A premier U.S. research institution
Digital learning group serving 10,000+ online learnersProblem
- ✓Strong initial traction in biology, but no systematic way to improve engagement.
- ✓No user feedback loop.
- ✓Virtual labs were expensive and slow to produce.
- ✓Paid ads were driving traffic, but analytics made it hard to see what was actually working.
Intervention
- ✓Set up a user feedback loop so the team could hear from learners and educators.
- ✓Led product work on a new virtual lab format.
- ✓Created a simpler lab that cost one-tenth of the previous format.
- ✓Fixed analytics attribution to show educators were finding the content through organic search and sharing it with learners.
Outcome
- ✓A product launched six months ago became the top educational activity.
- ✓It outperformed previous popular activities by 5x.
- ✓The simpler lab delivered similar engagement at one-tenth the cost.
- ✓User feedback became a regular input for product decisions.
- ✓Retention analysis showed organic-search users learned far longer than paid-acquisition users — so the team rerouted ad budget into technical SEO, cutting acquisition spend while growing users.
“We cut lab production costs by 90% and engagement went up 5x. That changed how we fund content.”
Before / After
Before
- Expensive labs
- No feedback loop
- Paid ads driving traffic
After
- 90% cheaper labs
- 5x engagement
- Organic growth