In this talk at ProductTank London, get set for a giggle as Sophie Deen, CEO of Bright Little Labs, heartwarmingly takes us through her journey of building a product to help introduce computer science to children in the UK.
She covers:
- Using mainstream entertainment to teach kids
- Building a product in a reactive way
Watch the video to see Sophie’s talk in full. Or read on for an overview of her key points.
Teaching kids with entertainment
Sophie begins by explaining that mainstream entertainment has been scientifically proven to help preschoolers improve their skills in reading and writing. She also states that as the world around us continues to change, and with many jobs set to be lost to automation, it is important for children today, to learn how to use technology from an early age. As a result, it is our responsibility to not only use technology as a tool but look around us and see the impact it is having.
The problem is, she says, that world is made up of people from a variety of different backgrounds and ethnicities which isn’t always adequately reflected in the media. Sophie talks us through how she recognized this and sought to create a product that better reflects the world around for kids.
Building products – the reactive way
Sophie explains that her journey began because was simply passionate about kids learning digital skills and asking questions about the systems that society had built. She sought to use mainstream media as a means of doing that. In creating a cartoon – Detective Dot – and trying to get this story published she underwent a journey in product management.
From an idea to investment
From launching a Kickstarter to learning about self-publishing and lead capturing. She took her product from cartoon idea to a website to receiving VC investment. Along the way, the website underwent various iterations and today they also have an app and more products. Sophie describes herself as a reactive product manager, having simply reacted to things as they happened rather than attempting to follow a specific roadmap.
The key takeaways from her talk are that the product management framework can be applied to almost anything, including building a brand. Sometimes, the brand is the product.
