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Strategies Spotlight: Appetizing Your Content
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Strategies Spotlight: Appetizing Your Content
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Language: EN.
Segment:0 .
Great. We'll go ahead and get started. Judging from the chat this is the Silverchair's platform strategies webinar planes, trains and automobiles edition. But thank you all very much for joining us. My name is Will Schweitzer, I'm Silverchair's president and I want to thank you again for joining today's event. The first in our 2023 Platform Strategies webinar series.
We're really looking forward to today's discussion. But before we get started, just a few logistics, a few playground rules. As I mentioned, this is the first in the series when you registered for this event. We hope you registered for all the other virtual events we're hosting this year. But if you didn't, it's not too late. You can follow the same registration link to save a seat at those events.
I'm also really excited to announce that we're bringing back our in-person platform strategies event this year. It will be held September 27 in Washington DC. Registration will open in May. Since its origin, this webinar series and our in-person meeting has been a venue for thought leaders to discuss their platform data and technology strategies with colleagues.
So, we hope that in addition to hearing from our speakers today, you'll continue our event tradition and engage in discussion via the chat, or the question and answer feature in the webinar. This event is being recorded. And a copy of the recording will be made available to everyone who registered and on our website. And then, finally, at the end of the event, you'll see a survey requesting your rating of this session, which helps us with future event planning.
Of course, only share positive feedback with our panelists. And with that, I'm very happy to introduce our speakers. So first I'd like to introduce Rhiannon Wong, who is a senior product manager at Mcgraw Hill, Justin Bale, who is a project director at Willow Tree, and my colleague, Matt Abraham, who's a product owner at Silverchair. And today, we'll be talking about McGraw Hill's big, latest effort working with Willow Tree to develop an app for their end users.
And as a way of leading into this topic, Rhiannon, would you help, maybe, grounding us in details about the app, and why you guys decided to work with Willow Tree to develop it?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. Sounds good. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much. We're really excited to be here. As mentioned, we thought we'd kick things off with a bit of a preview of the app. So the app is part of our larger access portfolio. So I thought I'd start with just a brief overview of the portfolio as a whole to give some context.
RHIANNON WONG: And I do have a couple of slides. Nothing fancy, but let me just pull those up here. All right. Is that showing up? Yes, it is. OK. Awesome. So on the left, I'm showing our access portfolio, which services medical and other Health Sciences programs across the US and beyond.
RHIANNON WONG: You can see we're in quite a few areas and cater to a variety of specialties and audiences. But a few of our main audiences include medical students and other students in Health Sciences programs. Each microsite within the portfolio contains a number of resources, books, videos, podcasts, cases, Q&A, and more. It is a wealth of content. And we do have some personalization features on the web to help an end-user manage their content.
RHIANNON WONG: So those are the screenshots on the right. You can see you can favorite content, see your recently viewed, and curate content into collections. Then, all right. And so, this is really where the app comes into the picture. It extends the web experience around those personalization features, and brings it to a native mobile setting such that an end user can, essentially, take the access library with them, and have access to all their content wherever and whenever they need.
RHIANNON WONG: And I know we'll be talking a little bit more about this today, but I think you can already see here how much our approach with Willow Tree was to focus on the end-user. And to design, and build, and deliver content in a way that meets their needs. So on any given day, really, a learner could be in the classroom on campus, at the clinic on rotation, or studying further at home.
RHIANNON WONG: These learners are busy. There's really no time to spare searching for information to help them learn and study. They want what works and they need access to it quickly. And that's what we focus on for the app. In particular, for the MVP, Willow tree focused on three core needs they identified. So one, efficiency. Ability to access find and manage content quickly via features like search, favoriting, seeing your recent searches and views, getting to your stuff quickly from the dashboard.
RHIANNON WONG: Two, portability. So access ability to access content anywhere on any device. So web, app, and then within the app we have a feature to view content offline. And then engagement. So features to help learn learners learn and study more effectively. In particular, we have a feature called collections, where a learner can curate content and create different collections that may serve different purposes, depending on where they're at in their studies.
RHIANNON WONG: So it could be important things to remember for a specific test, gathering content for a class assignment, or new things to brush up and learn more when it comes up on rotation or at work. So yes. A little preview of the MVP here. This is a soft launch for us. We're targeting a full launch around back to school. And we'll continue to enhance, and iterate, and add more features ahead of full launch.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Thank you for that quick overview, Rhiannon. Great. So publishers and association society publishers have been interested in apps in the past. There seems to be renewed interest now. Lots of discussions across the Silverchair community. But what kind of signals or data helped you all determine, now is the right time to develop an app for your end users?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So our business has seen great success with access. As I said, it's a wealth of gold standard content. Our authors are top in the field. But in terms of modality. In terms of the ways in which learners are consuming content, the technology that's aiding in that, I think things have changed for the learner. And then their environment has changed around them in terms of what technology can do for them to help them learn and study better.
RHIANNON WONG: And the need for the top quality content, of course, hasn't gone away, but with only the web component we felt we really weren't meeting the end user fully with where they're at today with what their daily life looks like today. And what they're telling us their pain points are. There was this gap in terms of establishing a direct connection with them. We were hearing that from our customers and from our end-users.
RHIANNON WONG: And so it really felt like that was kind of the next step for access. This app brings together that rounding out of modalities in the portfolio, but it also starts to really put personalization at the forefront so that we can start to really hone in on solving some of those core pain points and user needs.
SPEAKER 1: That's great. And then, maybe just one other bit of context. Rhiannon, would you mind sharing-- obviously, McGraw Hill is the publisher of the content and the access set of products. But can you talk a little bit about the roles Silverchair and Willow Tree played in helping you all create this?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So I guess I'll start with the context of McGraw Hill sort of represent bringing the end user in the business together. Acting as that hub between Willow Tree and Silverchair. Silverchair, of course, being where we have our web products developed and then Willow Tree coming in to build out the app. And there is an underlying connection. I know Matt and Justin will talk a bit about this more in terms of everything that needs to feed into the app, and bringing all of the content in.
RHIANNON WONG: And so yeah. It really sort of became this trifecta of sorts, I guess. Larger team. [LAUGHING]
JUSTIN BALE: One we lovingly refer to as our mega team.
RHIANNON WONG: Yes.
SPEAKER 1: And then, Justin, Willow Tree has participated in Silverchair events in the past. But would you share just a little bit of background about your company, your role, what you do?
JUSTIN BALE: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a project director, meaning I am responsible for the delivery of our project with McGraw Hill. Willow Tree is a digital services agency. So not just implementation of mobile apps, but also websites, design, research. And with the recent acquisition by [INAUDIBLE] we are expanding that portfolio of clients and industries that we are getting into, to continue bringing the world to a more digital forward place.
SPEAKER 1: Thanks so much. And Matt, do you want to introduce yourself, your role at Silverchair? How you fit into the triumvirate here?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah, absolutely. My name is Matt Abraham. I am at Silverchair for almost four years in the product owner role working directly with McGraw Hill for the last two years. So I'm also responsible for the project work and the maintenance work that we do for mcgraw-hill on their web products. And so my main role in this kind of mega team that we had established is guiding how Silverchair would get our data to the app in a meaningful way.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Thanks Matt. So in terms of approaching this webinar, I have a few questions that I'm going to ask the panel. We'll try to move through those at a decent clip, and then we'll have audience Q&A at the end. So audience, please use the Q&A functionality to submit your questions. I think as a previous publisher now, being at Silverchair for four years, I've come to appreciate that software development is, actually, hard work.
SPEAKER 1: Particularly, when you have long standing products, there's a lot of complexity you have to kind rationalize, and puzzle through, and test against. And this mega group has done something pretty incredible, which is introduce a third party, develop a very impressive looking end user focused application. And I guess my question for you all is, how did you guys work together?
SPEAKER 1: How did you make this work?
JUSTIN BALE: I would love to start with one of the most important things that we all owned in on from the beginning. Was to ensure that the team felt like one cohesive group. All contributing and collaborating to one product instead of three individual entities that were each giving their part for something. So really making sure through a mega team as our name. The various ways that we work together in collaborative documentation.
JUSTIN BALE: Just our rapport as individuals. Making sure that we all feel as if we are part of one team because that is truly what we are.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. I think that at Silverchair we do a lot of third party integrations. But a lot of these, at least, in my experience as product owner and even as PA before, these are relatively short timelines. A couple of months, a few sprints, at most. And so this is a completely different type of working relationship that we have with Willow Tree which is long term. Which is holistic, really, in terms of the conversation and the functional areas that could be in scope currently or going forward.
MATT ABRAHAM: So like Justin said, it became really important to make sure that we had a cohesive feeling amongst everyone in this larger group. That we had communication in the right ways and in ways that made sense for everyone, given that we also have other things going on. Other products that we're working on, or other internal teams, respectively, at Silverchair, and McGraw Hill, and at Willow Tree.
MATT ABRAHAM: So it was really a little bit of trial and error. But the most important thing was ensuring that communication was flowing consistently and in the right ways. Rhiannon, just in terms of that spirit of camaraderie being one mega team, did you guys have to spend some time learning each other's language and ways of working upfront?
MATT ABRAHAM: Or just kind of jump in.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. I've been a bit of both. I think we really jumped in together right away. I remember Matt, Justin, and myself we had-- one of our first meetings, I think, was to talk about this very thing. How are we going to work together, collaborate together? It's a highly collaborative project in general, and initiative, really, was year long to get to where we're at today.
RHIANNON WONG: And we knew there would be things like how to figure out meeting cadence, how to figure out like tooling for how we're going to keep in touch, where information would lie. So all of that kind of stuff. And I think, the, maybe, less tangible items behind that too were just that we-- we were just all really excited about this really large initiative.
RHIANNON WONG: It feels a bit too small to just call it a project, really. And that we were all kind of coming together on this. We had a, really, clear end goal driven by research, by prioritization. All having that collective endpoint to work towards together really helps.
JUSTIN BALE: And to add to that I'm really glad you brought up speaking the same language well. Because there, certainly, continue to be opportunities for us to understand across industries, across technology stacks. Legacy systems versus front end app development. We have spent a lot of time making sure that we are saying the same things as we collaborate. So that has been, certainly, one of the bigger lessons learned.
SPEAKER 1: So multi-party relationships are often hard. What happened when you guys hit speed bumps? I'm sure there was one or two along the way.
JUSTIN BALE: A very core understanding between all of us is assuming positive intent, and knowing that we are all working toward the same goal. So at any time that we have hit the many speed bumps we have, approaching the problem from that perspective has led to the continued partnership being so strong. And making sure that we are all putting our best foot forward. And there's no animosity between the parties, there's no blaming, of course. But making sure that we are all looking at a problem, and how to solve it.
JUSTIN BALE: And not why the problem happens in a negative way.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. I think from my perspective, it was just important to recognize what the issue was in the moment. Not focus on how it came about quite yet. That's an important step. But kind of that immediate remediation. Whatever needed to happen, whether it is fixing a quick problem, or pulling in others to support. And then later on looking back and saying, OK. Now, let's look at this more holistically try to understand how this arose in the first place, and what we can do in the future to remediate it.
MATT ABRAHAM: And we did do, actually, a full retro retrospective experience after, I guess, the end of Q1 this year as we wrapped up phase one of the app looking forward to the app store launch. We got together and had a really productive hour or so that enabled us, at a very high level, to look at our ways of working. How we wanted to adjust. That sort of thing that really informs what we're doing now.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. I think, definitely, just to add to this as well. I think a lot of the road-- the speed bumps that we hit were just the nature of our setup. That we are each three companies trying to kind of come together to really work on this one thing. And so even in the lead up to the retro, I remember we had a couple of meetings before we even did the retro.
RHIANNON WONG: And I think all of us were just so excited to do it that we were already kind of retroing pre-retro. Because, again, I think as Justin said, it comes from that place of good intent. We all really want to work together, and just figure out how to work better together just given the structure that we're in.
JUSTIN BALE: And one of the biggest takeaways was that we needed to measure and adjust more frequently. And make sure that we are staying in line with the collaborative tools we're using, how we're communicating. We did fall into a bit of a pattern of adding more meetings or more collaboration, and sort of assessing the efficiency, or even the sequencing of meetings. Because there are of course meetings between Silverchair and McGraw, and each individual partnership there.
JUSTIN BALE: So making sure that we were having the discussions and alignments in the right order. And making sure that those made sense, and are the most efficient and productive.
SPEAKER 1: It's a really good point. Matt, go ahead.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. And not to go too deep into the meeting admin side, but we, actually, came out of that retrospective with fewer meetings on our calendars. Because we're able to notice that if we adjust the cadence and the timing of these calls, we can probably take some of these recurring calls that we've had on the books for at that 0.68 months, close those out, and then develop kind of an ad hoc system on a weekly basis.
MATT ABRAHAM: So now we have kind of a stand up. A 30-minute stand up with all three parties on Mondays. And then at that point, we can decide, hey, should we add another meeting? But yeah, there's not this pre-requisite any more to hop on calls as much as we were.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. And it came paired with figuring out too the other ways in which we can communicate more quickly. So, actually, having an established place for the communication to happen asynchronously, and even going so far as to set up a shared Jira board so that-- it's like all these sort of things that you kind of don't think about, where information is just in various places.
RHIANNON WONG: And it becomes this problem, actually, trying to solve. How to more efficiently have it in one place for everyone.
SPEAKER 1: So it sounds like you guys established some really great ways of working. And I think three groups coming together and decide on fewer meetings is always a sign of a good partnership. So we've covered a lot about ways of working, how you structured communication, working together. But maybe we can talk just a little bit more about the nuts and bolts.
SPEAKER 1: So a few minutes ago, you mentioned that this app, this large initiative was informed by research. So what type of research did you and McGraw Hill do?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So we, actually, did a full sort of strategy research phase with Willow Tree. We had some of their incredible researchers on board to really kind of dig into the problems we were trying to solve from both the business perspective and end users. And I believe during that phase, Jill Hines, the researcher director. We had on board with us.
RHIANNON WONG: Interviewed Justin, was it over? It was a lot. A lot of students, faculty, administration, librarians to really, as I said, dig into to what we were trying to solve and land on the direction that we took the app in.
JUSTIN BALE: And then continuing on, we've actually managed to have research almost [INAUDIBLE].. So embedded within our implementation, we've had research involvement throughout to make sure that we are continuing to measure to get those insights, and then geared toward public launch. A very broad beta phase, where we had the application on both platforms in the hands of Mcgraw-Hill internal folks, students, residents across various specialties, as well as professionals and residents beyond their didactic.
JUSTIN BALE: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: So I mean, he talks about doing interviews. Were there other ways that you guys gathered data, or other types of data set like web analytics, or things that you all looked at to inform development?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So I think in those early stages, definitely looking at the analytics we have available for the web to understand use case and trends happening there to paint that larger picture. And then I think in conjunction, my role as a product manager overseeing access is a fairly new one for our group. It's not to say that our team wasn't conducting end-user research before.
RHIANNON WONG: But I think my coming on board has allowed us to spend a bit more time on that to formalize that up a little bit more. I think we all know research takes a lot of time. And it's a lot to get it up, and going to do that continuously as well. We have more work to do there. But that has been happening alongside.
JUSTIN BALE: And also one of the bigger value adds with the application is having known users instead of institutionally authorized users at their various institutions and places of learning. This way, we can understand more about personas and behaviors all the way down to the individual in lieu of broader trends, or through interviews with end users.
RHIANNON WONG: App is in many ways, helping us get us set up to do the level up and analytics.
SPEAKER 1: So I mean, it's a good reminder that research really is a process. And we shouldn't view it as a discrete event just to inform say requirements for developing the app. I have a lot of questions about how this group defined requirements, acceptance criteria, what do you want it to do, how you define the scope. But it may be helpful if one of you could talk about how the pieces come together. So how does the content flow?
SPEAKER 1: How does the user data flow to the extent, I think at a high level is probably sufficient?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. I can hop on this one to start. So Silverchair currently is source of record for users, as well as posting the content on the web that we would need to get to the app. And so I think in the initial discovery phase in early 2022, I was meeting with some folks at WillowTree on a weekly basis talking through what the breadth of our content is, what the depth of it is, what our information setup is like.
MATT ABRAHAM: And then once we started really getting into the nuts and bolts of it, and starting to think about implementation. And designing that implementation, it was very clear that a series of APIs was going to be the backbone. And so in terms of requirements, I think for both WillowTree and Silverchair Mcgraw-Hill is setting the requirements.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so it is our job to-- we alluded to earlier speak the same language both in terms of how we talk about technology, but also how our technology talks to each other. And so we supplemented that with some working sessions that Justin, we can probably talk a little bit. What we could talk all day about how valuable those [INAUDIBLE] sessions have been [INAUDIBLE]..
JUSTIN BALE: Absolutely. So beyond the product and project discussions around alignment for broad features and implementation, there was also a ton of collaboration and communication between the middleware. So our layer of APIs between the Silverchair database and our front-end apps in order to have success there. There was just a need to have constant collaboration between our middleware developers and the Silverchair team to make sure that contract negotiation was lock and step.
JUSTIN BALE: And that's actually something that we've adjusted even closer, so that those folks are pseudo pair programming, even throughout their sprints. That way, we can be parallel passing on the dependencies for our front-end feature enablement. So you have your goals. You've done research to understand your use cases, and what do you want to help the learner the end user achieve.
JUSTIN BALE: Rhiannon, how did you guys go about defining scope and what would be included in this initial release?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So that was really the output of the strategy phase with WillowTree. So we landed on an MVP for a set of features of therein. And then we always also knew that, I think, the other thing to call out to, that's new and exciting for us is approach and in iteration thereafter. So I think with the lead up to MVP, we were pretty clear on the set of features we are targeting for the soft launch.
RHIANNON WONG: But some of the exciting things are just starting now in terms of mega team phase 2, so to speak. We ran a beta test right before a soft launch. We had a lot of really great feedback coming in from that. That really helped us start to-- I think we had a sense of where we wanted to head next. But really validate and take a step back to, again, prioritize. And this is now moving into a more iterative approach to future development and enhancement.
JUSTIN BALE: And it's certainly a fine line between the analysis paralysis because we could continue gaining insights, and never actually do anything, versus actually putting some of that prioritization, and getting it out in the world. We started with a soft launch just the other week. So that we could start to get those analytics of individual users before a broader marketed launch in the fall. That way, can continue to make sure that we're delivering the right value in the right order, leading up to that larger launch.
SPEAKER 1: Excellent. I mean, I was waiting for the words agile to come out of its mouth there for just a moment. So in thinking about all the research that you did, there's user journeys, how you defined the scope for the soft launch. I mean, are there insights that you're bringing back to your Silverchair hosted sites? And one of the things that I'm thinking about is you just done a lot of research.
SPEAKER 1: You thought really carefully about the user and user journeys. And a lot of our publishers tend to have products with a presentation that's been the same for five or six years. And that presentation may actually be geared around the institutional purchaser, or the librarian. And folks are slowly, I think, starting to adapt particularly with open access if you're a journalist publisher more of a B2C [INAUDIBLE].
SPEAKER 1: So we open this up to anybody. But are there things that you learned, insights that you have now that you want to bring back to your existing sites?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah, definitely. This has been a big topic for this year. I think folks are maybe tired of hearing me say it. I do say it a lot. But this app isn't an app in isolation. As I said at the top of it, it really is an integral part of a larger portfolio. And I think some of the exciting things we've been hearing and validating is that, again, when it comes to rounding out modalities, web doesn't go away as a need, right?
RHIANNON WONG: It's are we there, and all the spots that we need to be when a user needs to access information. And that still is the web plays an important component in that. And I think some of the exciting things that we've been thinking about with the app is to think about, again, that more holistic experience of how an end-user might use both web and app, and think about what changes to do we want to think about next for the web in that respect.
RHIANNON WONG: So we have been working on a really exciting project with Brian McDonald, and on taking a look at doing some redesign of the web. And we did have him meet with our designer at WillowTree, Garrett Kamala to start to think about, again, sharing and thinking about that holistic picture.
SPEAKER 1: Matt, to put you on the spot, I think you've worked with multiple publishers at Silverchair. Are there any general insights you learn from this engagement with McGraw and WillowTree that may be helpful for other publishers?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. Well, since I first started working with Mcgraw-Hill, one of the strategic goals underlying everything is a desire to learn more about individual users because of how they gain access to the sites they're often anonymous. They're institutionally authenticated. And a big part of that is figuring out the best way to provide value to these end users to encourage more authentication, to encourage this value add in curation, and starting to talk about, if this is a big thing across publishers, I think is whether you're talking about open access, or whether you're talking about users that are getting access to a whole library of information because of their medical school library.
MATT ABRAHAM: How do we get the right information to them at the right time, and the right format that is as frictionless as possible? And so there's definitely things that thinking about the user and their experience in the app allows us to view the web in a different paradigm than we're normally used to. And a big thing now with that we're moving towards going forward is this idea of web and app parity as much as possible.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so partly, this can be very you would consider straightforward implementation. Like a user favorite something in the app when they log in on the web that's also favorited. But there needs to be APIs in the background talking. And so thinking about that parity, then when we start adding things to the app, because this works really well, is it something that we can adapt for the web?
MATT ABRAHAM: Is this something that will provide value here? And I saw someone pop in with some affinity chat, which is something that we're working on now for the fall release. And really focusing first on the app, first surfacing recommendations on the app because of the way that the user discovers content in the app, I think that's really valuable. And then applying that to the web.
MATT ABRAHAM: But always knowing that you can't do it exactly the same in both places. And so I think just being able to look at a user experience, or being forced almost to look at the user experience from a different viewpoint has been really beneficial, I think, for myself as I think about our properties on the web.
SPEAKER 1: It's a great segue, I think, for us to just zoom out a little bit, and think about how all of this falls into the context of broader industry trends, or broader platform technology strategies. We've talked about meeting users and their desired modality, moving past a B2B institutional relationship to connect directly with users and understand more about them.
SPEAKER 1: I mean, Rhiannon and Justin, any other trends that you all were thinking about as you started this project, or as you think about what comes next.
JUSTIN BALE: I think one thing all of us are really excited about is leaning into the relevancy and context. So just as Matt and Rhiannon touched on, this is an app, and the access product suite that is hopefully something that follows medical learners throughout their journey, which can, of course, be a couple of decades longer perhaps. So making sure that we are both providing the relevant content in the right context, whether they're learning, or if they need some quick reference, if they're sitting down and studying, and making sure that is also happening in the context of where they are in their medical journey.
JUSTIN BALE: Are they an M1? Are they a resident? Are they actually attending in their teaching folks? Are they curating a collection for others that they're teaching to see? So making sure that we are thinking about that in the B2B or from B2C is the biggest paradigm shift to make sure that we are really leaning into that. Rhiannon, do you have anything else to add there?
RHIANNON WONG: I think you said it perfectly.
SPEAKER 1: So what comes next? You talked about this being a soft launch. Someone I think mentioned August for another potential release. Anything you're willing to share.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. I think Matt alluded to this a little. We have some exciting work involving affinities. And I think this next phase now that we've got a decent chunk of the content. And so I'll focus on some new features around personalization are on the roadmap.
SPEAKER 1: Would one of you be willing to define, or talk about affinities just so everyone who's listening and knows what we're talking about?
MATT ABRAHAM: I can take this. So yeah, really we're talking about zero party and first party for the app, in particular, zero party is really powerful because a user is going through a pretty in-depth. And I apologize that being here sirens in the background. They go through a pretty in-depth onboarding process. Whereby we can glean a lot of information from them that could be pertinent for what content they want to see down the line.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so we're allowing these personas to be built out through self-selected interests going forward. And then first party as well, which has many components. First party being looking at a user's current session, and aligning that with certain categories that then we can recommend content that might be related that we can genuinely think of as something that is relevant to that user.
MATT ABRAHAM: So the implementation will look slightly different on both app and web. But what we really want to have is that web app parity. So the recommendations that we're making to an app user are pretty similar to the recommendations that we're making to a user on the web as well.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Just make sure I have this right. Because I think we're all learning about types of user data. Zero party data is data that a user is proactively and intentionally providing. You all providing us, either as the platform or publisher. Great. So just a reminder to our audience, we're moving into the question and answer portion.
SPEAKER 1: So please feel free to use the Q&A functionality, or you can put a question in the chat. I have one question just to get us started. And Justin, it's for you. I mean, it would seem to me that academic and scholarly publishers are a bit different than your other customers. I mean, is that right? And if so, do you have any general advice for us as we consider B2C products or strategies?
JUSTIN BALE: Yeah, I would say that the range of folks that WillowTree works with is broad enough, that it's not too different and there's certainly learnings, and playbooks, and other materials that we all draw to ensure that we are meeting our clients, where they are. And that includes any other third parties like Silverchair. Just to make sure that even if we may not work with too many publishers around this space. There are some just baseline core, best practices that we all follow, and making sure that we all learn and grow as a group to ensure that we are delivering the most customized and efficient partnership with our clients.
JUSTIN BALE: I actually have worked in e-commerce. I've worked with different companies, including private aviation. So I've been all over the place in my professional experience, including even as a published researcher. So I had a very interesting mix of digital, of e-commerce, and Omnichannel of actually being a published researcher and premed an undergraduate. So this was my perfect project, if you will.
JUSTIN BALE: So I was able to take those experiences. And what I've learned at WillowTree and how we approach our project work, and hopefully, so far, we're doing a pretty good job.
SPEAKER 1: Sounds like you are. So Rhiannon, there's a few questions that have come in for you. One was in the chat, which is, has the app met your revenue expectations so far? And has it increased revenue? And since mentioned, this is a soft launch, maybe you want to expand a little bit, and talk about maybe initial goals, or things you were hoping to achieve.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So say I don't know how much I can speak to that part. But in terms of goals, I think we're really excited. Again, yeah, we just saw launch. But the team is super excited to start talking about it, start getting it in front of end users, and customers. And really a lot of what we've already chatted about here in terms of establishing that more direct connection with the end-user, building that bridge between an institutional traditional B2B business, and honing in on end user needs, and bringing that all together.
RHIANNON WONG: We feel like that the app is really forging that path for us, that we feel. We're really set up to be able to do that. And I think the next stage is really where we're going to learn all of it.
SPEAKER 1: And then are there any features on the app that maybe weren't available on your existing sites that beta users were the most excited?
RHIANNON WONG: I'm trying to think how to describe this holistically. It is a different experience, right? And I think one of the things that came to light in beta. That's not necessarily something we tested on. But just in terms of the way the app is built, it is surfacing to you more of what we have available. Even in terms of the way that we show you in onboarding that we have, cases, videos, Q&A. Part of the things that we've learned about the web experience right now in terms of it being more of that browsing experience is that sometimes things can get hidden, right?
RHIANNON WONG: An end-user may not necessarily know, or be aware of the breadth, and depth of what's available on the web. And I think just even in terms of the way the app is structured, where you are already seeing that come out in beta.
JUSTIN BALE: I was going to add that search as the primary path to a content piece, as well as the filtering that is, again, experiential different than the website, but of course, faster for users to hone in so more efficient. And then also offline mode. So being able to access content that you have downloaded while you are on a plane, perhaps you're in a hospital that does not have Wi-Fi in certain spots. Wherever a user may be, they can download content to view or read later.
JUSTIN BALE: Actually, the research did say that folks didn't really consider that too much and until they didn't have access to data. And then they were very glad to have that, which I could imagine getting ready for boards next week. And you don't have access to Wi-Fi, could come in handy.
SPEAKER 1: Excellent. Rhiannon, another question for you. Did you run into any resistance internally around the concept of an app? New delivery formats can be slow to be adopted within scholarly publishing. So the questioner was wondering if the internal sell was another aspect of [INAUDIBLE].
RHIANNON WONG: I don't know if I can speak too much to this directly. I came on board a little bit later. But I think just in terms of what holistically this app is what we're trying to solve with this, I think it felt, in general, the sentiment is we're ready to do this. It was really the next step for access in terms of where the business is at with access. And yes.
SPEAKER 1: Excellent. Thank you. Our friend Mark Jacobson actually has a platform functionality question. Matt, I don't know if you're in a position to answer this question. If not, we'll follow it with Mark offline, which is, our user defined collections of standard platform features.
MATT ABRAHAM: As someone who lives in Mcgraw-Hill land, and has four in the last two years, I might defer to an offline current platform functionality.
SPEAKER 1: I know Hannah Heckner, our VP of product is listening in. So we'll ask Hannah to get in touch with Mark. I will say the platform has done a lot of work with affinities, and understanding the content the user is interested in based on either data that they provide us, or what they're reading. And we can drive a lot of functionality from. Matt, Mark is also asking if Mcgraw-Hill is a code of Silverchair environment.
SPEAKER 1: You may want to talk just a little bit about the context of the routine team, and how we work with Mcgraw-Hill.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah, absolutely. So Mcgraw-Hill has a retained team agreement. My team works solely on Mcgraw-Hill projects, including, obviously, the military integration, and maintenance, all of that. I do want to touch on something that is a little bit unique about this integration that may or may not be related to Mark's question. But one of the things that we touched on is this idea of working together with WillowTree in certain environments that are outside of production.
MATT ABRAHAM: Specifically, really in our staging environment, and leveraging that staging environment as much as we can, which is really, really beneficial. It allows WillowTree to start testing a little bit sooner, but it also enabled us to develop a spec, and WillowTree is able to work through some magic in the middle, where to start that front-end development.
MATT ABRAHAM: And then we can coexist in this same staging space that normally is off limits, or is restricted to client. And so WillowTree internally. But I felt like we didn't quite touch on that. So I just wanted to bring that up as well.
SPEAKER 1: [INAUDIBLE] Rhiannon, another question for you. You mentioned that you came in after a very start of this. But can you share how Mcgraw-Hill built its capacity, or its resources to do end-user research? And do you have any advice for other publishers, who are just getting started or considering B2C strategies?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah, definitely. So yeah, as I mentioned, that the team we were doing research, I'd probably characterize a little more ad hoc. And the goal was always to want to be able to do that more consistently. I think there's two parts to this. So one is what we talked about with our work with WillowTree. We were working with WillowTree researchers. So there was that aspect of it.
RHIANNON WONG: And then I think the other part is just, internally, we are building out product, the product management group. And so my role is a fairly new one. And that I was able to bring that to the team, and to start to build that out for us. But it's a work in progress for sure.
SPEAKER 1: Justin, you mentioned, and we talked earlier that WillowTree helped Mcgraw-Hill with a lot of research and the strategy. Do you have any advice for publishers thinking more about their end users, where they should start, tips or tricks?
JUSTIN BALE: Apart from going with WillowTree to partner with them, just that strategy and research, and really looking, especially if it's been some time, where you really need to reassess what your end-user or your product goals are, investing in that time pays out in magnitudes. Because if you really think about continuing medical education, of course, anyone can be of any aid in that group. But where it's 2023.
JUSTIN BALE: Several medical students or residents have been alive when they've had the internet for most of their conscious awareness. So really just being part of that old paradigm is no longer something that users, or end users, or students, et cetera will really deal with anymore. So making sure that you are measuring your population, and knowing what they really need at the end of the day, putting that investment in is how you can stay ahead of your competition.
JUSTIN BALE:
SPEAKER 1: It's one advice. And one last question before we wrap up. Matt, I think we have a few other colleagues joining us in the webinar. And one of the things that was atypical for us was working so closely with WillowTree and a third-party was meant internally, we had to relay a lot of knowledge, and new language, and different ways of working. How did you make sure that happens effectively within the team, and going from your role as product owner, to the BAs down to the [INAUDIBLE]??
SPEAKER 1: Any advice for our other colleagues, or anyone else in a similar position on the management?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah, great question. I think the first most important thing we've talked about scoping is having constant conversation around scoping as the three parties, and then being able to each Mcgraw-Hill, Silverchair, and WillowTree going back to their internal teams, and being able to communicate that scope, and why we have it scoped in that way. We also had a lead business analyst on the project and a tech champion.
MATT ABRAHAM: So Renee Britton was the lead BA, and Matt Earley was the lead that, or the tech champion on the technical side as a senior developer. And so usually, having that three pronged approach was really beneficial I think because we would look to Mcgraw-Hill for the overall business requirements and for the scope. And so Renee was able to be in these meetings and relay that directly to have that informed her work on the requirements side and on writing acceptance criteria.
MATT ABRAHAM: And then having Matt just as involved on the technical requirements was really important. Because typically, with a project that just Silverchair is doing for Mcgraw-Hill, we have the business requirements, and we have our own stack of technology that we're working with. And here, we needed that conversation on the technical side between Matt and his counterpart at WillowTree.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so I think the end result of that was a real shared ownership from the mega team space down to myself, or Silverchair myself, Matt Earley, and Renee. And we're able to communicate to the team the why and the how. And we're also able to pivot really quickly if we needed to. If a technical implementation path that we went down wasn't quite working, we're just missing each other on our connections.
MATT ABRAHAM: Then we can quickly pivot. And I think that was really important for a project like this on the Silverchair side, where we are building APIs, and not necessarily seeing the front-end fruition of that work for quite some time. It really wasn't until the past month and a half that we got access to the beta of the app, and could see, oh, this is where all of these APIs have been leading.
MATT ABRAHAM: And before that is a little bit esoteric, which I think is in those situations, developing that sense of shared ownership, and that expertise on the requirements, and business side, and the technical side is really important for communication. And our team had to get a lot of experience with that.
JUSTIN BALE: A super quick follow up on the agility or adjustments quickly. Even in the ability for the WillowTree development team to adjust our sprint schedule to allow better sequencing between a staging post on the Silverchair side, so that we can see how these APIs are coming in if there's any need for an adjustment, and still make the cutoff for a possible adjustment. So really excited that we have the ability to make those sorts of changes to our sprint schedule to better align to a larger program increment from Silverchair.
SPEAKER 1: Well, I mean, one of the things that excites me most about being a technology partner in this space is seeing success cases just like this. So Rhiannon, and Justin, Matt, Thank you all very much. Rhiannon, we're really excited to see how all of this works out. We hope you'll come back, and tell us how things have gone, and what you've learned. So thank you. Thanks to all three of you for joining us today.
SPEAKER 1: I know our audience appreciates it. And then our next event is actually a continuation of some of the themes that we talked about here today. It is on how digital education has been impacted by how we learn, teach, and research. That will be May 16th at 11:00 AM Eastern. That is going to be co-moderated by my colleague Jake Zarnegar our chief strategy officer, and Diane Harnish is a senior consultant in the education practice director at [INAUDIBLE] I think.
SPEAKER 1: They'll be joined by Brian Moore, the director of Online Learning and Assessment Examinations Curriculum and Planning at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, along with Jonathan Wisco, who's the pre-clinical curriculum director at Boston University. And two researchers. So that sounds like it would be a really interesting session. So many thanks to everyone who joined us today for this webinar.
SPEAKER 1: And again, to our speakers we're looking forward to seeing everybody online, or in person in September. So Thank you all very, very
RHIANNON WONG: Thank you so much.
JUSTIN BALE: Thank you.
SPEAKER 1: Take the survey, please. You'll see the link.
Segment:0 .
Great. We'll go ahead and get started. Judging from the chat this is the Silverchair's platform strategies webinar planes, trains and automobiles edition. But thank you all very much for joining us. My name is Will Schweitzer, I'm Silverchair's president and I want to thank you again for joining today's event. The first in our 2023 Platform Strategies webinar series.
We're really looking forward to today's discussion. But before we get started, just a few logistics, a few playground rules. As I mentioned, this is the first in the series when you registered for this event. We hope you registered for all the other virtual events we're hosting this year. But if you didn't, it's not too late. You can follow the same registration link to save a seat at those events.
I'm also really excited to announce that we're bringing back our in-person platform strategies event this year. It will be held September 27 in Washington DC. Registration will open in May. Since its origin, this webinar series and our in-person meeting has been a venue for thought leaders to discuss their platform data and technology strategies with colleagues.
So, we hope that in addition to hearing from our speakers today, you'll continue our event tradition and engage in discussion via the chat, or the question and answer feature in the webinar. This event is being recorded. And a copy of the recording will be made available to everyone who registered and on our website. And then, finally, at the end of the event, you'll see a survey requesting your rating of this session, which helps us with future event planning.
Of course, only share positive feedback with our panelists. And with that, I'm very happy to introduce our speakers. So first I'd like to introduce Rhiannon Wong, who is a senior product manager at Mcgraw Hill, Justin Bale, who is a project director at Willow Tree, and my colleague, Matt Abraham, who's a product owner at Silverchair. And today, we'll be talking about McGraw Hill's big, latest effort working with Willow Tree to develop an app for their end users.
And as a way of leading into this topic, Rhiannon, would you help, maybe, grounding us in details about the app, and why you guys decided to work with Willow Tree to develop it?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. Sounds good. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much. We're really excited to be here. As mentioned, we thought we'd kick things off with a bit of a preview of the app. So the app is part of our larger access portfolio. So I thought I'd start with just a brief overview of the portfolio as a whole to give some context.
RHIANNON WONG: And I do have a couple of slides. Nothing fancy, but let me just pull those up here. All right. Is that showing up? Yes, it is. OK. Awesome. So on the left, I'm showing our access portfolio, which services medical and other Health Sciences programs across the US and beyond.
RHIANNON WONG: You can see we're in quite a few areas and cater to a variety of specialties and audiences. But a few of our main audiences include medical students and other students in Health Sciences programs. Each microsite within the portfolio contains a number of resources, books, videos, podcasts, cases, Q&A, and more. It is a wealth of content. And we do have some personalization features on the web to help an end-user manage their content.
RHIANNON WONG: So those are the screenshots on the right. You can see you can favorite content, see your recently viewed, and curate content into collections. Then, all right. And so, this is really where the app comes into the picture. It extends the web experience around those personalization features, and brings it to a native mobile setting such that an end user can, essentially, take the access library with them, and have access to all their content wherever and whenever they need.
RHIANNON WONG: And I know we'll be talking a little bit more about this today, but I think you can already see here how much our approach with Willow Tree was to focus on the end-user. And to design, and build, and deliver content in a way that meets their needs. So on any given day, really, a learner could be in the classroom on campus, at the clinic on rotation, or studying further at home.
RHIANNON WONG: These learners are busy. There's really no time to spare searching for information to help them learn and study. They want what works and they need access to it quickly. And that's what we focus on for the app. In particular, for the MVP, Willow tree focused on three core needs they identified. So one, efficiency. Ability to access find and manage content quickly via features like search, favoriting, seeing your recent searches and views, getting to your stuff quickly from the dashboard.
RHIANNON WONG: Two, portability. So access ability to access content anywhere on any device. So web, app, and then within the app we have a feature to view content offline. And then engagement. So features to help learn learners learn and study more effectively. In particular, we have a feature called collections, where a learner can curate content and create different collections that may serve different purposes, depending on where they're at in their studies.
RHIANNON WONG: So it could be important things to remember for a specific test, gathering content for a class assignment, or new things to brush up and learn more when it comes up on rotation or at work. So yes. A little preview of the MVP here. This is a soft launch for us. We're targeting a full launch around back to school. And we'll continue to enhance, and iterate, and add more features ahead of full launch.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Thank you for that quick overview, Rhiannon. Great. So publishers and association society publishers have been interested in apps in the past. There seems to be renewed interest now. Lots of discussions across the Silverchair community. But what kind of signals or data helped you all determine, now is the right time to develop an app for your end users?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So our business has seen great success with access. As I said, it's a wealth of gold standard content. Our authors are top in the field. But in terms of modality. In terms of the ways in which learners are consuming content, the technology that's aiding in that, I think things have changed for the learner. And then their environment has changed around them in terms of what technology can do for them to help them learn and study better.
RHIANNON WONG: And the need for the top quality content, of course, hasn't gone away, but with only the web component we felt we really weren't meeting the end user fully with where they're at today with what their daily life looks like today. And what they're telling us their pain points are. There was this gap in terms of establishing a direct connection with them. We were hearing that from our customers and from our end-users.
RHIANNON WONG: And so it really felt like that was kind of the next step for access. This app brings together that rounding out of modalities in the portfolio, but it also starts to really put personalization at the forefront so that we can start to really hone in on solving some of those core pain points and user needs.
SPEAKER 1: That's great. And then, maybe just one other bit of context. Rhiannon, would you mind sharing-- obviously, McGraw Hill is the publisher of the content and the access set of products. But can you talk a little bit about the roles Silverchair and Willow Tree played in helping you all create this?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So I guess I'll start with the context of McGraw Hill sort of represent bringing the end user in the business together. Acting as that hub between Willow Tree and Silverchair. Silverchair, of course, being where we have our web products developed and then Willow Tree coming in to build out the app. And there is an underlying connection. I know Matt and Justin will talk a bit about this more in terms of everything that needs to feed into the app, and bringing all of the content in.
RHIANNON WONG: And so yeah. It really sort of became this trifecta of sorts, I guess. Larger team. [LAUGHING]
JUSTIN BALE: One we lovingly refer to as our mega team.
RHIANNON WONG: Yes.
SPEAKER 1: And then, Justin, Willow Tree has participated in Silverchair events in the past. But would you share just a little bit of background about your company, your role, what you do?
JUSTIN BALE: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a project director, meaning I am responsible for the delivery of our project with McGraw Hill. Willow Tree is a digital services agency. So not just implementation of mobile apps, but also websites, design, research. And with the recent acquisition by [INAUDIBLE] we are expanding that portfolio of clients and industries that we are getting into, to continue bringing the world to a more digital forward place.
SPEAKER 1: Thanks so much. And Matt, do you want to introduce yourself, your role at Silverchair? How you fit into the triumvirate here?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah, absolutely. My name is Matt Abraham. I am at Silverchair for almost four years in the product owner role working directly with McGraw Hill for the last two years. So I'm also responsible for the project work and the maintenance work that we do for mcgraw-hill on their web products. And so my main role in this kind of mega team that we had established is guiding how Silverchair would get our data to the app in a meaningful way.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Thanks Matt. So in terms of approaching this webinar, I have a few questions that I'm going to ask the panel. We'll try to move through those at a decent clip, and then we'll have audience Q&A at the end. So audience, please use the Q&A functionality to submit your questions. I think as a previous publisher now, being at Silverchair for four years, I've come to appreciate that software development is, actually, hard work.
SPEAKER 1: Particularly, when you have long standing products, there's a lot of complexity you have to kind rationalize, and puzzle through, and test against. And this mega group has done something pretty incredible, which is introduce a third party, develop a very impressive looking end user focused application. And I guess my question for you all is, how did you guys work together?
SPEAKER 1: How did you make this work?
JUSTIN BALE: I would love to start with one of the most important things that we all owned in on from the beginning. Was to ensure that the team felt like one cohesive group. All contributing and collaborating to one product instead of three individual entities that were each giving their part for something. So really making sure through a mega team as our name. The various ways that we work together in collaborative documentation.
JUSTIN BALE: Just our rapport as individuals. Making sure that we all feel as if we are part of one team because that is truly what we are.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. I think that at Silverchair we do a lot of third party integrations. But a lot of these, at least, in my experience as product owner and even as PA before, these are relatively short timelines. A couple of months, a few sprints, at most. And so this is a completely different type of working relationship that we have with Willow Tree which is long term. Which is holistic, really, in terms of the conversation and the functional areas that could be in scope currently or going forward.
MATT ABRAHAM: So like Justin said, it became really important to make sure that we had a cohesive feeling amongst everyone in this larger group. That we had communication in the right ways and in ways that made sense for everyone, given that we also have other things going on. Other products that we're working on, or other internal teams, respectively, at Silverchair, and McGraw Hill, and at Willow Tree.
MATT ABRAHAM: So it was really a little bit of trial and error. But the most important thing was ensuring that communication was flowing consistently and in the right ways. Rhiannon, just in terms of that spirit of camaraderie being one mega team, did you guys have to spend some time learning each other's language and ways of working upfront?
MATT ABRAHAM: Or just kind of jump in.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. I've been a bit of both. I think we really jumped in together right away. I remember Matt, Justin, and myself we had-- one of our first meetings, I think, was to talk about this very thing. How are we going to work together, collaborate together? It's a highly collaborative project in general, and initiative, really, was year long to get to where we're at today.
RHIANNON WONG: And we knew there would be things like how to figure out meeting cadence, how to figure out like tooling for how we're going to keep in touch, where information would lie. So all of that kind of stuff. And I think, the, maybe, less tangible items behind that too were just that we-- we were just all really excited about this really large initiative.
RHIANNON WONG: It feels a bit too small to just call it a project, really. And that we were all kind of coming together on this. We had a, really, clear end goal driven by research, by prioritization. All having that collective endpoint to work towards together really helps.
JUSTIN BALE: And to add to that I'm really glad you brought up speaking the same language well. Because there, certainly, continue to be opportunities for us to understand across industries, across technology stacks. Legacy systems versus front end app development. We have spent a lot of time making sure that we are saying the same things as we collaborate. So that has been, certainly, one of the bigger lessons learned.
SPEAKER 1: So multi-party relationships are often hard. What happened when you guys hit speed bumps? I'm sure there was one or two along the way.
JUSTIN BALE: A very core understanding between all of us is assuming positive intent, and knowing that we are all working toward the same goal. So at any time that we have hit the many speed bumps we have, approaching the problem from that perspective has led to the continued partnership being so strong. And making sure that we are all putting our best foot forward. And there's no animosity between the parties, there's no blaming, of course. But making sure that we are all looking at a problem, and how to solve it.
JUSTIN BALE: And not why the problem happens in a negative way.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. I think from my perspective, it was just important to recognize what the issue was in the moment. Not focus on how it came about quite yet. That's an important step. But kind of that immediate remediation. Whatever needed to happen, whether it is fixing a quick problem, or pulling in others to support. And then later on looking back and saying, OK. Now, let's look at this more holistically try to understand how this arose in the first place, and what we can do in the future to remediate it.
MATT ABRAHAM: And we did do, actually, a full retro retrospective experience after, I guess, the end of Q1 this year as we wrapped up phase one of the app looking forward to the app store launch. We got together and had a really productive hour or so that enabled us, at a very high level, to look at our ways of working. How we wanted to adjust. That sort of thing that really informs what we're doing now.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. I think, definitely, just to add to this as well. I think a lot of the road-- the speed bumps that we hit were just the nature of our setup. That we are each three companies trying to kind of come together to really work on this one thing. And so even in the lead up to the retro, I remember we had a couple of meetings before we even did the retro.
RHIANNON WONG: And I think all of us were just so excited to do it that we were already kind of retroing pre-retro. Because, again, I think as Justin said, it comes from that place of good intent. We all really want to work together, and just figure out how to work better together just given the structure that we're in.
JUSTIN BALE: And one of the biggest takeaways was that we needed to measure and adjust more frequently. And make sure that we are staying in line with the collaborative tools we're using, how we're communicating. We did fall into a bit of a pattern of adding more meetings or more collaboration, and sort of assessing the efficiency, or even the sequencing of meetings. Because there are of course meetings between Silverchair and McGraw, and each individual partnership there.
JUSTIN BALE: So making sure that we were having the discussions and alignments in the right order. And making sure that those made sense, and are the most efficient and productive.
SPEAKER 1: It's a really good point. Matt, go ahead.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. And not to go too deep into the meeting admin side, but we, actually, came out of that retrospective with fewer meetings on our calendars. Because we're able to notice that if we adjust the cadence and the timing of these calls, we can probably take some of these recurring calls that we've had on the books for at that 0.68 months, close those out, and then develop kind of an ad hoc system on a weekly basis.
MATT ABRAHAM: So now we have kind of a stand up. A 30-minute stand up with all three parties on Mondays. And then at that point, we can decide, hey, should we add another meeting? But yeah, there's not this pre-requisite any more to hop on calls as much as we were.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. And it came paired with figuring out too the other ways in which we can communicate more quickly. So, actually, having an established place for the communication to happen asynchronously, and even going so far as to set up a shared Jira board so that-- it's like all these sort of things that you kind of don't think about, where information is just in various places.
RHIANNON WONG: And it becomes this problem, actually, trying to solve. How to more efficiently have it in one place for everyone.
SPEAKER 1: So it sounds like you guys established some really great ways of working. And I think three groups coming together and decide on fewer meetings is always a sign of a good partnership. So we've covered a lot about ways of working, how you structured communication, working together. But maybe we can talk just a little bit more about the nuts and bolts.
SPEAKER 1: So a few minutes ago, you mentioned that this app, this large initiative was informed by research. So what type of research did you and McGraw Hill do?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So we, actually, did a full sort of strategy research phase with Willow Tree. We had some of their incredible researchers on board to really kind of dig into the problems we were trying to solve from both the business perspective and end users. And I believe during that phase, Jill Hines, the researcher director. We had on board with us.
RHIANNON WONG: Interviewed Justin, was it over? It was a lot. A lot of students, faculty, administration, librarians to really, as I said, dig into to what we were trying to solve and land on the direction that we took the app in.
JUSTIN BALE: And then continuing on, we've actually managed to have research almost [INAUDIBLE].. So embedded within our implementation, we've had research involvement throughout to make sure that we are continuing to measure to get those insights, and then geared toward public launch. A very broad beta phase, where we had the application on both platforms in the hands of Mcgraw-Hill internal folks, students, residents across various specialties, as well as professionals and residents beyond their didactic.
JUSTIN BALE: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: So I mean, he talks about doing interviews. Were there other ways that you guys gathered data, or other types of data set like web analytics, or things that you all looked at to inform development?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So I think in those early stages, definitely looking at the analytics we have available for the web to understand use case and trends happening there to paint that larger picture. And then I think in conjunction, my role as a product manager overseeing access is a fairly new one for our group. It's not to say that our team wasn't conducting end-user research before.
RHIANNON WONG: But I think my coming on board has allowed us to spend a bit more time on that to formalize that up a little bit more. I think we all know research takes a lot of time. And it's a lot to get it up, and going to do that continuously as well. We have more work to do there. But that has been happening alongside.
JUSTIN BALE: And also one of the bigger value adds with the application is having known users instead of institutionally authorized users at their various institutions and places of learning. This way, we can understand more about personas and behaviors all the way down to the individual in lieu of broader trends, or through interviews with end users.
RHIANNON WONG: App is in many ways, helping us get us set up to do the level up and analytics.
SPEAKER 1: So I mean, it's a good reminder that research really is a process. And we shouldn't view it as a discrete event just to inform say requirements for developing the app. I have a lot of questions about how this group defined requirements, acceptance criteria, what do you want it to do, how you define the scope. But it may be helpful if one of you could talk about how the pieces come together. So how does the content flow?
SPEAKER 1: How does the user data flow to the extent, I think at a high level is probably sufficient?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. I can hop on this one to start. So Silverchair currently is source of record for users, as well as posting the content on the web that we would need to get to the app. And so I think in the initial discovery phase in early 2022, I was meeting with some folks at WillowTree on a weekly basis talking through what the breadth of our content is, what the depth of it is, what our information setup is like.
MATT ABRAHAM: And then once we started really getting into the nuts and bolts of it, and starting to think about implementation. And designing that implementation, it was very clear that a series of APIs was going to be the backbone. And so in terms of requirements, I think for both WillowTree and Silverchair Mcgraw-Hill is setting the requirements.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so it is our job to-- we alluded to earlier speak the same language both in terms of how we talk about technology, but also how our technology talks to each other. And so we supplemented that with some working sessions that Justin, we can probably talk a little bit. What we could talk all day about how valuable those [INAUDIBLE] sessions have been [INAUDIBLE]..
JUSTIN BALE: Absolutely. So beyond the product and project discussions around alignment for broad features and implementation, there was also a ton of collaboration and communication between the middleware. So our layer of APIs between the Silverchair database and our front-end apps in order to have success there. There was just a need to have constant collaboration between our middleware developers and the Silverchair team to make sure that contract negotiation was lock and step.
JUSTIN BALE: And that's actually something that we've adjusted even closer, so that those folks are pseudo pair programming, even throughout their sprints. That way, we can be parallel passing on the dependencies for our front-end feature enablement. So you have your goals. You've done research to understand your use cases, and what do you want to help the learner the end user achieve.
JUSTIN BALE: Rhiannon, how did you guys go about defining scope and what would be included in this initial release?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So that was really the output of the strategy phase with WillowTree. So we landed on an MVP for a set of features of therein. And then we always also knew that, I think, the other thing to call out to, that's new and exciting for us is approach and in iteration thereafter. So I think with the lead up to MVP, we were pretty clear on the set of features we are targeting for the soft launch.
RHIANNON WONG: But some of the exciting things are just starting now in terms of mega team phase 2, so to speak. We ran a beta test right before a soft launch. We had a lot of really great feedback coming in from that. That really helped us start to-- I think we had a sense of where we wanted to head next. But really validate and take a step back to, again, prioritize. And this is now moving into a more iterative approach to future development and enhancement.
JUSTIN BALE: And it's certainly a fine line between the analysis paralysis because we could continue gaining insights, and never actually do anything, versus actually putting some of that prioritization, and getting it out in the world. We started with a soft launch just the other week. So that we could start to get those analytics of individual users before a broader marketed launch in the fall. That way, can continue to make sure that we're delivering the right value in the right order, leading up to that larger launch.
SPEAKER 1: Excellent. I mean, I was waiting for the words agile to come out of its mouth there for just a moment. So in thinking about all the research that you did, there's user journeys, how you defined the scope for the soft launch. I mean, are there insights that you're bringing back to your Silverchair hosted sites? And one of the things that I'm thinking about is you just done a lot of research.
SPEAKER 1: You thought really carefully about the user and user journeys. And a lot of our publishers tend to have products with a presentation that's been the same for five or six years. And that presentation may actually be geared around the institutional purchaser, or the librarian. And folks are slowly, I think, starting to adapt particularly with open access if you're a journalist publisher more of a B2C [INAUDIBLE].
SPEAKER 1: So we open this up to anybody. But are there things that you learned, insights that you have now that you want to bring back to your existing sites?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah, definitely. This has been a big topic for this year. I think folks are maybe tired of hearing me say it. I do say it a lot. But this app isn't an app in isolation. As I said at the top of it, it really is an integral part of a larger portfolio. And I think some of the exciting things we've been hearing and validating is that, again, when it comes to rounding out modalities, web doesn't go away as a need, right?
RHIANNON WONG: It's are we there, and all the spots that we need to be when a user needs to access information. And that still is the web plays an important component in that. And I think some of the exciting things that we've been thinking about with the app is to think about, again, that more holistic experience of how an end-user might use both web and app, and think about what changes to do we want to think about next for the web in that respect.
RHIANNON WONG: So we have been working on a really exciting project with Brian McDonald, and on taking a look at doing some redesign of the web. And we did have him meet with our designer at WillowTree, Garrett Kamala to start to think about, again, sharing and thinking about that holistic picture.
SPEAKER 1: Matt, to put you on the spot, I think you've worked with multiple publishers at Silverchair. Are there any general insights you learn from this engagement with McGraw and WillowTree that may be helpful for other publishers?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah. Well, since I first started working with Mcgraw-Hill, one of the strategic goals underlying everything is a desire to learn more about individual users because of how they gain access to the sites they're often anonymous. They're institutionally authenticated. And a big part of that is figuring out the best way to provide value to these end users to encourage more authentication, to encourage this value add in curation, and starting to talk about, if this is a big thing across publishers, I think is whether you're talking about open access, or whether you're talking about users that are getting access to a whole library of information because of their medical school library.
MATT ABRAHAM: How do we get the right information to them at the right time, and the right format that is as frictionless as possible? And so there's definitely things that thinking about the user and their experience in the app allows us to view the web in a different paradigm than we're normally used to. And a big thing now with that we're moving towards going forward is this idea of web and app parity as much as possible.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so partly, this can be very you would consider straightforward implementation. Like a user favorite something in the app when they log in on the web that's also favorited. But there needs to be APIs in the background talking. And so thinking about that parity, then when we start adding things to the app, because this works really well, is it something that we can adapt for the web?
MATT ABRAHAM: Is this something that will provide value here? And I saw someone pop in with some affinity chat, which is something that we're working on now for the fall release. And really focusing first on the app, first surfacing recommendations on the app because of the way that the user discovers content in the app, I think that's really valuable. And then applying that to the web.
MATT ABRAHAM: But always knowing that you can't do it exactly the same in both places. And so I think just being able to look at a user experience, or being forced almost to look at the user experience from a different viewpoint has been really beneficial, I think, for myself as I think about our properties on the web.
SPEAKER 1: It's a great segue, I think, for us to just zoom out a little bit, and think about how all of this falls into the context of broader industry trends, or broader platform technology strategies. We've talked about meeting users and their desired modality, moving past a B2B institutional relationship to connect directly with users and understand more about them.
SPEAKER 1: I mean, Rhiannon and Justin, any other trends that you all were thinking about as you started this project, or as you think about what comes next.
JUSTIN BALE: I think one thing all of us are really excited about is leaning into the relevancy and context. So just as Matt and Rhiannon touched on, this is an app, and the access product suite that is hopefully something that follows medical learners throughout their journey, which can, of course, be a couple of decades longer perhaps. So making sure that we are both providing the relevant content in the right context, whether they're learning, or if they need some quick reference, if they're sitting down and studying, and making sure that is also happening in the context of where they are in their medical journey.
JUSTIN BALE: Are they an M1? Are they a resident? Are they actually attending in their teaching folks? Are they curating a collection for others that they're teaching to see? So making sure that we are thinking about that in the B2B or from B2C is the biggest paradigm shift to make sure that we are really leaning into that. Rhiannon, do you have anything else to add there?
RHIANNON WONG: I think you said it perfectly.
SPEAKER 1: So what comes next? You talked about this being a soft launch. Someone I think mentioned August for another potential release. Anything you're willing to share.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. I think Matt alluded to this a little. We have some exciting work involving affinities. And I think this next phase now that we've got a decent chunk of the content. And so I'll focus on some new features around personalization are on the roadmap.
SPEAKER 1: Would one of you be willing to define, or talk about affinities just so everyone who's listening and knows what we're talking about?
MATT ABRAHAM: I can take this. So yeah, really we're talking about zero party and first party for the app, in particular, zero party is really powerful because a user is going through a pretty in-depth. And I apologize that being here sirens in the background. They go through a pretty in-depth onboarding process. Whereby we can glean a lot of information from them that could be pertinent for what content they want to see down the line.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so we're allowing these personas to be built out through self-selected interests going forward. And then first party as well, which has many components. First party being looking at a user's current session, and aligning that with certain categories that then we can recommend content that might be related that we can genuinely think of as something that is relevant to that user.
MATT ABRAHAM: So the implementation will look slightly different on both app and web. But what we really want to have is that web app parity. So the recommendations that we're making to an app user are pretty similar to the recommendations that we're making to a user on the web as well.
SPEAKER 1: Great. Just make sure I have this right. Because I think we're all learning about types of user data. Zero party data is data that a user is proactively and intentionally providing. You all providing us, either as the platform or publisher. Great. So just a reminder to our audience, we're moving into the question and answer portion.
SPEAKER 1: So please feel free to use the Q&A functionality, or you can put a question in the chat. I have one question just to get us started. And Justin, it's for you. I mean, it would seem to me that academic and scholarly publishers are a bit different than your other customers. I mean, is that right? And if so, do you have any general advice for us as we consider B2C products or strategies?
JUSTIN BALE: Yeah, I would say that the range of folks that WillowTree works with is broad enough, that it's not too different and there's certainly learnings, and playbooks, and other materials that we all draw to ensure that we are meeting our clients, where they are. And that includes any other third parties like Silverchair. Just to make sure that even if we may not work with too many publishers around this space. There are some just baseline core, best practices that we all follow, and making sure that we all learn and grow as a group to ensure that we are delivering the most customized and efficient partnership with our clients.
JUSTIN BALE: I actually have worked in e-commerce. I've worked with different companies, including private aviation. So I've been all over the place in my professional experience, including even as a published researcher. So I had a very interesting mix of digital, of e-commerce, and Omnichannel of actually being a published researcher and premed an undergraduate. So this was my perfect project, if you will.
JUSTIN BALE: So I was able to take those experiences. And what I've learned at WillowTree and how we approach our project work, and hopefully, so far, we're doing a pretty good job.
SPEAKER 1: Sounds like you are. So Rhiannon, there's a few questions that have come in for you. One was in the chat, which is, has the app met your revenue expectations so far? And has it increased revenue? And since mentioned, this is a soft launch, maybe you want to expand a little bit, and talk about maybe initial goals, or things you were hoping to achieve.
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah. So say I don't know how much I can speak to that part. But in terms of goals, I think we're really excited. Again, yeah, we just saw launch. But the team is super excited to start talking about it, start getting it in front of end users, and customers. And really a lot of what we've already chatted about here in terms of establishing that more direct connection with the end-user, building that bridge between an institutional traditional B2B business, and honing in on end user needs, and bringing that all together.
RHIANNON WONG: We feel like that the app is really forging that path for us, that we feel. We're really set up to be able to do that. And I think the next stage is really where we're going to learn all of it.
SPEAKER 1: And then are there any features on the app that maybe weren't available on your existing sites that beta users were the most excited?
RHIANNON WONG: I'm trying to think how to describe this holistically. It is a different experience, right? And I think one of the things that came to light in beta. That's not necessarily something we tested on. But just in terms of the way the app is built, it is surfacing to you more of what we have available. Even in terms of the way that we show you in onboarding that we have, cases, videos, Q&A. Part of the things that we've learned about the web experience right now in terms of it being more of that browsing experience is that sometimes things can get hidden, right?
RHIANNON WONG: An end-user may not necessarily know, or be aware of the breadth, and depth of what's available on the web. And I think just even in terms of the way the app is structured, where you are already seeing that come out in beta.
JUSTIN BALE: I was going to add that search as the primary path to a content piece, as well as the filtering that is, again, experiential different than the website, but of course, faster for users to hone in so more efficient. And then also offline mode. So being able to access content that you have downloaded while you are on a plane, perhaps you're in a hospital that does not have Wi-Fi in certain spots. Wherever a user may be, they can download content to view or read later.
JUSTIN BALE: Actually, the research did say that folks didn't really consider that too much and until they didn't have access to data. And then they were very glad to have that, which I could imagine getting ready for boards next week. And you don't have access to Wi-Fi, could come in handy.
SPEAKER 1: Excellent. Rhiannon, another question for you. Did you run into any resistance internally around the concept of an app? New delivery formats can be slow to be adopted within scholarly publishing. So the questioner was wondering if the internal sell was another aspect of [INAUDIBLE].
RHIANNON WONG: I don't know if I can speak too much to this directly. I came on board a little bit later. But I think just in terms of what holistically this app is what we're trying to solve with this, I think it felt, in general, the sentiment is we're ready to do this. It was really the next step for access in terms of where the business is at with access. And yes.
SPEAKER 1: Excellent. Thank you. Our friend Mark Jacobson actually has a platform functionality question. Matt, I don't know if you're in a position to answer this question. If not, we'll follow it with Mark offline, which is, our user defined collections of standard platform features.
MATT ABRAHAM: As someone who lives in Mcgraw-Hill land, and has four in the last two years, I might defer to an offline current platform functionality.
SPEAKER 1: I know Hannah Heckner, our VP of product is listening in. So we'll ask Hannah to get in touch with Mark. I will say the platform has done a lot of work with affinities, and understanding the content the user is interested in based on either data that they provide us, or what they're reading. And we can drive a lot of functionality from. Matt, Mark is also asking if Mcgraw-Hill is a code of Silverchair environment.
SPEAKER 1: You may want to talk just a little bit about the context of the routine team, and how we work with Mcgraw-Hill.
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah, absolutely. So Mcgraw-Hill has a retained team agreement. My team works solely on Mcgraw-Hill projects, including, obviously, the military integration, and maintenance, all of that. I do want to touch on something that is a little bit unique about this integration that may or may not be related to Mark's question. But one of the things that we touched on is this idea of working together with WillowTree in certain environments that are outside of production.
MATT ABRAHAM: Specifically, really in our staging environment, and leveraging that staging environment as much as we can, which is really, really beneficial. It allows WillowTree to start testing a little bit sooner, but it also enabled us to develop a spec, and WillowTree is able to work through some magic in the middle, where to start that front-end development.
MATT ABRAHAM: And then we can coexist in this same staging space that normally is off limits, or is restricted to client. And so WillowTree internally. But I felt like we didn't quite touch on that. So I just wanted to bring that up as well.
SPEAKER 1: [INAUDIBLE] Rhiannon, another question for you. You mentioned that you came in after a very start of this. But can you share how Mcgraw-Hill built its capacity, or its resources to do end-user research? And do you have any advice for other publishers, who are just getting started or considering B2C strategies?
RHIANNON WONG: Yeah, definitely. So yeah, as I mentioned, that the team we were doing research, I'd probably characterize a little more ad hoc. And the goal was always to want to be able to do that more consistently. I think there's two parts to this. So one is what we talked about with our work with WillowTree. We were working with WillowTree researchers. So there was that aspect of it.
RHIANNON WONG: And then I think the other part is just, internally, we are building out product, the product management group. And so my role is a fairly new one. And that I was able to bring that to the team, and to start to build that out for us. But it's a work in progress for sure.
SPEAKER 1: Justin, you mentioned, and we talked earlier that WillowTree helped Mcgraw-Hill with a lot of research and the strategy. Do you have any advice for publishers thinking more about their end users, where they should start, tips or tricks?
JUSTIN BALE: Apart from going with WillowTree to partner with them, just that strategy and research, and really looking, especially if it's been some time, where you really need to reassess what your end-user or your product goals are, investing in that time pays out in magnitudes. Because if you really think about continuing medical education, of course, anyone can be of any aid in that group. But where it's 2023.
JUSTIN BALE: Several medical students or residents have been alive when they've had the internet for most of their conscious awareness. So really just being part of that old paradigm is no longer something that users, or end users, or students, et cetera will really deal with anymore. So making sure that you are measuring your population, and knowing what they really need at the end of the day, putting that investment in is how you can stay ahead of your competition.
JUSTIN BALE:
SPEAKER 1: It's one advice. And one last question before we wrap up. Matt, I think we have a few other colleagues joining us in the webinar. And one of the things that was atypical for us was working so closely with WillowTree and a third-party was meant internally, we had to relay a lot of knowledge, and new language, and different ways of working. How did you make sure that happens effectively within the team, and going from your role as product owner, to the BAs down to the [INAUDIBLE]??
SPEAKER 1: Any advice for our other colleagues, or anyone else in a similar position on the management?
MATT ABRAHAM: Yeah, great question. I think the first most important thing we've talked about scoping is having constant conversation around scoping as the three parties, and then being able to each Mcgraw-Hill, Silverchair, and WillowTree going back to their internal teams, and being able to communicate that scope, and why we have it scoped in that way. We also had a lead business analyst on the project and a tech champion.
MATT ABRAHAM: So Renee Britton was the lead BA, and Matt Earley was the lead that, or the tech champion on the technical side as a senior developer. And so usually, having that three pronged approach was really beneficial I think because we would look to Mcgraw-Hill for the overall business requirements and for the scope. And so Renee was able to be in these meetings and relay that directly to have that informed her work on the requirements side and on writing acceptance criteria.
MATT ABRAHAM: And then having Matt just as involved on the technical requirements was really important. Because typically, with a project that just Silverchair is doing for Mcgraw-Hill, we have the business requirements, and we have our own stack of technology that we're working with. And here, we needed that conversation on the technical side between Matt and his counterpart at WillowTree.
MATT ABRAHAM: And so I think the end result of that was a real shared ownership from the mega team space down to myself, or Silverchair myself, Matt Earley, and Renee. And we're able to communicate to the team the why and the how. And we're also able to pivot really quickly if we needed to. If a technical implementation path that we went down wasn't quite working, we're just missing each other on our connections.
MATT ABRAHAM: Then we can quickly pivot. And I think that was really important for a project like this on the Silverchair side, where we are building APIs, and not necessarily seeing the front-end fruition of that work for quite some time. It really wasn't until the past month and a half that we got access to the beta of the app, and could see, oh, this is where all of these APIs have been leading.
MATT ABRAHAM: And before that is a little bit esoteric, which I think is in those situations, developing that sense of shared ownership, and that expertise on the requirements, and business side, and the technical side is really important for communication. And our team had to get a lot of experience with that.
JUSTIN BALE: A super quick follow up on the agility or adjustments quickly. Even in the ability for the WillowTree development team to adjust our sprint schedule to allow better sequencing between a staging post on the Silverchair side, so that we can see how these APIs are coming in if there's any need for an adjustment, and still make the cutoff for a possible adjustment. So really excited that we have the ability to make those sorts of changes to our sprint schedule to better align to a larger program increment from Silverchair.
SPEAKER 1: Well, I mean, one of the things that excites me most about being a technology partner in this space is seeing success cases just like this. So Rhiannon, and Justin, Matt, Thank you all very much. Rhiannon, we're really excited to see how all of this works out. We hope you'll come back, and tell us how things have gone, and what you've learned. So thank you. Thanks to all three of you for joining us today.
SPEAKER 1: I know our audience appreciates it. And then our next event is actually a continuation of some of the themes that we talked about here today. It is on how digital education has been impacted by how we learn, teach, and research. That will be May 16th at 11:00 AM Eastern. That is going to be co-moderated by my colleague Jake Zarnegar our chief strategy officer, and Diane Harnish is a senior consultant in the education practice director at [INAUDIBLE] I think.
SPEAKER 1: They'll be joined by Brian Moore, the director of Online Learning and Assessment Examinations Curriculum and Planning at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, along with Jonathan Wisco, who's the pre-clinical curriculum director at Boston University. And two researchers. So that sounds like it would be a really interesting session. So many thanks to everyone who joined us today for this webinar.
SPEAKER 1: And again, to our speakers we're looking forward to seeing everybody online, or in person in September. So Thank you all very, very
RHIANNON WONG: Thank you so much.
JUSTIN BALE: Thank you.
SPEAKER 1: Take the survey, please. You'll see the link.
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