Example Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge    I am the CEO of a local newspaper in a small city and want to increase the listing advertisement revenue  of the newspaper. This task is a challenging task because local consumers in a small city nowadays are  putting up their ads or listings in a bigger online listing websites such as https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html or  https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html (these are just fake names to illustrate concept) and generate far more responses or get  attention. So, my team and I have to develop a new advertising product for our newspaper to increase  advertising revenue. We made a design thinking workshop and come up with the following ideas with  “What if questions”:

-  What if we make partnerships with those digital advertising websites like https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html or  https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html, to extend our newspaper’s reach?

-  What if we utilize our newspaper’s ad salesforce or relationships with our local consumers to  bring more advertisers to those websites and ask for a revenue/value share from those websites  in return?

-  What if we find ways to reach out to less tech savvy consumers of our newspaper who are not  able to put their advertisements to those websites themselves?

-  What if we offer a new ad service, with these partnerships, to local consumers that, if they place  their advertisement to my newspaper, we will also publish the same ad on those websites with a  seamless and convenient way?

Selection  Since as it is described in the lecture by Kevin Dietrich “lots of ideas: what is next?”, we have lots of  ideas too and we need to do a learning launch to test these ideas to find out which ones are worth  putting into action. Again, as described in that lecture, we will quickly engage with stakeholders and test  these questions, assumptions.    Application    As the first step, we need to create hypotheses. Our hypotheses would be:

1. There are non-tech savvy people in our local city who cannot use internet or put their

advertisements to online websites, we want to reach to those people with our salesforce and  ask them to put their advertisement to our newspaper and we will publish their add in big  advertisement websites too. Would this increase our advertisement customers?

2. Is it possible to make partnerships with https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html or https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html and utilizing our

newspaper’s ad salesforce or relationships with our local consumers to bring more advertisers  to those websites and ask for a revenue/value share from those websites in return?

Second, we need to design the learning launch. I will utilize the table described in Kevin Dietrich’s  lecture as below:

Key  Hypothesis

Who  How  Timeframe Cost

#1 above  Small multi-functional team + a  skeptic:  1 ad salesperson, 1 marketing person,  1 business analyst as skeptic

Going over our database of advertisers,  segmenting them and reaching out to  old and non-tech savvy ones. 200

6 weeks  1000  USD

people should be contacted by phone  and a survey will be done.

#2 above  Small multi-functional team + a  skeptic:  1 business development department  member, 1 partnerships department  member, 1 business analyst as skeptic

Reaching out to websites like  https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html, https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html, etc,  arranging Zoom meetings with them,  explain the partnership idea and ask if  they accept this partnership.  10 websites will be reached.

6 weeks  2000  USD

Insight    As we applied the learning launch as described above in the Application section, we found following  results:

▪  For the hypothesis #1:

Among 200 advertisers, 179 of them accepted to put their advertisements to our newspaper. This  number is equal to 89.5%.,

▪  For the hypothesis #2:

Among 10 websites reached out for partnership idea:

-  3 agreed

-  5 asked for more information and more explanation about what is value sharing and how many  potential customers we can bring to them.

-  2 rejected.

Approach    Based on the insights above, it looks like we can be successful with this new strategy or the new  advertisement product. But as again stated in the Kevin Dietrich’s lecture; “If assumptions are more  likely to be true, move to Learning Launch 0.2” we need to make a learning launch 0.2.     We can summarize the reasons of a need for the learning launch 0.2 as follows:

1. While testing the hypothesis #2, we saw that we need to think about the financials of

partnership too. Especially “What would be the revenue/value sharing model look like?”

2. Again, for the hypothesis #2, we need to work on potential number of customers we will

supposed to bring to these websites.

3. For the testing of hypothesis #1, this time we need to make a survey to a much more unbiased

sample group. Because the first group being our old customers who already advertised in our  newspaper before, they may be more inclined to say yes to our new advertisement offer.

P.S: The reflection explained above is not a real-life example, it is an illustration for the purpose of the  material in the course is understood.


Example Reflection – Learning Launch Challenge I am the CEO of a local newspaper in a small city and want to increase the listing advertisement revenue of the newspaper . This task is a challenging task because local consumers in a small city nowadays are putting up their ads or listings in a bigger online listing websites such as https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html or https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html ( these are just fake names to illustrate concept ) and generate far more responses or get attention . So , my team and I have to develop a new advertising product for our newspaper to increase advertising revenue . We made a design thinking workshop and come up with the following ideas with “ What if questions ” : - What if we make partnerships with those digital advertising websites like https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html or https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html , to extend our newspaper ’s reach ? - What if we utilize our newspaper ’s ad salesforce or relationships with our local consumers to bring more advertisers to those websites and ask for a revenue / value share from those websites in return ? - What if we find ways to reach out to less tech savvy consumers of our newspaper who are not able to put their advertisements to those websites themselves ? - What if we offer a new ad service , with these partnerships , to local consumers that , if they place their advertisement to my newspaper , we will also publish the same ad on those websites with a seamless and convenient way ? Selection Since as it is described in the lecture by Kevin Dietrich “ lots of ideas : what is next ? ” , we have lots of ideas too and we need to do a learning launch to test these ideas to find out which ones are worth putting into action . Again , as described in that lecture , we will quickly engage with stakeholders and test these questions , assumptions . Application As the first step , we need to create hypotheses . Our hypotheses would be : 1 . There are non - tech savvy people in our local city who can not use internet or put their advertisements to online websites , we want to reach to those people with our salesforce and ask them to put their advertisement to our newspaper and we will publish their add in big advertisement websites too . Would this increase our advertisement customers ? 2 . Is it possible to make partnerships with https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html or https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html and utilizing our newspaper ’s ad salesforce or relationships with our local consumers to bring more advertisers to those websites and ask for a revenue / value share from those websites in return ? Second , we need to design the learning launch . I will utilize the table described in Kevin Dietrich ’s lecture as below : Key Hypothesis Who How Timeframe Cost # 1 above Small multi - functional team + a skeptic : 1 ad salesperson , 1 marketing person , 1 business analyst as skeptic Going over our database of advertisers , segmenting them and reaching out to old and non - tech savvy ones . 200 6 weeks 1000 USD people should be contacted by phone and a survey will be done . # 2 above Small multi - functional team + a skeptic : 1 business development department member , 1 partnerships department member , 1 business analyst as skeptic Reaching out to websites like https://hernandez.com/exploremain.html , https://www.roman.info/list/appindex.html , etc , arranging Zoom meetings with them , explain the partnership idea and ask if they accept this partnership . 10 websites will be reached . 6 weeks 2000 USD Insight As we applied the learning launch as described above in the Application section , we found following results : ▪ For the hypothesis # 1 : Among 200 advertisers , 179 of them accepted to put their advertisements to our newspaper . This number is equal to 89.5 % . , ▪ For the hypothesis # 2 : Among 10 websites reached out for partnership idea : - 3 agreed - 5 asked for more information and more explanation about what is value sharing and how many potential customers we can bring to them . - 2 rejected . Approach Based on the insights above , it looks like we can be successful with this new strategy or the new advertisement product . But as again stated in the Kevin Dietrich ’s lecture ; “ If assumptions are more likely to be true , move to Learning Launch 0.2 ” we need to make a learning launch 0.2 . We can summarize the reasons of a need for the learning launch 0.2 as follows : 1 . While testing the hypothesis # 2 , we saw that we need to think about the financials of partnership too . Especially “ What would be the revenue / value sharing model look like ? ” 2 . Again , for the hypothesis # 2 , we need to work on potential number of customers we will supposed to bring to these websites . 3 . For the testing of hypothesis # 1 , this time we need to make a survey to a much more unbiased sample group . Because the first group being our old customers who already advertised in our newspaper before , they may be more inclined to say yes to our new advertisement offer . P.S : The reflection explained above is not a real - life example , it is an illustration for the purpose of the material in the course is understood .