SkilledUp Life is all about people. People do not behave like a product. Products do not have feelings. People do!

This suddenly dawned on me. Dah! Did you not know that on day 1 Manoj?

Whilst at a fundamental level, SkilledUp Life is a two-sided marketplace (a software product). As long as the two sides understand the benefits, as a product, our service has the potential to scale. At least in theory this looks plausible. However, SkilledUp Life is actually about making human interactions work, where cash is not the incentive. Software is just there to facilitate these human interactions.

Unlike a pure software play, especially at the stage, SkilledUp Life is in, it works best when humans are treated as humans, and not as part of a process, and especially not as part of an automated process.

I’m new to all of this. My understanding of human psychology is very weak. It’s about time we explore having a few Psychology Volunteers to help us. Let me explain the problem further.

A Case Study

A company (solo founder) subscribes to SkilledUp Life and requests one or two Volunteers to capture leads and add them to a spreadsheet. The founder is extremely busy and wants results, as it’s a straightforward task.

Whilst the task is straightforward, there is almost no engagement between the founder and the Volunteer. The Volunteer may not have any idea what Experience he/she would gain, and how useful it might be in improving his/her career prospects going forward.

If you are new to SkilledUp Life, SkilledUp Life provides Experience and Skills, but you cannot earn cash or any benefits in kind whilst gaining them.

Let’s look at another way of doing the same task. The Volunteer was briefed on how the task fits with the overall ambition of the company. The Volunteer was brought into the team and has regular discussions with the rest of the team. The Volunteer understands how data collected is used and the impact it has on the success of the organisation. The Volunteer also understands how the Experience and Skills gained will be useful in his/her career progression.

Whilst the task remained the same, the interaction and purpose may define whether there would be a successful outcome or not.

Churn

Some of our customers (tech startups) are struggling (churn) to get value, whereas others (including us) are thriving.

I’m trying to understand why this is the case. Whilst I have no conclusive insights to share at present, my guess is that this is due to human interactions, i.e. regular dialogue, connectivity to the rest of the team, the relevance of the activities, and the realisation of how these could help improve future career prospects.

If you pay someone (freelancer) to build a list – it is likely to get done, because of the cash involved in the transaction. If there is no cash involved (volunteering through SkilledUp Life), then there has to be something else, which we call Experience. And this has to be explained and understood, especially how it would help the Volunteer in the future.

The problem arises when Founders do not have sufficient time to nurture the Volunteers. This is why we recommend onboarding an HR Volunteer first.

Abandonment

Having said all above, some Volunteers abandon their agreed activities prematurely before the Volunteer Term ends for many reasons. Abandonment and lack of professionalism are two major issues for our customers. We have also experienced the same within our own team. Whilst I don’t have a recipe to reduce abandonment and more research need to be conducted before any conclusions can be drawn, here is a list of some of the reasons for abandonment:

• Laziness.
• Lack of professionalism.
• Underestimating the level of commitment required.
• Underestimating the level of training needed, which isn’t forthcoming from the company.
• Miscalculating the knowledge needed to successfully undertake the tasks and deliver the desired outcomes.
• Isolation – not feeling as a part of a team.
• Lack of communications from both sides.
• Internet connectivity issues.
• Cost of internet access.
• Getting frequently ill – not sure whether this is a true reason.
• Need to focus on exams – a valid reason, as long as the Volunteer returns after the exams and extend the Volunteer Term to include the missed days.
• Lack of engagment with the company.
• Getting a job after starting Volunteer if they were unemployed at the time of starting the volunteer Term.
• Increased demand on job leaving no time for volunteering – we lost our Product Manager this way.

Action Plan

We need to overcome abandonment and lack of professionalism if we are to achieve success and scale SkilledUp Life. Before we can fix the problem, we need to understand the problem fully.

• Create a team inside SkilledUp Life to research and come up with a strategy and plan to reduce abandonment and increase the level of professionalism.
• Explore providing basic training on volunteering to volunteers before they volunteer for a customer.
• Display a badge against the profile of Volunteers who have gone through above training.
• Provide a pre-screen facility of Volunteers for our customers – this might be an additional paid service.
• Convince customers to join on annual plans to build a 12 month plan with them – one month isn’t long enough to prove value given the time needed to understand how to find and effectively deploy a team of Volunteers.
• Explore other ways to improve.

What do you think? Love to hear your thoughts.

Updates (action taken to date):

• Looking for a Psychologist – Opportunity published.