Building A Social Learning Technology

By Saul Burrows - Head of Product, Tigerhall

At Tigerhall, Saul founded the Product Team and is responsible for product management and design. He specializes in learning technology and creating products personalized to individual and organizational goals. He believes deeply in listening to users to create a world-class product.?

The Tigerhall product philosophy is based on the principle that "where you come from should never get in the way of where you want to go." Our approach to building a Social Learning product is simple. We provide people with direct access to meaningful, proven, real-world insights from successful business and thought leaders. Actionable content directly aids in a user's personal and professional development by cutting to the chase of what they care most about. By enabling users to ask clarifying questions, discuss their thoughts on valuable insights, and engage in candid conversations about potential challenges, we provide a more efficient, social, and meaningful learning experience.

What does “Social Learning” mean regarding how we build our product?

Tigerhall looks to create an experience that prioritizes social interactions as people consume content and learn. To facilitate this, we offer content in bite-sized, digestible formats, allowing people to spend time discussing insights. This mimics the TikTok effect, with users preferring short, direct content vs. long-form content. One example of this approach is using livestreams as a content format. 30-minute livestreams enable users to ask personal questions directly to business leaders, or as we call them, Thinkfluencers. Another example is Trail Cohort Groups, where users progress through a series of related content pieces together, discussing key learnings and sharing insights as they gain a deeper understanding of a particular topic or theme.

In building a Social Learning experience, we are guided by what works well for social media app users. We aim to provide familiar tools and functionality while experimenting with new features that can enhance learning opportunities. Our goal is for users to feel at ease on the platform, so we have made it easy to comment on content pieces, reply to comments, react to posts, and share content within teams and organizations.?

Constant improvements based on real-time feedback

Changes and trends in social media apps often happen quickly, so we take an active approach to customer and user interviews to research what functionality might enhance their learning experience. Our recent changes to improve the process of creating a livestream were a direct result of this research. Another area of our product where we recently made changes based on client feedback is our Organization Content section. We designed a new area that houses the relevant content for users to access quickly. It provides a unique access point to connect with fellow organization users - making it easier for people to find, follow and interact with people from their organization.

We are also supporting global Fortune 500 client needs in making content more accessible with different languages, adding subtitles, and the ability to read a podcast transcript or listen to an audio version of a power read. Having languages, subtitles, and other accessibility features in a Social Learning app is critical for creating an inclusive and effective learning environment. By making content available in different languages, users who are not fluent in the primary language can also benefit from Tigerhall content, enabling them to have social interactions on the app.

By providing functionality to read a podcast transcript or listen to an audio version of a power read, we can help learners with hearing or sight difficulties or who prefer to consume content in a different format, as they may have different learning styles and preferences. We want to ensure that users can access content in the format and language that is most appropriate to them so they have the opportunity to learn, grow, and achieve their goals.

Staying ahead of technology trends

Working in the social technology space, we understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve to ensure our product offering feels current - and is a valuable tool for clients to address their current (and future) organizational challenges.

One example is our partnership with Microsoft to release the Tigerhall Microsoft Teams App. By integrating our product with such a widely-used enterprise platform, we can offer users seamless access to our learning experience within an environment where they are already working. This strengthens Social Learning as a daily habit for users while reducing the cognitive load and disruption of switching between applications.

The recent explosion of Generative AI advances has been exciting to witness and wonder and ponder about the changes ahead for organizations (and humanity!). We are exploring using Generative AI solutions to connect people to our content - and each other - more efficiently. By leveraging AI technology, we can provide our users with personalized and relevant learning experiences based on their interests and learning objectives. By embracing the latest innovations, we aim to tackle organizational challenges head-on and provide our users with the best Social Learning experience.

Don't just hear it from us; check out the Tigerhall Social Learning platform: https://bit.ly/44FplVC