Children's educational platform

Another example of how to quickly launch a MVP. In two months, we created a training service for children: we analyzed the market and target audience, developed a unique character and implemented several interesting features-read about everything in the case.

Situation

Tilly is a learning service with interactive tests that helps children 2-10 years old develop and learn something new.

The founders of the project came to us with the idea in mid-March. Tilly participated in the PhilTech social technology startup accelerator program, so there was little time to implement it. To qualify for the grant, you had to launch MVP, the minimum viable product, by May 15.

Aim

In two months, we had to create a competitive project in the market of children's education. It was important to take into account several conditions.

• The service should have many types of questions. If the tests are not interesting, children will get bored, and parents will not subscribe. And it is important for us that they not only make it out but also recommend it to friends.
  
  
• The project must have its own unique character that can talk to the child in Russian and English — to choose from.
  
  
• The project should be better than those that are already on the market. To do this, you need to determine the positioning.
  
  

In addition, it is likely that the service will scale in the future. It was necessary to take this into account when designing and developing.

Market analysis

Today, many services are competing for the child's attention — these are direct competitors or sites with similar goals. We analyzed the market and came to the following conclusions.

• Few high-quality products: mostly old or not very high-tech sites.
  
  
• In addition to educational services like the upgraded Lingualeo, there is a lot of content for children on a variety of platforms — for example, on YouTube channels.
  
  
• Classes in English are trending.

At this stage, we decided on the positioning: Tilly will be an online assistant in the child's education.

Audience

We analyzed the target audience and drew up portraits of people: we described in detail the children, income level, character, and problems of each-as well as what features of the site can solve these problems.

Character and illustrations

We devoted a separate stage of work to the character because it should become a competitive advantage of the service and attract young users. In the end, we decided that Tilly is a cute hare. To create such a person, we conducted separate research. After a number of variations, we settled on this gentle one with steampunk glasses and an astrolabe.

In addition to the character, we have developed about 30 illustrations: variations of emotions, backgrounds, icons, and other elements.

Implemented features of the project

In design and development, we had to take into account the fact that the service will scale in the future, including the client's plans to develop a mobile application. To speed up the build process and save on subsequent implementations, we used the API Based approach.

Payment is made with a Bankcard. To do this, we have enabled Internet acquisition from Sberbank.

Questions and answers

Questions are updated at 00:00 Moscow time. This way even unregistered users can solve new tests every day. Questions are generated from our magic admin panel and come in two types:

• text questions
• questions with text and pictures.

Each of them is voiced by a professional speaker in Russian and English. To answer, the child needs to select one or more options — or drag the image. At the end of the test, it will be evaluated with the exact number of correct and incorrect answers.

Results

We met the deadline-we launched the project MVP for April and May. Tilly became a finalist of the PhilTech accelerator: only 11 teams out of 327 reached the finish line. 

We continue to support and develop the service after launch, adding new features and functions.

Rewards

The project was highly appreciated by the professional community:

• Silver in the Best illustration category at the Tagline Awards 2018.
• Bronze in the category " Best SaaS website" at the Tagline Awards 2018.
• 3rd place in the category "Best startup site", Golden site.