
This is the last week of school for my kids. Every day when they get off the bus, we talk about how many days until summer break. It reminds me of how meticulously my teams and I would countdown the days until a product launch with a release date that often coincided with the end of the school year in U.S. K12 districts and schools. It also reminds me where our energies would turn post-GA (general availability). Aside from initiatives focused on driving usage, adoption, and advocacy of new products, services, and capabilities, we were also asked to help gather, analyze, and distill information to help inform strategic offsite and planning seasons. Whether leading product marketing and enablement teams at companies focused on K12 or leading market development efforts at companies focused on higher ed, I was always involved in helping prepare and had the benefit of a seat at the table when the strategy and planning sessions came around.
Some may wonder, if the strategic offsite season is later in the summer, why would I post something about it now? It’s simple. I’m a planner. I have spent most of my career building and executing against plans with clear milestones and deadlines. From lesson planning as a teacher to planning a multi-quarter product launch and corresponding roadmap selling strategy. I’m also a fan of creating plans in the absence of clear milestones and deadlines. Creating clarity in a sea of ambiguity is one of my favorite flavors of challenges. I am also a superfan of workback planning. I’ve spent most of my EdTech career building workback plans and learned the importance of the “buffer” in the workback plan. Seeing aggressive timelines and plans fall short has made me a huge champion of building in a 15-30 day buffer before a big initiative rollout to avoid (or at least mitigate) the inevitable crash. Initiatives can come in many forms, including a product launch, campaign, major systems integration, strategic offsite, etc.
As a planner who believes in building buffers, I decided to share this top 10 list of strategic planning topics, well in advance of the summer strategic planning season for many EdTech companies. My intent is to help inform inputs, takeaways, or both as companies serving education and learning markets take a beat to reevaluate and refine their strategies to best align with the needs and wants of their target customers.
10 Topics for EdTech Strategic Planning Season
(scroll past the infographic to find detailed examples for each topic area)

10 Topics for EdTech Strategic Planning Season - Details
Market Dynamics: Looking back and looking ahead, what market forces will either strengthen or weaken our position in the market? Has new legislation been introduced that will strengthen or weaken our value proposition?
Market Need: Have the needs of our target audience(s) changed? Are there new pressing needs in the market that our offerings may address, as they are or with some near-term refinements?
Buyers, Budgets & Funding: Are our buyers the same, or has budget authority shifted? What is the state of the budgets our buyers manage? How has the funding landscape shifted in the markets we serve? Are funding sources associated with COVID-19 going away? What’s the state of traditional funding sources for education and learning technology? Are there new funding sources that align with our offerings?
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): How well do we know the quantifiable attributes of our ideal customer profile(s)? (Hint: I am not talking about personas) Do we need to sharpen our understanding of our ICP to inform marketing campaigns, targeted sales outreach and/or customer education initiatives? Does our ICP change based on new releases?
Release Success: In the U.S. K12 space, back-to-school releases in the summer are a common occurrence. If we released a new product or feature, how well is it being adopted? How well is it performing as a revenue driver for new, cross-sell or upsell? How well is it performing as a renewal driver? We can ask these same questions for higher ed and corporate learning markets.
Product-Market Fit: How well are we addressing the most pressing needs in the market? If we are still missing the mark on funded market requirements (like things we see repeatedly in RFPs), does our roadmap address them? And if not, what trade offs need to be considered?
Competition: Just like we’ve been busy, it’s safe to assume our competitors have been following the same threads. How well is the competition addressing the most pressing needs in the market? Has the competitive landscape changed after back-to-school (BTS) for K12 or summer releases in Higher Ed? Any new entrants that we need to take a closer look at?
Customer Health: If our business model is heavily dependent on recurring revenue, what is the health of our existing customer base? Where are we seeing contraction or churn? What can we measure to help us understand why? Is it low adoption, price, customer experience, perceived value and ROI, strategic alignment, or aggressive competition?
Packaging & Pricing: Given the above, what packaging and pricing levers do we have to counter existing and new objections?
Go-to-Market Planning (GTM) & Execution: How should we use these inputs to inform our go-to-market motions for the next school year, especially if we just shipped something new? Do we need to create non-product-driven GTM initiatives tied to something above? Can we amplify legacy offerings that are now relevant to new or emerging needs?
What Next?
If you need a sharper focus on any of these themes or topics this summer, Kelleher Consulting Group would love to help elevate your view of your target market to propel your products and services forward.
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