Tutoring and Learning Mobile App Platform Focused on Emerging Markets
Schoolbird is committed to providing a path to American colleges and universities for high-achieving students from Vietnam and other emerging economies. We offer a user-friendly mobile learning platform to help students with their daily homework, enhance their English language skills and improve their academic performance across crucial college-preparation subjects.
Background
Schoolbird was founded in San Francisco in 2019, to recruit American university graduates to teach English in Vietnam. When the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted global travel, we developed our exclusive Homework Buddy mobile app. The result: an innovative mobile platform for booking homework helpers and a K-12 English language program, designed for students in emerging economies.
Problem
Education access limited by economics
American education is even more inaccessible
Cost effective after school learning
Solution
A tutoring and after-school learning platform made affordable for the average family in emerging economies.
My role
UX/UI/Visual Designer
User Research
Research Goals
• Understand the tutoring service and online education market, especially on the mobile end.
• Identify the target audience of Schoolbird.
• Learn about the main competitors of Schoolbird, as well as their strength and weakness.
Assumption:
Business Assumptions
- We believe our customers have a need to access affordable tutoring app.
- Their needs can be solved with a mobile app to match students with tutors.
- Our initial customers are students who live in a big city in Vietnam.
- The key value a customer wants to get out of my product is to have help for study whenever he/she likes.
- The customer can also get these additional benefits: To have an access to English classes and make a clear path to enter American college.
- We will acquire the majority of our customers through social media marketing and word-of-mouth.
- We will make money by charging a monthly fee from the app.
- Our primary competition in the market will be larger tutoring companies.
- We will beat them due to our positioning as a tutoring company, a platform designed for all students who seek better opportunities in Vietnam.
- We will solve this through a more robust technical implementation.
- We will know we are successful when we see the following changes in customer behavior: increasing sign-up and daily sign-ins.
- What other assumptions do we have that, if proven false, will cause our business/product to fail? Users have strong dislike for not flexible tutor schedules, and are often expensive.
User assumptions
- Who is the user? Students in Vietnam
- Where does our product fit in their life? At home, daily study time
- What problem will our product solve? Uneasy scheduling with tutors.
- When and how our product is used? Whenever a user wants to call a tutor to help study, keep up their motivation to study.
- What features are important? Book tutor (in-person or online), English classes, and American college pathway.
- How should our product look and behave? Functional, fun to use, motivates students to be smart, and minimalist that users can book a tutor or take a class within a few clicks.
Market Research
C2C Tutoring Service Market
• Overall, C2C tutoring service market is keep growing during and even stronger after the pandemic.
• The latest estimates show that global tutoring market will total $4B in 2020, growing to hit $218B in 2027.
• Over 22M Vietnamese students, out of which approximately 2M are high school students planning to study abroad.
Product Focus
Schoolbird focuses on academic grading at school and long-term homework help, whereas, most others focus on college level one-off tutoring, library or freelancer marketplace.
Audience
Who are we talking to?
The more precise and detailed the better. Age, sex, demographics, psychographics; buying and usage habits; values, attitudes, lifestyles, occupation, online frequency?
Key target audience insight
What insights do we have about them? What do they care about?
– English fluency
– American music and culture
– Degrees from an American college/university
– K-Pop, anime and games
Current consumer beliefs, understanding, and barriers
Desired Action: What do we want them to think, feel, or do?
What is the most compelling thing we want the target to think after they experience the project?
A concise statement of the effect the ad should have on consumers.
Model
Tutoring subscription and service fees. A $50 per month subscription membership. A tutoring marketplace service fee/commission for matching teachers and experts learning program packages with prospective students.
How might we?
Problem: Students aren’t focus on their study at home
How might we use student’s energy to study?
Problem: Users aren’t aware of the full product offerings
How might we increase awareness of the full product offerings?
Problem: Users find the calling tutor process difficult
How might we make the calling tutor process quick and intuitive?
Problem: Users often unsure how to apply for American university
How might we make users show a clear path to enter American university?
Problem: For younger student parents, they are often too busy to help their kid’s homework and study
How might we help user’s homework and study?
Problem: Users want flexibility, they want to book a tutor whenever they want
How might we increase users’ flexibility in scheduling tutors?
Problem: In general, studying alone at home is boring and not engaging
How might we make users engage in studying at home alone?
Problem: Users unsure whether they have a chance to apply to American universities
How might we encourage students to apply to American universities?
