning requirements, language barriers, payment systems, and frameworks of law vary in a significant manner across regions. Therefore, developing a sound market entry strategy or approach based on each geographical location needs more than localities; it also requires market intelligence incorporation that helps in understanding the repeated needs that are actually present within the markets. As it is evident that what is working in one specific region might not work in another region, which is why adaptation of strategies based on region is very important.
At the same point in time, it has been obtained that buyers that are institutions that comprise colleges and universities, as well as enterprises, have been maintaining an entirely different strategy of making decisions in comparison to individual students. Moving on, platforms that are working with B2B market research companies have been following an approach of mapping out the buyer journey of the institutions to gain an advantage. This helps in building a dual approach that helps in preventing issues of the B2C and B2B segments without any bifurcation of platforms.
Therefore, as a result, the expansion of Edtech is not a simple approach, but it’s about taking an expanding approach. Thus, it requires a proper architecture of products, followed by a strategy for the go-to-market, and also focusing on the capacities based on operations, with proper mapping of each sector region-wise.
Gaps where Enterprises make mistakes
A consistent pattern has been forming across EdTech platforms that have been struggling to expand.
It has been observed that demand has been validated based on attraction from consumers, which consists of sign-ups, modules or initial phase revenues. However, it is observed that validated engagement is mostly a surface-level collaboration and is not a structured approach that follows opportunity assessment, which helps in existing demands that help in scaling and creating repeat demands.
Further, the distribution network is frequently not developed. Moving on, platforms have been relying heavily on paid acquisitions without building any strong channels like partnerships, relationships with stakeholders and communities that drive growth. Therefore, the lack of a go-to-market framework and a go-to-market agency architecture results in distribution remaining reactive and not compounded.
At the given point, SaaS architecture has not always been intertwined with monetisation cycles or the lifecycles of users. Moreover, pricing models, subscription structure, and feature access have been designed independently in order to understand how users engage with the platform over time. Therefore, this precisely is where the SaaS consulting companies, along with EdTech-specific enterprises, and also the value that helps to be measured in the market.
Further, factors like law and other specific regional frameworks have also been underestimated. Additionally, data policies, certifications that are required, and also standards of local education have also significantly affected the scalability and were not addressed early on during the process of expansion.
Lastly, this creates gaps and friction within systems. Therefore, together, this prevents educational platforms from attaining scalability in the markets globally. Individually, these gaps create friction. Together, they prevent platforms from achieving true scale.
The transformational shift: From the product-based structure to designing systems
The companies that have been in the EdTech have been following an approach that is different in terms of the fundamental segments.
This implies that they have been viewing growth as an outcome of the product, followed by treating growth as a challenge in the design architecture, because it mirrors the thinking that is incorporated within systems as applied by leading management consulting companies that have been working across digital ecosystems in the higher growth sectors.
Furthermore, this implies that this starts with understanding the demand that goes beyond the surface level to understand the real requirements that exist for getting an in-depth knowledge of repeatable evaluations. Moreover, this involves distribution as a core component and not only just a second thought, as it also focuses on the channels in order to scale effectively over the period of time.
Product architecture is aligned with monetisation and user lifecycle, ensuring that how the platform is built directly supports how value is captured. At the given point in time, the law as well as geographic regions have been incorporated early, helping in reducing friction within systems, as it allows for the expansion of platforms.
This incorporated system approach helps in allowing companies to form an execution or rolling-out plan that is properly fragmented and executed to help in scaling, where each part of the business has been realigned with each other in a collaborative network format to attain scalability.
This allows for focusing on EdTech platforms that have been scaling aggressively by acquiring customers, which is followed by B2C, and also offer strong content. However, the user experience growth is not assured while retention and monetisation remain inconsistent.
Further, upon focusing on more analysis in an in-depth manner, which helps in drawing out both internal and external analysis through the usage of a market intelligence approach, the company has been identifying that its growth has been based on short-term collaboration rather than long-term engagement demands. Therefore, restructuring this approach and introducing B2B partnerships within institutions, as well as redesigning the respective frameworks as per the learner cycles and also aligning features of the products, helps in gaining long-term relationships and repetitive user patterns.
Following this, during the same time, it has been obtained that platforms that have been focusing on specific geographical locations also account for local frameworks as well as law framework requirements, along with learning patterns. This helps in following a market entry strategy that is rigorous for new regions, for attaining scalability in new regions.
However, within a few cycles, the platforms themselves will see an improvement in retention, customer acquisition, stronger revenue generation and more effective expansion down the line.
What does this hold for the leaders of EdTech?
Moreover, it is obtained that an approach that is based on an EdTech platform strategy that has no focus on the other segments except for product features allows for ensuring scalable growth across geographical regions.
Further, for enterprise founders as well as executive officers like CXOs or CFOs, they obtained that focus on changing from product features that are based on product roadmaps, which is in the domain of management consulting – this is where design, monetisation frameworks and market approach strategies are started as solutions for scaling rather than afterthoughts. Thus, growth is not an approach that is just a function of content expansion or feature development alone. Thus, it must be based on designing across multiple segments, that is, strategy, distribution segments, product architectural frameworks, and law frameworks.
The real question lies in “how to improve the product”, but we miss out on the questions like “how to build a system that has proper alignment with the product, pricing and distribution cycle to scale in the market?”
There, most EdTech platforms have been believing that they have been scaling because their product features are improving.
But in reality, it’s the system behind the picture that is enough to help to scale it globally.
FAQs:
1. In what ways do business consultants help EdTech platforms roll out and scale globally?
They allow expansion models to function, not just roll out like any other. In the global markets, scaling has been solely dependent on regulatory frameworks, followed by collaborative relationships and local language alignment with geographical regions. Thus, consultants help in connecting with these segments for early expansion and not just execution, ensuring that it is designed for expansion and not just for the initial phase rollout.
2. What is the role that is played by SaaS consultants to help EdTech platforms expand?
They help in bringing structure to the platforms in order to generate revenue. Further, this involves aligning with price behaviours, followed by building a vision for improving user experience and also acquiring customers to maintain long-term relationships and gain revenue. Thus, platforms with users have been struggling with revenue generation, and SaaS helps in focusing on the long-term approach that is focused on expansion.
3. Why do so many EdTech platforms struggle to expand during the early phases of attracting consumers?
It has been found that the early phase of attracting consumers often reflects engagement and not needs. Thus, many platforms have been seeing initial growth of scaling through content but lack alignment due to segment misalignments that cover price, law and others. Therefore, without proper systems, growth becomes stagnant and difficult to sustain in the markets, even if the product appears very strong.
