New Product Strategy for a Domestic Student Recruitment Provider
The Challenge
Our client, a leading domestic student recruitment provider, was looking to expand its product offering to better support diverse partner university needs while maintaining a consistent learner experience and protecting its brand.
Its existing products sat at opposite ends of the recruitment value chain, leaving key needs underserved and limiting its ability to support partners across the full learner journey. The current recruitment offering was being delivered inconsistently due to ad hoc commercial arrangements with various partners, creating relationship challenges and adding reputational risk.
The provider therefore needed a more structured product suite that balanced financial viability with the strategic ambition of providing Australian lifelong learners with access to education.
The Solution
Reviewed the current product suite and underlying capabilities to understand the foundation for future offerings.
Defined a set of strategic alignment principles to guide product selection, including ‘Progress towards strategic ambition’, ‘Addresses sizeable, underserviced need’, ‘alignment to partner operating models’ and ‘has cost effective delivery mechanisms’.
Defined a set of product design principles to guide design, and how products would interact with each other as a portfolio, including ‘Put the learner experience first’, ‘ensure a coherent and complementary product ecosystem’ and ‘ensure commercial models make value visible and verifiable’.
Identified product opportunities based on partner value, the client’s strategic intent, and the capabilities that could be leveraged or scaled.
Conducted a competitor scan across the relevant competitor categories to confirm there were no competitors and services directly offering the value proposition of the new products and how the provider could position the new products in a competitive marketplace.
Designed and iterated new products options using the analysis, including defining clear value propositions for each product, standardised feature sets aligned to different stages of the recruitment funnel, and a tiered pricing model linked to partner value and enrolment outcomes.
Developed the go-to-market strategy including pilot-led validation with existing partners, a phased rollout approach to support adoption and scale, and a plan for ongoing optimisation.
The Impact
The client now has a clear and scalable product strategy that will better meet diverse partner needs while strengthening its role across the learner journey.
The tiered model improves flexibility for universities, enhances learner experience, and positions them to drive stronger recruitment outcomes and future growth.
The client commenced engagement with partners to refine and validate the new products, building momentum towards implementation and enabling continuous improvement in line with the product roadmap.
Sectors
Education Industry