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> But Ryan simply wasn’t interested. Student graduations count as a negative on his spreadsheet, since graduating students typically unsubscribe. Major yikes o
by jurassic 5y ago
> But Ryan simply wasn’t interested. Student graduations count as a negative on his spreadsheet, since graduating students typically unsubscribe.
Major yikes on this. I never thought about how online learning platforms have this kind of misaligned incentive.
- dylan604 5y agoIt's not a charity organization that can run deficit financing. If you have fewer and fewer paying users, you have to make harsh decisions. They are never easy. How one handles those decisions and conversations with the employees that will be affected shows the class of the CEO/board. This example shows they had none.
- simonw 5y agoThere's a similar issue with online dating: the better an online dating service is at matching people, the higher their subscription churn rate. A customer who had been using an online dating service for many years is presumably a great revenue source but a bad experience for people they are matched with! The result of this is that online dating becomes mostly about new user acquisition - you've got to keep new people coming in to keep the service useful.
- cortesoft 5y agoYeah, this is why for-profit schools are problematic.
- samastur 5y agoWait till you hear about schools ;) Seriously though, this is not a misaligned incentive. Some business simply can't realistically be based on a model of perpetual customers.
- rchaud 5y agoThis is the bottom line for all for-profit education institutions. Treehouse isn't nearly as expensive as degree programs from DeVry and others, so it's not quite as ominous.