✨ Case Study
In 2020, the global workforce made an abrupt pivot. Tech companies saw huge shifts as remote hiring surged.
Yet we lacked a playbook for integrating new software engineers to teams.
Now, with over 50 enterprises using the solution I created, I'm proud to have significantly influenced today's tech industry.
Customer Discovery
Small INsights Can MEan Big Business
During a customer call, I encountered a client overwhelmed by the sheer volume of onboarding materials, prompting me to question the root cause of this struggle.
I started probing into the manager's problems.
FYI: Onboarding is the process that spans from the day a new employee is hired until they become a productive team member.
Customer Discovery: part 1
The Engineering Manager's Dilemma
"Onboarding a new hire is a high-energy endeavor, a delicate balance between orienting newcomers and maintaining our momentum in feature delivery."
— Engineering Manager
Document management was merely indicative of deeper issues—onboarding, by nature, is hard!
With onboarding taking up to 12 months according to Engineering Leaders and the average engineer's tenure at just 18 months, That is just six months of prime productivity!
A graph of the average industry tenure of a Software Engineer
This begs the question
"How might we increase the time of prime productivity for a new Engineer?"
Customer Discovery: part 2
Through the Engineer's Lens
After some research and interviews, it became clear that New hires had their own struggles.
Onboarding can feel like navigating a maze with outdated maps. Recall your first day at a new company.
Engineers hesitate to inquire: Aiming to not appear unknowledgeable.
There's a lot to learn: But the fact is that most of it is not important.
Engineers seek growth: If they can’t find growth they might look elsewhere.
"In my first month, I spent more time hunting for clues than actually solving problems”
— Software Developer at a mid size organization
A summary of survey results
This begs another question.
"How might we design an onboarding experience that empowers the engineer?"
“How Might We Questions” were extremely useful at this stage.
From the book “The Design Thinking Toolbox”
Market Research
Building a Business Case
To build a compelling case for this new initiative, I needed to present a solid business argument to my leadership.
Here's what I found:
Recruitment trends indicated an upswing in hiring — encouraging news for us.
The market for software onboarding products was valued at $2 billion. Within this market, our target was a niche at the crossroads of engineering, learning — A sizeable chunk.
Educative had an already established catalog of courses for engineers. — This was Educative's unfair advantage.
The industry lacked tools designed to onboard software engineers.
Simplified results of a rigorous competitive research
"poor onboarding practices lead to eight days of wAsted Time each month"
Goals
North Star
Be the First Mover: In a rapidly evolving market, outpace emerging competitors.
Co-create with customers: Engaging customers directly in the product development process.
Build something you love: Launching only when the product demonstrably enhances our team's performance.
Solution Space: Part 1
Onboarding should be simple
The key insight was "Hiring Managers measure onboarding success in weeks.”
Daily tracking isn't productive for new hires and isn't practical for busy managers.
We created a linear weekly planning system with the following building blocks:
Tasks — Action items, ranging from signing documents to configuring GitHub.
Modules — A collection of company guidelines and technical knowledge, such as JavaScript best practices.
Connects — Interactions where new hires meet team members, facilitating knowledge transfer and comfort—vital during remote work conditions.
Solution Space: Part 2
Making onboarding SCalable
Measure What Matters: A dashboard provides clear visibility into onboarding status and challenges.
Now managers can focus on fostering connections in meetings and track individual progress in the background.
Solution Space: Part 3
Making plans in 3 2 1…
Hiring managers can now customize pre-made courses, stripping away excess material and incorporating company-specific information.
The ultimate goal was to enable the creation of an onboarding plan in under 30 minutes. Achieving this standard of "good" required multiple iterations.
[Update Nov 2021]: We added pre-built templates of common onboarding plans to make the experience even better.
PRoduct MArketing
Landing Page
I partnered with the marketing team to:
Launch an onboarding landing page.
Make email marketing campaigns.
Develop personas for targeted Marketing.
Here is the landing page.
My Role
It's about Teamwork
As the lead product manager and DRI (Directly Responsible Individual).
I had the privilege of working alongside a highly skilled team:
A supporting PM
Five engineers
Two designers
Sales Team
Marketing team
In an attempt to capture the personality of my team
My Role
Making Strides
Spearheaded the rollout of the product internally — A 200 employee organization.
Gave a demo to our first customer and helped them create onboardings.
Devised comprehensive roadmaps and defined MVP criteria.
Created and presented prototypes to Stakeholders and Leadership.
TEchnical
Shortened our time to launch by three weeks by leveraging existing architecture.
Reviewed the code for a UI wrapper for quality UX.
Design
Created all User Experience workflows.
Acted as a design reviewer, focusing on an empathetic interface for new hires.
Project Management
Stakeholder communication: Synchronized deadlines across teams.
Keeping the deliverables on track.
Customer Support
Troubleshot issues with customers through calls.
Developed instructional guides for initial customers.
IMPACT
PRODUCT MARKET FIT?
Reduced new employee onboarding time upto 33%, from 6 to 4 weeks.
50 enterprise customers and counting.
50% increase in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)*.
Companies such as Airbnb, Ford, Grab, Groupon, TMobile became customers.*
Looking BAck
The aftermath
Educative Onboarding is one of my biggest achievements to date, it has inspired me to push myself to build things that makes a change in someone's life.
*I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Educative.The information provided does not necessarily reflect the current state of affairs.