Product

Manager
Assignment

Madhava Narayanan R
CONTENTS

IDEA 2

ASSUMPTIONS 3

CUSTOMER 4

COMPANY 5

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS 7

PRODUCT 9

DESIGN 12

METRICS 19

TOPICS NOT COVERED 21

KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION APP
IDEA

A mobile app for the LKG and UKG kids to develop Numbers, English, and other
important skills as per a standards-based curriculum (like CBSE).

BACKGROUND

Our kid was studying in Pre-KG when CoVID hit India in March 2020. We took a
break in 2020 as we did not believe in online classes for an LKG kid. But we
decided to educate our kid at home. My wife, an Assistant Professor in an
Engineering college earlier, did all the research and took all the pains to plan,
schedule, and make our kid gain all the important skills.

As the severity of the pandemic did not reduce in 2021, we decided to admit her
to a school. We asked for a double promotion as we were confident in the
learnings and fortunately, we got it after clearing the tests and interviews.

Now, in UKG, the situation is far from better. The school just sends few minutes of
videos and the parents have to spend a great amount of effort to educate our
kids. The fees paid are around 50-75K per year but their contribution is just to
provide homework daily and conduct tests once a quarter.

We discussed the scenario with various parents in various locations and schools
and the situation is the same. On one side, the parents are not happy spending so
much to get almost nothing and do all the school’s work themselves. On the other
side, some parents have taken a break as we did in 2020 irrespective of the
standard the child is in; some said they took a break-even in secondary education.
Note: We are also eligible to get a seat in Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) where LKG and
UKG education is not mandated. Our goal is to make our kid gain the required
skills so that she does not lag while joining the 1st standard in KV.

ASSUMPTIONS

As the goal is decided to develop a mobile learning product of choice, it is

assumed that the following is done and the idea is validated to go ahead:

1. Industry (Say Porter’s 5 forces) – EdTech industry is analyzed to understand

the CAGR, the growth potential and other crucial factors
2. Market Demand / Trends – The demand and trends specific to KG
education are analyzed to get a deeper understanding
3. Competitive analysis – Competitors are studied to understand their
products and gaps
4. PESTEL or Climate Analysis – Especially, the political and regulatory
scenarios are studied to know the risks and impacts on the way the
company can be enhanced and product can be built and monetized. This is
critical keeping in mind China’s recent crackdown on EdTech
5. Market and user research – An elaborate market research is done to
understand the
a. The goals, requirements, and pain points of parents and kids
b. Current practices, costs, and products that are used
c. Expectations from a product and pricing point of view
d. Abilities and disabilities of kids
e. Mobile usage behavior of kids
Important Note:

The primary and secondary research data collected here will be driving every
single decision in the sections ahead.

CUSTOMER

BUYER PERSONA

1. Parents (preferably one parent not working) of kids wanting to get

admission to LKG or UKG in the pandemic world. They are not satisfied with
spending a lot of money to just get some videos or attend an hour of
chaotic online class daily. They would rather skip a year of school than
spend on the school and do all the teacher’s work at home.

But they want to bring their kid up as per an established curriculum in India
till COVID subsides and be qualified to join the next standard.

2. Central government employees who are interested in getting admission to

Kendriya Vidyalaya (CBSE). As they can gain admission to 1st standard at an
appropriate age without completing LKG and UKG, it would be sufficient to
gain the required knowledge now

USER PERSONA

A 3-5 years old kid who is exposed to Mobiles and some apps. They could have
studied Pre KG or LKG in a school online or offline.
PAIN POINTS

Without joining a school

1. It is not easy to educate kids on a standard curriculum

2. There is no motivation to complete exercises unlike in Schools where
they give homework
3. There is no learning plan for the year
4. There are no evaluations and tests
5. The parents might worry the kid will not grow up to the expectations

NEEDS

The need is to bring up the kid as per an established curriculum in a structured,

interactive, and fun way at an appropriate cost.

COMPANY

MISSION

Kick start the kids’ journey in achieving their life goals by providing a strong
basement in education. The tagline is “You see learning. Your child sees fun.”

TARGET MARKET

Educated parents with 3-5 years old kid(s) in India

VALUE PROPOSITION

Enable LKG and UKG kids to get educated on a standards-based curriculum cost-
effectively.
BUSINESS MODEL

The options considered for monetization are

1. Ads
2. Freemium
3. Paid Subscription

Ads Freemium Paid Subscription

Description Show ads based on Provide the basic Gain access to all
the interests of the capabilities for free but the capabilities
user the complete package only after
can only be purchased subscription

Trial NA A free trial of all the Subscription starts

capabilities can be with a free trial
availed for a month for a month after
upon registration providing
payment details

Pros The user is happy to It is easy to get started High probability

get the full and enjoy the for the users to
functionality of the interesting activities use the app to the
app and exercises max potential.
Good inflow of
revenues
 Cons As kids are the end- The kids could just use Starting as a paid
users, the ads it as just another app app could be a
would be to pass time and have huge barrier to
distracting and fun adoption
irrelevant

It is decided to go ahead with the Freemium model as we don’t want to distract

the kids with ads and start with a barrier. It is assumed the market research backs
this direction.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

For this analysis, we are considering two of the top apps with millions of
downloads targeted at the same age group providing a similar value proposition.

Product Kindergarten Kids ABCmouse

Learning App

About Kindergarten kids learning ABCmouse is a learning

games app presents program that covers a wide
educative and fun games range of topics. It has 10,000+
for toddlers & preschool Learning Activities for children
children at all academic levels.

Benefits Educative fun games for Full standards-based

toddlers & preschool curriculum for learning on
children mobile devices.
All academic subjects for
 toddlers, preschool,
kindergarten, 1st grade, and
2nd grade

Target Market Kids aged 2-6 Kids aged 2 to 8 in the U.S.

Business Model Freemium Paid Subscription

Trial - Payment details are required

to trial the app

Installs 5M+ 10M+

Key Features Interactive and fun games 10 levels, over 850 lessons,
and ways to learn English, and 10,000+ individual
Mathematics, Drawing, Learning Activities.
etc., Covers math, reading, science,
social studies, art, and music
across all levels.

Step-by-Step Learning Path

and independent learning

As we are focusing majorly on the product and design, the following are not
considered in the competitive analysis: Marketing and sales strategies,
management, investors, employees, feature specific comparison, latest releases,
plans, support, services, etc.,
ADVANTAGES AGAINST KINDERGARTEN APP

Although the features are similar, the goal of this app is not to provide a
standards-based curriculum and learning path. This would be the primary
differentiator and advantage of our app.

ADVANTAGES AGAINST ABCMOUSE APP

While almost everything is similar to this app, the audience for which this is built
is completely different than our app. ABCmouse targets the U.S audience and
curriculum while ours target India.

PRODUCT

STRATEGY

Let’s target the initial product for LKG kids of the second user persona (Central
government employees wanting their kids to learn CBSE syllabus) using Android
devices.

This is a sizeable market as CBSE affiliates all Kendriya Vidyalayas, all Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalayas, private schools, and most of the schools approved by the
central government of India. There are 1,248 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 3,011
Government Schools, 16,741 Independent Schools, 595 Jawahar Novodaya
Vidyalaya, and 14 Central Tibetan Schools.
ROADMAP

There are 4 modules in the LKG CBSE syllabus:

1. Mathematics
2. English
3. General Awareness
4. Environmental science

The 5th core module is the Learning module. The first 6-8 months roadmap would
be built out of these modules.

Learning Module

The goal is to provide a structure to the education so that the parents don’t have
to spend efforts on these plans and the kids would be motivated to work against
the daily success.

This will provide the complete yearly learning plan including the notebook and
other requirements as required.

Every weekly plan will include exercises to ensure understanding of the learning
that week.

RELEASE

In every release, every module will be allocated 15-20% of the time. Working on
Subjects and related learning paths side by side would ensure we get holistic
feedback during every release.

Here are the submodules using which we can allocate appropriate time:
Module Sub-Module

Mathematics 1. Shapes
2. Count to 10
3. Compare
4. Positions
5. Classify
6. Size
7. Money

English 1. Pre-writing Stokes

2. Capital Letters
3. Small letters
4. Phonetics

General Awareness 1. About Myself

2. Parts of the body
3. Helpers
4. Transport
5. Seasons
6. Animals

Environmental Science 1. Good habits and manners

2. Living and non-living things
3. Traffic rules
4. Safety
TRIAL PLAN

1. Before trial registration, the app will function like many other apps in the
Play Store trying to entertain the Kids through a limited set of activities and
exercises
2. Once a parent registers for a trial or pays for the subscription, all the
activities, and the Learning path will be unlocked

DESIGN

CONSIDERATIONS

Before starting the design, let’s first try to understand the following:

1. Users
2. Context
3. Tasks
4. Goals

Users Educated parents who know 3 to 5-year-old Kids who have

how to use a mobile app. some exposure to Mobile and
apps

Context App used majorly at home App installed on parent’s mobile

or a Tab and used at home

Tasks 1. Modify settings Do activities as shown in the app

2. Trial registration
3. Check learning plan
4. Track progress
 Goals Ensure the kid is progressing Have fun
as per the learning plan

COMPONENTS

As this is a kid’s app, the Design will have the following components to make it
engaging:

1. Visual
2. Motion or animation
3. Sound

Note: We will be concentrating only on the visual design for this assignment.

ACCESSIBILITY

An app can be designed to support specific behavior, situations, and impairments

but it is assumed that we can go ahead with standard design principles as per the
data.

USER JOURNEY AND WIREFRAMES

Let’s assume that after multiple releases Mathematics module is complete.

KIDS – PLAYING WITH THE APP

1. The kid opens the app looking at a colorful and playful icon.
2. After seeing an animated loader the kid is taken directly to this view
3. This is a tile-based design. There will be one larger tile to indicate the start
of the subject of the section. Here, the kid can see the Maths tiles
4. The large tile will try to educate the most important skill. For example,
numbers 1 – 10
5. The smaller tiles will be activities and learning exercises related to other
sub-topics
6. The kid can scroll to see the other sections. This is made obvious by the
partially shown larger tile
7. It would be a clean design with just one icon on the top right other than
tiles
8. That icon will be of adults indicating it is for parents to operate

9. Once the kid clicks on a tile, he/she will be taken to the respective page.
Here the kid has clicked on counts and is seeing the counts based learning
10. The kid can click around to see animations and hear sounds
 11. To go back, we are using the App Drawer icon that many Mobile using kids
are accustomed to.

PARENTS – CHECK LEARNING PLAN AND PROGRESS

1. Parents can click on the icon on the top right

2. A simple Maths calculation will be asked to ensure it is a parent that is
trying to access it
3. On passing the simple test, the parent will be taken to a page similar to the
below design but all the sections will be locked
4. Once the parent registers for a trial, the learning path will be unlocked
5. Here, the parent can see the overall LKG progress
6. They can also modify some basic settings by clicking on the cog wheel icon
7. They can click on any of the subjects to see more details
8. Once a subject is clicked, the parent is taken to the monthly learning
schedule
9. Here, the parent can see the progress at a subject level
10. Then, can click on a month to see the weekly schedule
11. Every month will have 4 weeks of schedule and every week will have a set
of App and paper-based activities and exercises to complete
12. The parents can check out the monthly progress here
13. As they click on the weeks, the activities that need to be done for that week
will open
14. If the activity is app-based, they can click on Go to go to that activity and sit
with the kid to complete
15. If the kid has already played and completed the activity, the Go button will
be replaced with a checkmark
16. If the activity is paper-based, the parent has to mark the status as Done
after completion. Specifications and examples, if any will be shown if
possible or the parent will be taken to a different page for it
VALIDATION AND USER TESTING

Once a prototype is ready, it should be validated with the available audience for
feedback.

And once a version is released, user testing should be done to get feedback on
the user experience.

METRICS

The HEART framework:

1. Happiness
a. Ratings
b. NPS
2. Engagement
a. DAU
b. WAU
c. Session length
d. Pageviews
3. Acquisition
a. New users
4. Retention
a. Users active over a week or weeks
5. Task Success
a. Tasks completed

While the HEART framework could be used to get a holistic perspective, let’s
focus only on the metrics that could serve our strategy and goals.
 1. Out of total users how many have registered for the trial? – This will tell us
how many are using our app as just another app for fun and learning rather
than the USP
2. Out of trial registrations, how many are working for the Government? –
This will tell us whether our marketing efforts are reaching the audience
that we intend to
3. Out of the trial registrations,
a. What is the highest, median, and average progress scores? This will
give some idea on the overall usage
b. How many have visited the weekly plans?
c. How many are visiting it daily?
d. How many are marking the daily status as complete?

The answers to these questions will give us clarity on the engagement. It

may also provide us signals on Journey or UX issues.

Again, if we can separate the data based on Government occupation, it can

give us clarity on how we are performing as per our goals.

MEASURE AND ITERATE

While it is important to develop a proper goal and work towards it, it is important
to keep the eyes open for opportunities and gaps. For example, there could be a
new demographic where we are seeing good adoption and engagement.

Such findings will help us in prioritizing our efforts in the product and marketing in
the right direction and reaching the audience where the product benefits.
TOPICS NOT COVERED

As I focused only on points and questions that were primarily asked, the following
topics are intentionally not covered in this assignment:

1. Technology
2. Hiring
3. Go-To-Market Plan
4. Support
5. Services
6. A/B Tests
7. Supported Mobile OS versions, Resolutions
8. Collaborators - Suppliers, and Partners