EdTech happens to be one of the leading and challenging industries. It is always in high demand, and venture capitalists are eager to invest in the sector. Especially with the growing comfort of online learning, edtech portals are gaining more and more traction.
Entrepreneurs make many mistakes along the way, even successful ones. What matters is what we learned from them. Even in the edtech industry, everyone doesn’t have the same journey, but there are some common mistakes many of them make.
Now, let’s see some of the most significant mistakes you can avoid while building an edtech platform.
Inadequate market research
You can’t build a successful startup only on the basis of technical knowledge. As a business owner in the education industry, in-depth knowledge about students, their requirements, and challenges is required.
Even if you create the best website, if it is not aligned with your audience’s requirements, chances are it will fail. Many startups make the mistake of jumping into the launch and testing part quickly without researching first. Whereas successful startups take their time and first gain knowledge, analyze the impact on students, and implement.
Unfamiliar with the client-base
Many times businesses don’t know to who they are going to sell to. Suppose you are an education platform for young children. Now, the end user is going to be a child. However, they are not going to be the ones buying or choosing your products.
Even if they are your users, their parents or guardians will make the purchasing decision. Therefore, the marketing for the product needs to resonate with them as well. But that doesn’t mean the product shouldn’t cater to the child’s requirements. Because, in the end, they are the ones who will actually use the product. Therefore, understanding the balance between the requirements is the key.
Lack of transparency
Teachers have been part of the learning system since the beginning. So, naturally, understanding their views and opinion is obviously necessary. But many do not consider their opinions necessary as they are trying to replace them with online learning solutions.
However, in this paradigm learning is incomplete without teachers and therefore understanding what they say is essential.
Unnecessary features
The main aim for any edtech platform should be that it is user-friendly and aligns with their requirements. Many times startuppers are mesmerized by new technology and try to incorporate unnecessary features, over-the-top accessories, and so on. Granted, new technology is exciting, but not everything is required everywhere.
All these unnecessary things that companies add, thinking it will attract the audience, actually end up confusing them. If the end product is complex and students cannot use it properly, they will eventually abandon it.
Expecting gains too soon
Any startup, especially an edtech startup, is a marathon, not a sprint. Marketing is already tricky here. And if businesses think that they will start churning out profit as soon as they launch, then they are in troubled waters.
If it happens as they have wished, it’s amazing. However, more often than none, it doesn’t work that way. The mistake businesses make is that they don’t plan for what to do when they don’t get gains immediately. They don’t manage their funds enough to sustain them before they start earning profit. It can also lead to the platform shutting down due to a lack of funds.
So, these are some of the common mistakes. According to you, which are some other mistakes, people make in the edtech industry?