Technically Speaking
A centralised platform to help B2B marketing managers launch technical webinars faster.
Problem Statement
How might we remove bottlenecks from launching technical webinars for business-to-business (B2B) marketing managers so that there are no event delays or cancellations which would lead to lost revenue-making opportunities.
Problem Background
Webinars are a proven marketing channel to increase companies' revenue. 72% of marketing teams say that webinars directly impact pipeline and revenue (Source: ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report 2021)
There’s a growing market size for webinars and virtual events:
When people register for a webinar, they share their contact information which translates into a lead, a person interested in learning more about their brand’s solution.
Business-to-business (B2B) brands invest their marketing budgets to present online webinars to their target market so that they generate new leads, nurture existing relationships with customers and prospects, demonstrate their thought leadership for solving certain industry problems and allow their target audience to be aware of their brand and its unique selling points (brand positioning).
- The total addressable market (TAM) for business-to-business (B2B) marketing teams utilizing webinars as a strategy to enhance company revenue is significant and growing. As of 2023, the global webinar market (excluding virtual events) has surpassed $1 billion, with projections indicating it may reach $5 billion by 2035 (Source: Smartcore, 2024)
- This growth reflects the increasing adoption of webinars among B2B marketers, with over 60% of them incorporating webinars into their content marketing strategies (Source: Zoom Info, 2024).
Research Insights
I conducted 5 user interviews with B2B marketing managers and there were clear common problems identified:
100% said aligning webinar demands from many teams is tough
- Complexity in Topic Selection: Many marketing managers struggle with choosing the right webinar topics that align with both the company's goals and audience interests. This is often due to a disconnect between different teams (product, content, and demand generation) and the lack of clear direction or pre-planned content calendars.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Effective topic selection relies heavily on data analytics, including website keywords, Google Analytics, SEO performance, and social listening tools. These tools help identify trending topics and gaps in the market.
- Balancing General and Niche Topics: There's a trend towards starting with general topics for broader appeal, especially in new markets, and progressively moving to more niche topics as the market and audience mature.
60% said speaker recruitment is a challenge
- Low speaker talent pool and topic overuse: There was a common reliance on a small pool of great speakers, leading to topic overuse and speakers being unavailable which presented deliverability risks.
- One marketing manager said “I had 4 main speakers and [X company] has 500 employees.”
- Speaker training for technical staff needed: The interviews uncovered a real need for training technical staff to become effective public speakers.
- Another marketing manager shared “Sometimes I found myself in the position that I was almost begging [technical staff]”
Landing on the Solution
Based on the target users’ pain points, I knew I wanted to work on the following features:
- Collect content inputs from different teams: Teams involved in webinar content are given different deadlines so that successive teams' inputs are influenced by the previous team’s requirements based on a marketing manager-defined hierarchy
- Central dashboard showing team submissions and deadlines: If a marketing manager or webinar project lead is off sick, the whole project team still knows where bottlenecks are in submissions and notifications are automatically delivered to the right team members to progress the project.
- CustomGPT for generating webinar titles and abstracts: Upload content inputs from all project team members to generate webinar landing page copy that maximizes conversions to webinar registrations so that the B2B team generate as many relevant leads as possible for our sales team to follow up with post-webinar.
- Integration of call scheduling tools: If team members want to schedule synchronous communication e.g. Zoom or Google Meets calls, to clarify ideas further, the tool offers integration with popular scheduling tools like Google Calendar, MS Outlook or Calendly.
- Full webinar project workflow after webinar content is agreed: Templates of suggested workflows are given, with collections of further inputs e.g. speaker slides, reviews, etc also included.
MVP: The tool is focused on giving businesses clear workflows, in the form of templates, to prioritise the order of content inputs so that when it reaches technical experts, they must take into account business requirements and marketing research before they submit their suggestions. Without this tool and process, technical staff typically share technically heavy content which doesn’t reflect business requirements or marketing insights, causing conflict and delays in launching a webinar.
Finally, Chat GPT can be integrated for the last step to support writing a high-converting webinar title and abstract based on the inputs collected, which is then shared with the marketing manager for final editing and approval.
Future Steps
I plan to conduct research survey with marketing managers that have recently promoted their brand’s webinars on LinkedIn to gather more data and further uncover pain points and possible solutions. I would like to also conduct further research interviews with additional users, update my PRD and possibly recruit a Product Team to build an MVP for this product which users can provide feedback for.
I have made some initial mockups and user flow prototype using UIZard here, and would share this with users and a designer for feedback to iterate to the next version
Learnings
Product Manager Learnings:
Matt Garrow-Fisher
- Reading ‘The Mom Test’ book by Rob Fitzpatrick really helped me understand how to conduct user research interviews in a way that doesn’t collect bad data, including bias, praise or words of encouragement which often isn’t helpful for product research.
- I understood this problem on one level before this Co.Lab SPRINT, but conducting research using Product Management frameworks gave me so many new insights after defining this problem more clearly, and this gave many clues about possible solutions I never would have thought of otherwise.
- Understanding the market size for this problem is important to see if it’s a problem worth solving as a business. Equally if product market fit is achieved, having an awareness of other applications of this type of tool for other use cases is also relevant. There is potentially to expand scope to incorporate content submissions for wider B2B project teams, not just for webinars, which has a much larger market size.
- The concept of Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) has been really helpful in framing problems, finding how users are already solving this challenge, and ideating solutions using existing technologies that can make things easier, more efficient, clearer, etc.
- Understand that product development is an iterative process, and the more information you uncover about users and reality, the more you need to refine user stories, product specs, iterate solution ideas and requirements. Being stubborn to stick to your first solutions will not help in achieving product-market fit for sure!
Designer Learnings:
Designer Learnings:
Jo Sturdivant
- Adapting to an Established Team: Joining the team in week 6 of 8 was challenging, as I had to quickly adapt to existing workflows, dynamics, and goals. This mirrors real-world situations where you often integrate into teams mid-project, and flexibility is essential.
- Work-Blocking for Efficiency: With only two weeks to complete the project, I learned the importance of a structured work-blocking system. This approach allowed me to manage my time effectively and meet deadlines under pressure.
- Making Data-Driven Design Decisions: Unlike my past projects, I had to rely on research conducted by others. This was a valuable experience in using pre-existing data to guide design decisions, helping me focus on the core insights without starting from scratch.
Developer Learnings:
Developer Learnings:
Vanady Beard
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As the back-end developer, I learned how important it is to create efficient and reliable systems that support the entire application. This experience also taught me the importance of optimising the database and ensuring the backend is scalable and easy to maintain.
Developer Learnings:
Stephen Asiedu
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As a back-end developer, I've come to understand the importance of being familiar with various database systems and modules. This knowledge enables me to build diverse applications and maintain versatility in my work. I've also learned that the responsibility for making the right choices rests on my shoulders, guided by my best judgement.
Developer Learnings:
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Developer Learnings:
Maurquise Williams
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- Process of Creating an MVP: Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) taught me how to focus on delivering core functionalities balancing between essential features and avoiding scope creep.
- Collaboration in a Real-World Tech Setting: This experience taught me how to collaborate efficiently in a fast-paced tech environment, keeping the team aligned and productive, even while working remotely across time zones.
- Sharpening Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: This experience honed my ability to think critically and solve problems efficiently. By tackling challenges and finding quick solutions, I sharpened my decision-making and troubleshooting skills in a dynamic, real-world setting.
Developer Learnings:
Jeremiah Williams
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All in all this experience was very awesome I learned that in coding with others being transparent is key
Developers Learnings:
Justin Farley
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I learned how important communication is when working with a team. Communication provides understanding, advice, ideas, and much more. While working with the product team, I’ve found that communication keeps everything flowing smoothly. Working with a team also showed me that every member brings something different to the table and we all have to work together in order to align and meet our end goal.