If you know a skilled workshop instructor, odds are he or she runs a lean business. Whether teaching creative writing, demonstrating the art of glass-blowing, or running a DIY workshop, these teachers have to wear multiple hats--businessperson, instructor, creator, marketer, in-person event planner, accountant--each of which adds complexity and stress to their schedules. Our team examined how these skill-sharers might utilize a digital product to improve their workshop-hosting experience and designed a simple marketing tool to save them time and effort.
Resource and Timeline: Five UX Designers, four remote sprints
My Role: UX Research and Design
Tools: Figma, Sketch, whiteboarding
Client: simulated, instructors as stakeholders
Focus areas: user research, ideating
Deliverables: Research artifacts (competitive analysis, user personas, journey map, empathy map), site map, annotated wireframes, prototype
Identify a market opportunity for a digital product for hosts of in-person workshops
A website where workshop hosts could identify, create, and schedule marketing tasks to promote their in-person events
https://www.figma.com/embed?embed_host=notion&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.figma.com%2Fproto%2FnQGf87bJ9HCLBVQ48jY6Sn%2FMarketMe-Mid-Fidelity-Prototype%3Fnode-id%3D37%253A796%26viewport%3D322%252C300%252C0.10463918745517731%26scaling%3Dcontain
Validating need and assumptions
We first needed to identify a market gap for this product, and then match that opportunity space with user needs. Initial assumptions told us that the most challenging part of hosting an in-person workshop might be the logistics: booking venues, coordinating with vendors, and managing attendee RSVPs. With this in mind, we conducted a competitive analysis of seven key competitors and asked two questions of each platform:
How easy is it to manage vendor bookings through this platform?
How much user support does this platform offer?
These seven competitors were either in the workshop domain directly, like Airbnb Experiences or Skillshare, or a complementary domain like wedding-planning or corporate venue booking. We found that one direct competitor scored well on both metrics, but as it was an online-only platform, we saw a market opportunity for a platform that could service those hosting in-person workshops.
Next, we spoke with workshop hosts to learn their needs, frustrations, and concerns with the hosting experience. We spoke to 13 users and gathered over 200 quotes and takeaways from those conversations.
Fueled by Girl Scout cookies, 200+ takeaways became three key insights
To sort through these efficiently, we prioritized the notes detailing the user challenges and uncovered three surprising insights that informed our subsequent work.
<aside> 1️⃣ Managing logistics was a pain because users feared the hassle would cause them to lose passion for their craft. They wanted to spend their efforts on making valuable workshops--not on making the workshops happen.
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<aside> 2️⃣ Offering value to their community and inspiring others were equally, if not more important, than monetization. One user was even willing to take a financial loss on her workshops if it meant providing a great experience.
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<aside> 3️⃣ Users dreaded marketing their workshops, saying that it was "a job on its own,” "intimidating," and "hard to get right" without guidance.
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What is getting in the way of the workshop host?