Cloud Marathon: helping Cloud Academy’s B2C users build positive study habits while boosting growth
Cloud Marathon: helping Cloud Academy’s B2C users build positive study habits while boosting growth
A 3-month challenge I designed to help users stay consistent with their study goals, while also driving engagement and reducing churn. The result was an 18% increase in MoM net cash flow, with many users sticking around even long after the challenge ended.
MY ROLE ON THIS PROJECT
As the only product designer in an agile team (1 PM, 2 FE devs, 2 BE devs), I handled the end-to-end design process, including: User Research & Analysis, Proto Personas & User Stories, User Flows & UX/UI Design (low → high fidelity), Prototyping & Usability Testing, Design Handoff & collaboration with engineers
MY ROLE ON THIS PROJECT
As the only product designer in an agile team (1 PM, 2 FE devs, 2 BE devs), I handled the end-to-end design process, including: User Research & Analysis, Proto Personas & User Stories, User Flows & UX/UI Design (low → high fidelity), Prototyping & Usability Testing, Design Handoff & collaboration with engineers
MY ROLE ON THIS PROJECT
As the only product designer in an agile team (1 PM, 2 FE devs, 2 BE devs), I handled the end-to-end design process, including: User Research & Analysis, Proto Personas & User Stories, User Flows & UX/UI Design (low → high fidelity), Prototyping & Usability Testing, Design Handoff & collaboration with engineers
READ THE CASE STUDY
READ THE CASE STUDY
READ THE CASE STUDY
The story Behind Cloud Marathon
Sometimes, ideas can come from simply paying attention to what users are already doing. That’s exactly what happened when we noticed Ivan Chong, a user who had recently decided to pivot into a Cloud Architect role. He was studying across multiple platforms within short timeframes
and posting daily progress on Twitter & LinkedIn.
Using the same hashtags: #100DaysOfCloud and #30DaysOfAzure
Digging a little deeper, we found out that he wasn’t alone.
He was part of a larger movement called 100 Days of Cloud—a community-driven challenge with thousands of people doing the same thing.
And surprisingly enough, None of our competitors were addressing this kind of user behavior. That’s when the lightbulb went off:
What if we created an initiative that helped goal-driven learners stay on track—while also reducing churn?
Sometimes, ideas can come from simply paying attention to what users are already doing. That’s exactly what happened when we noticed Ivan Chong, a user who had recently decided to pivot into a Cloud Architect role. He was studying across multiple platforms within short timeframes
and posting daily progress on Twitter & LinkedIn
Sometimes, ideas can come from simply paying attention to what users are already doing. That’s exactly what happened when we noticed Ivan Chong, a user who had recently decided to pivot into a Cloud Architect role. He was studying across multiple platforms within short timeframes
and posting daily progress on Twitter & LinkedIn.
Using the same hashtags: #100DaysOfCloud and #30DaysOfAzure
Digging a little deeper, we found out that he wasn’t alone.
He was part of a larger movement called 100 Days of Cloud—a community-driven challenge with thousands of people doing the same thing.
And surprisingly enough, None of our competitors were addressing this kind of user behavior. That’s when the lightbulb went off:
What if we created an initiative that helped goal-driven learners stay on track—while also reducing churn?
Using the same hashtags: #100DaysOfCloud and #30DaysOfAzure
Digging a little deeper, we found out that he wasn’t alone.
He was part of a larger movement called 100 Days of Cloud—a community-driven challenge with thousands of people doing the same thing.
And surprisingly enough, None of our competitors were addressing this kind of user behavior. That’s when the lightbulb went off:
What if we created an initiative that helped goal-driven learners stay on track—while also reducing churn?
The Opportunity we saw:
This was more than just an interesting trend, it was a real business opportunity.
We realized we could:
Create a new acquisition channel for users working toward a specific goal
Reduce churn by incentivizing longer-term study commitments
Boost MoM net cash flow by requiring users to prepay for 3 months (a critical timeframe, as most cancellations happened within the first 1-3 months)
The Opportunity we saw:
This was more than just an interesting trend, it was a real business opportunity.
We realized we could:
Create a new acquisition channel for users working toward a specific goal
Reduce churn by incentivizing longer-term study commitments
Boost MoM net cash flow by requiring users to prepay for 3 months (a critical timeframe, as most cancellations happened within the first 1-3 months)
The Opportunity we saw:
This was more than just an interesting trend, it was a real business opportunity.
We realized we could:
Create a new acquisition channel for users working toward a specific goal
Reduce churn by incentivizing longer-term study commitments
Boost MoM net cash flow by requiring users to prepay for 3 months (a critical timeframe, as most cancellations happened within the first 1-3 months)
Don't have time for this?
Jump straight to the final solution
Don't have time for this?
Jump straight to the final solution
Don't have time for this?
Jump straight to the final solution
How does it work?
Cloud Marathon is a 3-month learning challenge where participants commit to studying for at least 1 hour per day (including weekends) and documenting it posting their daily progress on social media. In return, if they complete the challenge, they get a full refund.
For users that weren’r ready to commit to studying every day we also created an half marathin option, a lighter version requiring half the study time.
Why it works?
At first glance, the main hook is obvious: learning for free.
But the deeper value comes from:
Helping users build consistent study habits
Encouraging exploratory learning beyond just one Cloud platform
Fostering a sense of accountability through social sharing
Results
We launched two rounds of Cloud Marathon and they were a huge success—both in terms of user feedback and business impact:
18% increase in MoM net cash flow (with minimal paid ads)
16% of users kept studying even after they were no longer eligible for a refund
10% subscribed to another membership within 6 months
Some users even participated twice, which was a strong indicator that we were onto something valuable.
The Research behind it:
Because this was an experiment, we had to move fast and had no dedicated budget or time for research and field studies.
Instead, we relied on:
Desk research + internal interviews with learning coaches
Gamification & Behavioral Design Principles
The Research behind it:
Because this was an experiment, we had to move fast and had no dedicated budget or time for research and field studies.
Instead, we relied on:
Desk research + internal interviews with learning coaches
Gamification & Behavioral Design Principles
The Research behind it:
Because this was an experiment, we had to move fast and had no dedicated budget or time for research and field studies.
Instead, we relied on:
Desk research + internal interviews with learning coaches
Gamification & Behavioral Design Principles
A couple of sources I feel were especially helpful:
Drive, by Daniel H.Pink and Octalysis Gamification & behavioural design framework by You-kai Chou
A couple of sources I feel were especially helpful:
Drive, by Daniel H.Pink and Octalysis Gamification & behavioural design framework by You-kai Chou
A couple of sources I feel were especially helpful:
Drive, by Daniel H.Pink and Octalysis Gamification & behavioural design framework by You-kai Chou
"When the reward is the activity itself— deepening learning, delighting customers, doing one’s best—there are no shortcuts."
"When the reward is the activity itself— deepening learning, delighting customers, doing one’s best—there are no shortcuts."
Daniel H Pink
Daniel H Pink
Proto Personas
The project was born as an experiment and, for this reason, we didn’t have much time or a dedicated budget to perform proper field research. Most of the information came from interviews with our learning coaches and brainstorming with our stakeholders and resulted in 3 Proto Personas.
Proto Personas
The project was born as an experiment and, for this reason, we didn’t have much time or a dedicated budget to perform proper field research. Most of the information came from interviews with our learning coaches and brainstorming with our stakeholders and resulted in 3 Proto Personas.
Proto Personas
The project was born as an experiment and, for this reason, we didn’t have much time or a dedicated budget to perform proper field research. Most of the information came from interviews with our learning coaches and brainstorming with our stakeholders and resulted in 3 Proto Personas.
MY PROCESS
Ideation and Design Phase
I have collaborated with our Senior PM and engineering team to ideate and successively design a landing page, dashboard page and personal results page. The solutions that we came up with, not only had to adapt to multiple technical constraints but were developed over a period of roughly 4 months during which we couldn’t solely focus on this project, meaning that we had to release the project in batches.
MY PROCESS
Ideation and Design Phase
I have collaborated with our Senior PM and engineering team to ideate and successively design a landing page, dashboard page and personal results page. The solutions that we came up with, not only had to adapt to multiple technical constraints but were developed over a period of roughly 4 months during which we couldn’t solely focus on this project, meaning that we had to release the project in batches.
MY PROCESS
Ideation and Design Phase
I have collaborated with our Senior PM and engineering team to ideate and successively design a landing page, dashboard page and personal results page. The solutions that we came up with, not only had to adapt to multiple technical constraints but were developed over a period of roughly 4 months during which we couldn’t solely focus on this project, meaning that we had to release the project in batches.
We started by sketching out high-level user flows to try and remove any possible friction from our users’ journey, from sign-up to completion.
This was also very helpful to map out the different deliverables needed and start to build a project’s roadmap.
We started by sketching out high-level user flows to try and remove any possible friction from our users’ journey, from sign-up to completion.
This was also very helpful to map out the different deliverables needed and start to build a project’s roadmap.
We started by sketching out high-level user flows to try and remove any possible friction from our users’ journey, from sign-up to completion.
This was also very helpful to map out the different deliverables needed and start to build a project’s roadmap.
Feature Prioritization
Together with the senior PM, user stories were created to help define which features to prioritise for the MVP and launch of Marathon’s dashboard and landing page.
Validating ideas early on in the process to get our main stakeholders’ buy-in, I have worked on creating quick sketches and low/mid-fidelity wireframes and prototypes to test ideas internally as quickly as possible.
Validating ideas early on in the process to get our main stakeholders’ buy-in, I have worked on creating quick sketches and low/mid-fidelity wireframes and prototypes to test ideas internally as quickly as possible.
Validating ideas early on in the process to get our main stakeholders’ buy-in, I have worked on creating quick sketches and low/mid-fidelity wireframes and prototypes to test ideas internally as quickly as possible.
FINAL DESIGN
Our solution
After stakeholders’ blessing, we quickly started to bring the different widgets on the page to high-fidelity, tested them again and handed off the designs to engineering, including extreme use cases and documentation.
FINAL DESIGN
Our solution
After stakeholders’ blessing, we quickly started to bring the different solutions to high-fidelity, tested them again and handed off the designs to engineering, including extreme use cases and documentation.
FINAL DESIGN
Our solution
After stakeholders’ blessing, we quickly started to bring the different widgets on the page to high-fidelity, tested them again and handed off the designs to engineering, including extreme use cases and documentation.
Lesson learned
The main lesson learned from the project is that in an ideal world, it would be better to invest more in usability testing before the launch instead of solely relying on internal feedback, and make sure to have a larger inclusivity spectrum.
After the launch some users were unsure whether they had successfully completed their daily challenge and 8% of them contacted support, confused about why they were disqualified.
We fixed by iterating on daily challenge cards before the second edition, improving clarity and reducing user confusion.
Lesson learned
The main lesson learned from the project is that in an ideal world, it would be better to invest more in usability testing before the launch instead of solely relying on internal feedback, and make sure to have a larger inclusivity spectrum.
After the launch some users were unsure whether they had successfully completed their daily challenge and 8% of them contacted support, confused about why they were disqualified.
We fixed by iterating on daily challenge cards before the second edition, improving clarity and reducing user confusion.
Lesson learned
The main lesson learned from the project is that in an ideal world, it would be better to invest more in usability testing before the launch instead of solely relying on internal feedback, and make sure to have a larger inclusivity spectrum.
After the launch some users were unsure whether they had successfully completed their daily challenge and 8% of them contacted support, confused about why they were disqualified.
We fixed by iterating on daily challenge cards before the second edition, improving clarity and reducing user confusion.
