Learning Management Systems

Why you might find this interesting:

I’ve included this as a Case Study because, after more than 10 years leading application development teams, it was revelatory to me that there is massive capability available at relatively low cost by adopting a “Configuration” rather than “Development” approach. That isn’t to say that Config is easy but, acknowledging it as an option may provide a faster route to value realisation.

  • Product delivery
  • Off The Shelf (OTS) software configuration
  • Product invention
  • Ed Tech
  • WordPress and PlugIns

The Company

Wyoming-Interactive is a full- service digital marketing agency offering consultancy, development, demand generation, design and e-commerce services.

Based Edinburgh. 30 staff. Established 2008.

Wyoming’s client base is spread across many sectors but in recent years the agency has developed deeper experience of servicing clients in Life Sciences, Finance, Tech and Education

The Summary

Challenge

Take an existing LMS service and turn it into a SaaS product with mass appeal.

Response

Assess market size, existing tech, available tech and establish a development Roadmap with accompanying Business Plan and Go To Market strategy

Outcome

A much more feature-rich platform based on a configuration of several OTS platforms.

Go To Market strategy is currently in play

The Detail

Where we started

Background

Wyoming had 3+ years successful experience of providing Audience Engagement services based on Content Management Systems (CMS). The services Wyoming provided extended into education content creation (firmly rooted in Instructional Design) and in developing strategies for clients to help retain and grow their audience – all in support of their brands. Education was being used to build brand. Sufficient feature capability had been build into their CMS that it could be considered a Learning Management System (LMS).

A brand identity for this LMS had been created (CheyenneLMS) and some first steps had been taken to promote this more widely.

The hope was that the LMS upon which Cheyenne was based could be “productised” into a SaaS LMS and gain a foothold in the e-Learning industry which had accelerated rapidly through the challenges brought by Covid.

Challenges

Commercial Challenges

  • Is there a market?
  • How much competition is out there?
  • How do we leverage Wyoming skills & experience in content creation and audience engagement?
  • How do we engage the addressable market?

Tech Challenges

  • Is the Cheyenne platform truly scaleable to support thousands of clients rather than dozens?
  • If not, how do we create something that is?

Skills challenges

  • Do we have free capacity of Devs, UX and QA to commit to transforming the existing platform and supporting that in it future state?
  • If not, how do we find that talent?

The delivery phases

Phase 1 :: Establishing Business Case, Vision & Roadmap

The main goals of this Phase were to answer these questions:

  • Is there a need (a market) for a SaaS LMS?
  • What is a “SaaS LMS”?
  • Can we address the market with what we’ve got, if not what will we need?
  • How much effort and cost will be incurred to get us to where we need to be at need of Y1, Y2 and Y3?

Duration

3 months

Q1 21

Methodology

Desk Research

Outcomes

  • Established the addressable market size
  • Established a conservative-pessimistic but very attractive market penetration target
  • Articulated a 3 Year Business and Product Vision which was accepted by Sponsors as attainable and attractive
  • Reviewed existing technology in the context the Vision
  • Listed Product features at “Epic of Epic” level for the anticipated SaaS core product
  • Described outline concepts for ancillary, optional or independent Product/Service offerings that could follow on from “core” Product
  • Collated experience-based estimates for the effort required to adapt & extend existing tech vs green-field build
  • Delivered an Options Analysis & took decision on approach to be taken (Green Field Build)
  • Articulated a Roadmap covering Product, Client Support, Marketing & Sales and Business Structure

The Players

AT, NP, RI, MC, SB, IS

Lessons Learned Remembered

The methodology and formats for articulating direction were nothing new – a tried and tested recipe. Apart from gaining an understand of the immense scale of the E-Learning industry, this phase served to remind me (/us) of a couple of things…

As Product Owners, we are always spending somone else’s money until we are ROI positive. We take on a debt as soon as we attend our first meeting about a new initiative.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if you have a tested format for articulating a Vision and building excitement.

There is seldom a need for a “Project Plan” (those terrible Gannt things). Roadmaps, sequence and emperical velocity will nearly always be more credible than a Project Plan

Phase 2 :: Tech Decisions & A Pivot

Having considered out Feature requirements, our attention was drawn to WordPress (but like so many code “purists”, rather dismissed it) and the range of “PlugIns” available to it.  For those that don’t know this world (and I was one of these at the time), there is a universe of “PlugIns” (applications of widely varying capability (and quality!)) that allow web designers to deliver functionality that would normally require multi-skilled teams weeks / months / years to deliver and embed in a web application. 

The revelation to me was that there were scores of PlugIns which could turn a WordPress site into a Learning Management System.  The challenge of a green-field build could possibly be re-framed as a “Configuration” rather than “Coding” challenge.  We needed to investigate further.

Questions to be answered:

  • Does this change our Business Vision?
  • Can we find a single (or combination) of PlugIns that meet our functional requirements for our Product that will address our market?
  • Can we find a combination of PlugIns that are continually developed, well supported, with increasing uptake and with a good future?

Duration

3 weeks

Q2 21

Outcomes

  • An analysis of available LMS plugins and the companies behind them
  • An assessment of online Community plugins and the companies behind them
  • Identification of Plugins and 3rd Party software options that could be used to extend a core offering to address likely enterprise-level client requirements for bespoke deployments
  • Presentation of options and recommendations to Sponsors
  • Decision to “Pivot” from self-build to a “OTS Configuration” direction

The Players

AT, NP, RI, SB, TM

Lessons Learned

It’s easy to bias solutions towards what you are good at. It’s more difficult give alternatives fair consideration if you are nervous of a skills / experience gap. This could be why we initially missed the WordPress option.

Having been used to building bespoke applications and data interfaces, I was staggered at the capability and (low) cost of “PlugIns” and 3rd party applications such as Zapier and MiniOrange.

The appeal and variety of PlugIns and 3rd Party apps is attractive. However, you have to search wisely through a mass of crud to find the gems. Look for those that are produced by well-established companies. Look for PlugIns that have a history of working with each other and reference each other in their support documentation / forums

Phase 3 :: Prototype Delivery

The solution we opted for was a combination of WordPress, LearnDash and BuddyBoss to form the “core” offering.  In simplest terms:

  • WordPress gave us the website structure and management in a tool familiar to many, many thousand web designers
  • Learndash gave us course and user management and content creation
  • BuddyBoss gave us the “Community” or social functionality that is commonly expected by organisations for their e-Learning environments

Duration

1 month

Q2 21

Methodology

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

Outcomes

  • A Demonstratable version that is client-deployable
  • Many of the features that are anticipated to be requested were proven to function as expected
  • The Demo version was created without the need for coding, thereby reducing the support burden and keeping our product easily within the upgrade paths for the various PlugIns employed

The Players

AT, TM, MM, CH

Lessons Learned

A “Config” solution does not mean does not mean it’s a “No Tech” option. It’s just a different set of tech skills that are needed. Skills for “Config” are baised towards Design, UX, User Testing and “Systems Admin” – all Engineering / Tech skills. However, the Config option will save on Back End Dev, Front End Dev, Full Stack Dev and Tes

Rapid Application Development still requires control. Make small changes. Test. Make another.

Get used to Rolling back.

Don’t forget Security. WordPress claims to power >30% or the worlds websites. That makes it a large target. Take steps from database level upwards to differentiate yourself from the “large target”.

Phase 4 :: Sales & Marketing Action

Content to follow

Credits

Thank you to all of the following for all your help and support bringing to life a good Product.

UX

TM, SB, CP

Demand Generation

AJ, AA, SMac

Tech & Engineering

IS, JK

Consultants

MM, MC

The sponsors that kept the faith

NP, RI