THE PRODUCT FOLKS PRODUCT INTEGRATION CASE STUDY ‘A Product Teardown Case studyThe Product Folks Corporate Breakdown ASL the holding company of UniCreds, Unischolarz and Uniacco, intends to consolidate it’s offerings and build an end to end experience for students planning to study abroad. Each entity owns a specific activity in the customer value chain 1. Unischolarz : Assists in course discovery 2. uniCreds : Facilitates lending by partnerships 3, UniAcco : Facilitates discovery and leasing of PBSA ‘With over 4 million users, the platforms involve a reasonable degree of sales intervention. @ UniCreds Total Userbase 4Mn+ BuniScholarz ctor oriing inThe Product Folks UniScholarz Unischolarz assists students right from identifying the right course and profile evaluation to finding the right counsellor for studying abroad. Preliminary Analysis 1. The geo-distribution is skewed towards India, followed by UK and US respectively. 2. The traffic shows a seasonal spike, consistent with other players in the vertical. 3. Traffic is primarily organic with growth primarily driven by growth in indian segment 4. Tratfic is dominated by desktop tratfic closely followed by mobile traffic SP gh gh gg gh hgh gba o? PEEP ESL OILS oe / voThe Product Folks UniCreds Unicreds enables students to discover the financing options available to them. it ‘engages in partnerships and has a dedicated team of counselors who work closely with the subjects, Preliminary Analysis 1. The geo-distribution is skewed towards India, closely followed by US. 2. Traffic is primarily organic with seasonal fluctuations in trattic 3. Traffic is dominated by desktop trattic closely followed by mobile traffic 4, Pages per visit remained consistent however the time on site increased a ut A - | \ & * PP ahah yh Pah od Poh oe PE SEPP ELIE? orgie aesiconeThe Product Folks UniAcco Uniacco aggregates Purpose Built student Accommodation (PBSA) properties and enables customers to compare, consult and lease these properties through its platform, Prelit inary Analysis 1. The geo-distribution is skewed towards UK, closely followed by Indic. 2. UK's PBSA receive the maximum ‘outbound queries 3. Traffic is dominated by desktop traffic closely followed by mobile trafic 4, Pages per visit as well as the time on site have increased Tate Source SrestdonnThe Product Folks Playbook Refining Onboarding Experience India is one of the key geographies for ASL entities. The top of the funnel is dominated by Indian ‘customers which falls to tickle down due to lack of a cohesive customer experience. Building an end to end experience for indian customers would help consolidate ASLs presence throughout the student journey and make it easier for students to migrate between different services. This playbook could be well replicated across ‘geographies. $ | Buicrede $ | O unites cxcompte nities ct neg 9 ‘she woes omigten F Unicrede 0 unikeco ome af None ie SetonThe Product Folks Market Thesis Foreign enrollments have outpaced their domestic counterparts. This outflow is primarily driven by improved access to credit and better professional ‘and academic outcomes abroad. This trend maps to an increased student expenditure by outgoing students. The rise could be attributed to rise in college tuition and living expenses. student : Expenditure ~s808n + 2% from FYI Income Rise Opportunities Abroad by vovare moby of inn Forlnerolnerts neve outpaced domestic elinets Access to Credit, Inprovedaccess cet to ance Higher uving standardsThe Product Folks User Thesis While the student interacts with several third parties during the admissions process, only 1 few of these parties tend to be present throughout the student's journey. Due to these fragmented intermediaries, students tend to have a difficult time pushing through the ‘pplication End to End Journey Theee alter end to end support to students by often through pertnershipe with Pre Enrollment on Enrollment Post Enroliment Acie hang et bend + Research '* Scholarships (* VISA & Travel — ‘+ Test Preparation * Seeking creat © insurance itferetiation + Admission Counseling 2 thing expense 1 hetorodoton (WLEAPSCHOLAR Bunischolarz | | BUniCreds | | O uniAcco @ocree fovionaareThe Product Folks User Thesis Customer sentiment varies a lot throughout the journey. Test Preparation Vertical has some of the highest NPS scores whereas Visa Processing, Financing, Migration, Travel pat ebrhaer sete ‘and Accommodation Verticals have lower than median NPS Scores, + Promoters ~ # Detractors +8 Respondents * 1/100 ee scores could help us “eeomine customer ‘experiences Outbound student ineination towarde [NPS Scores Throughout User Journey brternal SupporThe Product Folks User Story emogrophy. User Need User story a {8b Te UegenaeSer teste arg (8) tinted comet late rreaip a din pce dng avo ete Honaporney Lrawnoy bt sateen, Feta a Zerounegios uct Pernn tos ron Iw per eco erent te wanestonowo Settler onus son 2370, “sie iene eng tame 92600000 oct arg (8) oc aaline wa engage tate at ati ag kare ete ey ran o ete posaenototerea Suh ye ote ergo. Pann ay aod Rona an 2 itive ptin one woes tea ‘ace ting tenes ha ste freer rae ron ing ates ‘eas emer age 3770 sreane 200000 —) ozatutine nak engagenent ‘Neer cig men igor ‘aie Trane engl ts ow pare atge cece sere pomtpones satis eats Beamer Scomeenee Sena SSSThe Product Folks Integration Thesis Lack of Category wit Ditferentiation At it’s core, the product offerings are undifferentiated. ASL relies on traditional distribution channels and lacks a distribution advantage over it's rivals. similarly, the services have a high sales involvement which does improve its competitive standing. However the entities have seasonal spikes in traffic which lead to operational inefficiencies, There is lttle room for building a network advantage since the product is primatily transactional in nature. Thus, currently there is little differentiation in distribution, product, service or network across the the segment Dietrbution ‘Advantage service ierentiation 3 hgrant han Product itferentiation 2 eouping along eve Network advantageThe Product Folks Integration Thesis ‘Change in Market Dynamics There has been a renewed interest in the space. Higher Education Enablement Platforms are venture backed and are led by operators with deep expertise in banking, proptech ete. Existing competitors have actively pursued geographic expansion thereby threatening ASt’s competitive standing, Improve LTV : GAC Integration improves avenues for cross sells which leads to @ higher LTV and reduces CAC as well Integrating services reduces friction between services and improves the customer experience. Existing customers are more likely to generate WOM. @H wer umber of Funding Rounds: 4 Total Funding Amount: $1825M @ocxee toviror Venture backed Eyeing geographic expansionThe Product Folks User Flow Eleting Worktow le fragmented 1. streamlining neticiensies in the usetiow 2. Reducing redundancies and ensuring ‘ata tow between platforms unicreds SHEE a uniacco UnischotarzThe Product Folks Refining Navigation In order to build an end to end experience, i's important to bring visibility to Unicreds and UniAcco during customer journey. Currently, nudges to Unicreds and UniAcco are not within the first fold making customer discovery difficult Thus, in our case the problem of cross selling essentially becomes a product discovery problem. fring vswity to unicreas ond uriaceoThe Product Folks Onboarding In order to avail counselling, users need to fil out a form cn each platform. Consultants use these to understand the subjects and help prospective stucents find the right fit on the downside, this adds a lot of friction during onboarding, Furthermore, Pils and customer preferences dont change from one platform to another. Thus, making this step unnecessary. This could be addressed by enabling data flow from one platform to anether. content agnostic eras enboarsing conboarding xpeienceThe Product Folks Nudges Although lines and funnels could help understand the customer journey, but user journeys arent linear. User-centtric onboarding gives users an easy way in and an easier way out. In case the user decides not to complete onboarding, it is cucial to nudge them to get started. Its imperative to ensure current progress is restored when the user restarts conboarding, Furthermore, TTV can be reduced with context-aware CTAs, Currently onboarding is done primarily via forms which makes it dificult to track user journey and incorporate secondary onboarding. What doesn't get measured, doesnt get improved ‘content agnostic eras onboording tacks ‘onboardingThe Product Folks Indicate continuum its important to indicate continuum throughout the user journey. This involves mapping current steps to the future steps in the user journey. Building an end to end experience involves blending experiences from other products. This adds tremendous stickiness to the product. olga act ot ploy Inaleate current steps rleate nett steps as watThe Product Folks Wireframes Bonding Tweaks ul creaolsy contexte! OndoardingThe Product Folks Wireframes spank uigeney Indicate continuum Improved counseling Expense 7 ia recount 18 enable Clr insestion ot next catoriow steps, wnprovedievigation caer indicat nat ‘eveThe Product Folks Wireframes Account to enable dota Imoroved Customer Frating tigation between serve Improved Nawgation wages esata teeyeureyThe Product Folks Streamline Engagements Despite being tech enabled, engagements are primarily human led. Sales Team and Consultants form a key customer touchpoint. Thus, it’s important to streamline engagement Consultants could be incentivized to improve cross sells, lack ot soba root Uncertainty around engagementThe Product Folks WireframesThe Product Folks Community Integration Community led integration involves building a shared community experience throughout ASL Having a shared ‘community opens up avenues for cross sells. This could include building a community to enable existing candidates engage with consultants, existing alumnus or students whove availed ASL in the past. Having strong alumni connections could help build ASL credibility as well. The key consideration would be aligning it with the incentives of the past and prospective students shared Experience Fociltating bigcussions Ccrectility by AssociationThe Product Folks Wireframes oredeipeience _CIBBIY by Asteionan Feces oSéussione S Prometing St serveThe Product Folks Acco: Integration ‘Overtime, Acco has built @ strong foothold in UK. A significant chunk of the UK origin queries are inbound, primarily geared towards finding accommodations in UK. Thus, Acco might be catering to 2 entirely different personas Uk Accommodation Cohort : Includes users switching from existing accommodation providers and UK natives. This cohort won't find ASL integration valuable. it's important to keep the current integration aligned to their needs since they comprise a significant chunk of Acco’s existing users. Study Abroad Cohort : A growing segment which includes foreign nationals looking for PBSA in UK. This cohort seems to drive the growth in the past 6 months. if it keeps growing at current pace, it could outgrow UK ‘Accommodation Cohort in 18 months* organic Tarte Brenaoan utbaura uses BretdounThe Product Folks Wireframes ‘randng Tweaks awgoten romaine utero 7 Mina wae Doesnt eer he cre experience Ast Acsount forte mgrotonThe Product Folks Brand Architecture Rebranding Brand architecture plays a key role in building an end to ‘end user experience and sets course for other ul/UX Bunischoloe ‘enhancements throughout the platform ‘Thus, brand synergy should be actively pursed while integrating products and shouldnt be seen as an Sruaeaa afterthought. In our case, since the target entities have little overlap in the value chain it’s feasible for us to retain most of their © unincco current branding elements and introduce a few tweaks to signal their shared future. Bunscrcare PUnicrede 0 vniaccoThe Product Folks Feature Prioritization Product reature reach impact conti er ie Score ng = 4 7 a 09000667 etiing Ena Sate = 4 08 3 SEE ASL Acoaant 5 4 i 4 5 stream tngagerent| 3 3 os 2 a8 ‘shores Community han! 4 4 08 4 32 Fofinng Content strategy 4 4 os 3 esesssee7 ‘Conte aware Nuage= 4 3 os 4 8 Recommendations for PilotThe Product Folks KPI Breakdown (our patth to medium to long term, eustainable, de nelle and differentiated growth isa function of our ability to e ce ett vee oro utters 2 which fa function of our abit to Z ce rl etching cots improve Activation Rte svscminetngoge We believe the key opportunities and leverage pointe to influence theee inpute are 3 conocer tne elt rngogerane tom pr coor mgr net Sore : Compt eepement ae pe rove z pest chun comvnion tte pet coor open pao uly gThe Product Folks Integration Roadmap Company stkaholde algneent Pre mgratin. etring Nevigation Ad osil Ancbore Product : Product Re-brnding ating ontorcing streamine vigaton ‘reomine sngogemerts