Overseeing improvements that scaled to 170 projects across 27 countries, I improved course completion for over-the-phone trainings by 10%

My role: Brought in as the first product manager for Viamo’s Digital Training product, I was responsible for analysing the product and understanding the user experience to find ways to improve it. This involved completing a product diagnostics to identify the biggest areas for improvement, while also setting up a team to support the product, complete with a Product Vision, Mission and Roadmap.

Process;  Analysing the product funnel highlighted two big areas of drop-out: initial pick-up (23% of participants would not answer the first call of the training course) and quiz completion at the end of a lesson (5% of participants would hang up during the quiz). This highlighted two immediate areas for improvement. Speaking to teachers who had completed the training courses in Uganda then added the qualitative perspective to these data points.

Outcomes: By improving sensitization methods, for example with launch events and automated pre-training calls, while also ensuring the partners I worked with were committed and aware of the importance of a sensation phase, I improved in initial pick-up across projects. In extreme instances where pick-up rates were as low as 11%, pick-up increased by >75%. Using new best practices for sensitisation between different rounds of trainings with different participants, saw an average increase of 10% across all projects from 2021 to 2022

Improving conversion through the quiz was harder as in-person research showed that participants were afraid of repercussions, which is why people didn’t complete the quiz. Before leaving Viamo I set up an initiative that rewarded participants with certificates for successful course completion. Testing had shown that incentives like certificates and airtime positively impacted course completion rates so I was confident that it could be a way to positively encourage people through the quiz. The certificates initiative was rolling out as I left the company.

Key Takeaway:

Data only tells you half the story. Understanding the patterns in your product funnel is a really important part of getting understand product performance, but speaking to your users is often the only way to find out why they are interacting with your product that way.