BmyVillage

The Business

Bmyvillage offers one on one virtual coaching-matching motivated teachers with highly successful, recognized fellow teachers. Bmyvillage was established in 2020 with an understanding that teachers needed support outside of what their districts were providing.
They’re in their growth phase and are open to implementing change in an effort to monetize and scale up. This is where UX comes in.

My Role

As the research lead and writer I was influential in defining the research objective for the project. With that objective, my team and I drafted interview questions and usability tasks as well as a list of survey questions. As leader I was also responsible for managing our timeline, ensuring we scheduled and conducted interviews and usability tests by a specific date. Once interviews were complete, I coded each interview using Dovetail and as a team we discussed our theories.

Business Needs

• Confirm teachers understand what Bmyvillage offers

• Make coaching sessions easier to purchase

• Create a simplified way for coaches to access their account

The Audience

Bmyvillage has two target audiences. There are teachers seeking professional development or coaching resources and teachers who are interested in coaching. This framed our outreach for interview and usability participants.

Interviews

We began our research conducting 5 interviews with current and past teachers. Our objective was to gain insight into any previous coaching or mentoring, what they want from professional development as well as what motivates them.

A limitation we faced was teachers’ availability over the summer vacation. We also intended to interview at least 3 of the current coaches participating with Bmyvillage. Unfortunately none were available in our time frame. 

Interview Insights

Teachers agreed there is a lack of communication between administration and teachers when creating professional development programs.

And there was a consensus among teachers that they want more support, but face constraints with time and money

Usability Testing

Along with our interviews, we conducted 4 usability tests of the current Bmyville website also with current and previous teachers. From this we discovered their overall perception of the site-from the layout to the colors and images. We also gathered insight on what users assumed the business offered, as well as their thoughts on the process of creating an account, scheduling a session and completing checking out. 

Usability Insights

During these usability tests users stated they would prefer to see the price earlier on in the scheduling process versus the end. 

Users also noted the site felt organized, clean, and bright.

Survey

In addition to interviews and tests, we also conducted a survey with 21 total participants.

The most significant takeaway was 66% said they would not pay for 1:1 sessions with a coach out of pocket. 

Competitors

We researched both direct and indirect competitors and considered these key differences:

• more price options, including free trials and scholarships

• reviews for their current coach and client experiences 

• connected to school districts

• use encouraging language 

The User Journey

From our insights my research team and I discovered the potential flaw in the user journey to Bmyvillage. Teachers begin frustrated that their districts aren’t providing the professional development. They begin searching on their own and are happy to find they have options, but are soon overwhelmed with cost and time. Ultimately, they end schedule a free trial through a competitor. This is where Bmyvillage has missed an opportunity.

Problem Statement

BMyVillage offers opportunities for growth, but numerous affordable alternatives exist and users are unwilling to buy into their services offered without district support.

The question is, how do we get teachers to find Bmyvillage, and choose Bmyvillage and keep coming back?

How might we

How might we show multiple scheduling options so teachers can get support when they are available.

How might we show that Bmyvillage provides customized support for teachers that are superior to random resources online and generalized PD at schools.