200 demos in 3 days: what we've learned
Team Letter | March 11, 2024
March 11, 2024
Happy Monday, Alpaca!!!
WOW, I know you feel it – the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind! Travel, conferences, investor meetings, packouts, visitors, pulse surveys, Little Wins growth, customer onboarding – SHEESH! Above all, we are incredibly fortunate to be adding new customers to our network. We have so, so much to learn from them, and in the past weeks, I’ve learned so much. I wanted to take a minute to reflect on what we’ve learned – I know you have a lot to add too! Here’s a little piece I wrote about doing 200 demos in 3 days last week at SXSW.
What We Learned in 200 Demos
What would you learn if you pitched your company or product 200 times in 3 days to real potential customers? A lot, it turns out.
Last week, the Alpaca team ventured to Austin for our first SXSW EDU, part of the amazing SXSW lineup celebrating the best of innovation, technology, music, and film in Austin, TX every spring. The EDU conference is a unique look at the up and coming innovations in the education space and we learned so much in just three days.
This spring, we’re in beta for a new product to support teacher wellbeing (more soon!). So our booth at SXSW was the first chance to take the demo out for a spin with real potential customers. When our team got to do 200 demos in just 3 days, we couldn’t believe what we learned. If we weren’t clear about the pitch before we got to Texas, we were when we left.
Here are the ten things we learned in those 200 demos – a little about our product, a little about our company, and a lot about our customers.
5. Mental health is top of mind. Our booth states loudly “Make school the happiest place to work” and that message alone made our customers walk up and ask “okay, I’m listening. My teachers are feeling the pain. How can we make our school a happier work place?”
4. Educators want good news. Everyone hears about teacher burnout and teachers leaving the profession. But when we showed customers that sometimes teachers describe how they’re doing at work as “supported” and “engaged,” eyes lit up, and shoulders relaxed. We all want places to celebrate at work – schools and districts are no different.
3. Learning to leverage AI is key. In nearly every demo, we were asked “is your sentiment analysis powered by AI?” (It is). We had a lot of discussions about how educators are building a bigger picture about what AI will mean to their buildings and districts. When we started Alpaca 2 years ago, it was barely a conference topic. A year ago, it was an often-feared unknown, a potential threat to academic integrity. Now, it’s a versatile tool to be leveraged for school success (and educator support!)
2. Simplicity wins. Alpaca’s solutions are pretty straightforward – we listen to teachers to understand their needs; we give school leaders easy ways to support them; and we create delightful teacher celebration gifts that show up at the right time. Our customers at the booth aren’t looking for extensive dashboards and complicated logins – they want tools they can use from their own phones, and insights delivered in simple formats to the inbox. No complication required.
1. Words Matter. Our new survey asks teachers one question: “How are you doing?” and then asks them to answer with the real words they’d use to describe work, right now. Over and over in our demos, we watched teachers, principals, and district teams find the words they’d use: “overwhelmed,” “inspired,” “joyful,” “under water.” To find a word that describes your experience feels more than just novel: it feels helpful, actionable, and unifying. We’ll be digging even deeper into our semantic survey model going forward.
Any time we have an opportunity to talk to real customers we jump at the chance – but an opportunity to test out the messaging, features, and value of a new product at SXSW? Invaluable. From those demos, we polished our pitch, prioritized features, and gained clarity on the problems we can solve. Oh, and we sold a new district customer right at the booth! Nothing, nothing, nothing beats talking to real customers.
All In, Alpaca!
KB