Selecting EdTech Partners

To appropriate from Jane Austen, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single CLO in possession of a good budget will never, ever, ever, have a quiet inbox”.

EdTech is a heavily saturated market and was even before COVID and the rush to go digital. Now there are thousands of start-ups and a significant number of unicorns, making it a very congested space. Not only that, but many of the talent solutions are crossing over into learning at the intersection of skills, blurring the boundaries between the two: it’s not even just about EdTech anymore. Any slight signal you might be interested in a new LMS/LxP makes you fresh chum in the water. And no one wants to be in the centre of a feeding frenzy.

As a buyer, how do you navigate these waters without losing a limb? Many people like to start with listening to the analysts. This can be a good beginning, but you have to do your own research on the research, so to speak. Some are more reputable than others and you do want to follow the money and relationships. We also cast a side-eye at any form of Top 10 list. As said in the original post, there is no #1 pair of jeans, and the same goes for EdTech. (Although if anyone can recommend a good tracksuit, LMK. I figure it is business attire now and includes the word “suit”.)

As you get started, another thing to realise about the EdTech industry is there is a lot of cut-and-paste. As people became increasingly frustrated with the typical LMS a lot of entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to join the space. This initially created healthy disruption and led to quite a lot of innovation, especially around learner experience. Today, it can be hard to distinguish one solution from the rest—the LMSs have become more LXPish and the LXPs have added a lot of LMS functionality. 

With this being the state of the union, you need to drill down past your list of features on an RFP and look for the differentiators that will matter to you and your business. By way of an analogy, when you buy an LMS/LXP, you are not only entering into a serious relationship, but you are also going to raise a EdTech baby together. And for that, you need to really understand what kind of partner you’ll be getting in bed with.

Are they really experts?

So, what are some of the things we look for when recommending EdTech? A big one is whether they have experience  in corporate L&D. There are a lot of self-professed thought leaders out there who have never worked in the industry and it shows in their solutions. That said, too much L&D can mean a lot of navel gazing. Basically, does the team understand your challenges and have the experience to help you through a transformation, or do they have a “passion for learning”?

What’s the future?

Second, ask to see their customer maturity model. This is an outline of how they assess progress and areas of development as clients adopt their platform into their business. As I said, if you’re going to have an #EdTech baby together and you want to know if you agree on the basics like will it learn  Mandarin or Spanish, and who will be on nappy duty. The model will show you the direction they will take your business. As you review it, see if it aligns with your own vision and more importantly, the goals of your organization.

How do they support customers post-launch?

Alongside customer maturity, you want to know about their plans for customer success. How do they typically onboard and what is the cadence of meetings and levels of support? Are there additional fees for bespoke services you may require? Buyer beware: some vendors will charge you every time you need a basic report or tweak, and they will take ages to deliver. Do they have people who are in your time zone and speak your languages—not just for your L&D team but for the entire workforce? You will have no doubt experienced a high-touch sales process (if not, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction), but those people will not be around on Day Two. So, make sure you know what happens after the ink dries on the contract.

What is their culture?

Culture is not about the values printed on the marketing materials or above the ping pong table in the vendor’s employee rec room. This is how they operate as people. You have an obligation to ensure every member of your team will have a positive experience interacting with the vendor. LinkedIn will show insights about the company: in particular, churn rates of employees, which can be an indicator of internal challenges. Read through the post history of the C-Suite to get a feel for their ethos. Glassdoor reviews are another valuable source of information, although dig deep. Some companies try to bury negative comments by forcing employees to post  positive ones (yes, really).

Can they integrate?

Stand-alone systems are relics. Traditionally, LMS vendors were loath to allow integrations as they wanted customers tethered to their entire stack in the name of profits. Today the ability to plug in any of the numerous bespoke EdTech solutions or your HRIS, Talent Management System, or CRM, is essential. Any vendor clinging to a closed system is not the forward-thinking partner you need. After all, you have an EdTech baby to raise.

Got Data?

Every vendor will show off their charts, graphs, pie-charts, and dashboards. Spoiler alert: they look very  impressive but in reality, most of these are add-on, third-party, data visualisation software. So ask questions beyond the completions and hours spent learning. Do they track search terms, devices, drop offs, and social learning, just to name a few? As with the question above, can they feed this data to other systems for triangulation? 

This is only a primer on all of the things to consider. Of course, before you even think of buying EdTech there are a number of steps to complete, including determining what business objectives you are improving, how you will need to adapt your target operating model, stakeholder management, the structure of your own L&D team, to name a few. But if and when you are ready, be discerning. It is a buyers’ market so choose your partner strategically.