We Work Remotely (WWR) Learning Portal
Online resources to help job seekers kickstart and build their remote work journey.
Product Marketing • WWR Learning Portal
The Product
The WWR Learning Portal was created in 2020 to support candidates in their remote job search and career.
Designed to be a hub for connection and professional growth, the Learning Portal encompasses resources like guides, exercises, webinars and more to help professionals transition into remote work easier and find remote jobs faster.
My Role
As the Marketing & Community Manager on a small team, I wore many hats.
I led the creative direction, web design, content strategy & creation and product marketing. I wrote 95% of the copy and created all of the resources.
I collaborated with the Head of Operations and lead developer throughout the process.
TIMELINE:
3 months (June - September 2020)
TOOLS:
Miro, Figma, Webflow, Memberful, Trello, Google Docs, Mailchimp, Adobe InDesign
The Mission
We were tasked with testing a subscription model in the candidate market. At the time, there weren’t many resources dedicated to remote job hunting. We took this opportunity to see if this secondary revenue stream was a viable option for us.
We decided to launch an MVP called the ‘WWR Member Community’.
Research
Candidates:
Having our thumb on the pulse of our community, we knew we wanted to provide guidance around the common questions job seekers were asking:
How can I get a remote job with no remote experience?
How can I tell if a remote job is a scam?
What are the best practices for working remotely?
How can I find a remote job quickly?
How do I showcase my remote work skills in my application?
How do I prep for a virtual interview?
Competitors:
We researched one main competitor regarding the subscription model, FlexJobs.
Content Strategy
Audience
Candidates who are new to remote work and job hunting.
Goal
Generate a stickier relationship with candidates.
Tactic
Create practical and engaging resources that educate candidates about the nuances of finding remote jobs and working effectively as remote professionals.
Formats:
Guides
Templates
Writing exercises
Tone:
Empathetic
Empowering
Knowledgeable
Kind
Content Creation
We dreamed of creating online courses, skills tests, and workshops, but we reminded ourselves to keep it lean for the MVP. So, we focused on creating resources that spoke to the foundation of remote job hunting.
I created a step-by-step guide to finding remote jobs along with templates and writing exercises to prepare candidates for their applications, interviews and more.
We created a public folder in Google Docs to share the resources so that candidates could access them easily and customize the documents themselves.
I also created the process and plan for online events. Thanks to our longstanding relationship with many remote companies, I was able to find great leaders to host the events. I set up topics that answered the Job Seekers’ top questions and had six events published along with the launch. All events were recorded and added back to the event page.
MVP Marketing Launch
Primary Audience
Internal
Goal
Validate MVP and gauge excitement through sign-ups.
Channels
WWR Slack community, email newsletter audience
Analytics
Open and click rates, engagement rate, number of sign-ups
Value Proposition
Land your dream remote job quickly.
Tactics
Slack: Generate excitement and create momentum through holding a contest in the WWR Slack community. The first 50 people to reply to the announcement thread with why they want to join will score a free membership.
Newsletter: Share the announcement in a stand-alone newsletter and in all of the following Weekly Digests (weekly newsletter).
Impact
Sign-ups: 45 (paid), 50 (free)
MRR: ~$400
Although there was a lot of excitement in our Slack community on that day, less than 5% of our internal audience signed up.
Pivot!
Despite receiving some positive feedback, we decided that the small revenue bump didn’t outweigh the amount of time it took to maintain a members-only community.
We also felt that putting resources behind a paywall took us further away from WWR’s mission, which was to help make remote work as accessible as possible.
In September 2020, we refunded all paid members in full, removed the pay and login walls, and rebranded the Member Community to the WWR Learning Portal.
Lessons Learned
Community building is friggen’ hard
Having a large audience base doesn’t necessarily mean starting a secondary community will be successful — at least right off the bat.
There were many reasons why the MVP failed, but I think the main reason is we underestimated how hard it is to build and maintain a community.
What I would do differently: Start with the data. We took a stab in the dark without really understanding who our engaged members were.
The MVP was too big
This project was way too big for it to be an MVP.
What I would do differently: follow the agile methodology and start smaller. Grab more user feedback along the way.
Return to the company mission
Ensure the company mission is aligned across all team members. This creates impact in many ways, and within projects, it helps people make decisions faster.
What I would do differently: Root all written communications in the company mission. Reflect on this mission during all relevant points of collaboration.