Tools Used: Respondent.io
When Good Products Lose Their Edge: Revitalizing Google CS First's Market Position
Overview
Led comprehensive audience research for Google CS First to address declining teacher engagement in an increasingly competitive computer science education market. Through multi-method research combining stakeholder interviews, teacher observations, and student feedback, identified teacher confidence as the critical barrier to product success, leading to strategic rebranding and support system redesign.
Key Impact: Research insights directly informed product rebranding strategy, creation of teacher support courses, and realignment with K-12 standards, revitalizing the product for back-to-school season launch.
The Challenge: When Success Becomes Stagnation
Business Context
Google CS First had been a pioneer in bringing computer science education to grades 4-8, particularly targeting low-performing schools and underserved communities. After years of successful adoption, the product was losing its resonance with teachers as competition intensified and the market matured.
The Strategic Problem
The Decline: A previously successful product was no longer gaining traction with its target audience
The Timeline Pressure: The team needed actionable insights before the critical back-to-school marketing season
My Challenge: Understand why a proven educational product was losing ground and identify what teachers actually needed to succeed with computer science instruction.
My Research Philosophy: Context Before Solutions
A Systematic Approach to Product Revival
Rather than jumping immediately into user interviews, I advocated for a layered research strategy:
My Framework:
Context Analysis: Understand how the competitive landscape had shifted since launch
Data Deep-Dive: Analyze disengagement patterns and user behavior changes
User Voice: Capture the "why" behind behavioral data through direct conversation
Why This Mattered: Product decline is rarely about the product in isolation, it's about changing user needs, competitive pressures, and evolving contexts that require strategic understanding.
Challenging the Quick-Fix Mentality
The Pressure: Stakeholders wanted fast answers for immediate marketing needs
My Advocacy: If we want sustainable solutions, we need to understand the root causes of disengagement. Quick fixes might address symptoms but miss the fundamental shifts that are driving teacher behavior.
My Research Philosophy
A Systematic Approach to Product Revival
Rather than jumping immediately into user interviews, I advocated for a layered research strategy:
My Framework:
Context Analysis: Understand how the competitive landscape had shifted since launch
Data Deep-Dive: Analyze disengagement patterns and user behavior changes
User Voice: Capture the "why" behind behavioral data through direct conversation
Why This Mattered: Product decline is rarely about the product in isolation, it's about changing user needs, competitive pressures, and evolving contexts that require strategic understanding.
Challenging the Quick-Fix Mentality
The Pressure: Stakeholders wanted fast answers for immediate marketing needs
My Advocacy: If we want sustainable solutions, we need to understand the root causes of disengagement. Quick fixes might address symptoms but miss the fundamental shifts that are driving teacher behavior.
Research Strategy
1. Internal Stakeholder Alignment
My Approach: Started with CS First employees and stakeholders to understand internal assumptions about the product's challenges
Key Questions:
What was working when CS First was most successful?
How has the competitive landscape changed?
What gaps exist between internal vision and teacher reality?
Strategic Value: This created shared understanding of the problem and surfaced internal hypotheses to test with external users.
2. Teacher Deep-Dive: Beyond Surface Feedback
Methodology: Combined phone interviews with in-classroom observations to capture both stated needs and actual behavior
The Insight Strategy:
Phone interviews: Captured teacher perceptions, confidence levels, and desired improvements
Site visits: Observed actual classroom dynamics and usage patterns
Usability testing: Identified friction points in real teaching scenarios
Why both: Teachers often can't articulate workflow problems they've unconsciously adapted to. Observation revealed gaps between what teachers said and what they actually experienced.
3. Student Voice: The Ultimate Validators
The Method: Asked students to write their honest thoughts about computer science and CS First
Why This Mattered: Students are the ultimate judges of whether CS education is working. Their engagement (or lack thereof) directly impacts teacher confidence and continued adoption.
The Critical Discovery
The Core Insight: Teacher Identity Crisis
Key Finding: The primary barrier wasn't product usability or student engagement, it was teacher confidence and professional identity.
The Problem: Many teachers using CS First lacked computer science backgrounds, making them feel like impostors teaching unfamiliar content.
Quote: "I want my students to learn computer science, but I feel like I'm always one step ahead of them in the material. What if they ask me something I don't know?"
Why This Was Pivotal: No amount of product improvement would solve a fundamental confidence and competence gap.
The Ripple Effect of Teacher Insecurity
What I Observed: Teachers who felt unsure about the content:
Avoided deeper student questions
Rushed through lessons to minimize exposure of knowledge gaps
Were less likely to advocate for continued CS First adoption
Created classroom environments where students sensed the teacher's discomfort
The Strategic Implication: Product success depended on teacher empowerment, not just product features.
The Competitive Context Insight
Market Evolution: When CS First launched, it was one of few options. By our research period, teachers had multiple choices, and they were selecting tools that made them feel more competent and supported.
The Lesson: Product features matter less than user confidence when alternatives exist.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Research as Strategy Input
Working with Communications Strategy Team
My Role: Provided research foundation for marketing and positioning decisions
The Collaboration: Ensured that new messaging addressed teacher confidence issues rather than just product features
Key Output: Research insights became the foundation for teacher-centered marketing approach
Influencing Product Development
Beyond Marketing: Research findings influenced not just how CS First was communicated, but what additional support systems needed to be built
The Impact: Led to creation of parallel teacher education offerings alongside the core student curriculum
Impact & Outcomes
Immediate Product Changes
Teacher support curriculum created alongside student materials
Peer community features that connected teachers for mutual support
Standards mapping that showed clear curriculum connections
Marketing repositioning that addressed teacher confidence rather than just student outcomes
Long-term Strategic Impact
Shifted product philosophy from student-focused to teacher-empowerment-focused
Created sustainable competitive advantage through comprehensive teacher support
Established framework for understanding adoption barriers in educational technology
Influenced broader Google for Education approach to teacher professional development
What I Learned
1. Professional Identity Affects Product Adoption
Teachers weren't just "users", they were professionals whose competence and credibility were on display every day. Product adoption threatened or supported their professional identity.
2. Competitive Analysis Must Include User Context
The competitive landscape had changed not just in terms of products available, but in terms of user sophistication and expectations for support.
3. Student Outcomes Depend on Teacher Confidence
The most user-friendly student interface couldn't overcome a teacher who felt unprepared to facilitate meaningful learning experiences.
4. Research Timeline vs. Impact Timeline
While stakeholders needed quick insights for immediate marketing, the most valuable research outcomes influenced long-term product strategy and market positioning.
Impact & Outcomes
The research directly informed the back-to-school relaunch strategy, with teacher-centered messaging and support systems that addressed the core confidence barriers identified through the research. The comprehensive approach, addressing both marketing and product development, demonstrated the strategic value of research that goes beyond surface level user feedback.