Sharing my ed-tech product development journey with IDALS

When I started my entrepreneurial journey in ed-tech, my first question was simple. What can I build that truly adds value? There were already a few platforms in the international market, but I wanted to build something for India. The goal was to provide quality dance education at an affordable cost from the best creators in the country.

I began with market research. I spoke to a few students, understood their expectations and validated whether the problem was real. Once I had clarity, I moved into product research and design. This was my first deep exposure to product development and it came with a steep learning curve.

I spent time understanding infrastructure, features and user flow. Since most users were on mobile, I focused on keeping scrolling short and navigation simple to keep users engaged. Everything was designed to feel easy and intuitive.

Our core product strength was a customized video player built for learning. It included front view, mirror view, self view, sections view and speed control. These features helped learners understand movements better and improve faster. When we launched, users clearly loved this experience.

Our first launch failed due to a small payment gateway issue. We fixed it and relaunched within a week. The response was encouraging. Users liked the product, the features and the access to top creators, which helped us grow organically.

I personally called users to understand their experience, pain points and feedback. Some users faced device-related issues, which we worked to resolve quickly. The first few months were focused on strengthening technical stability and improving usability across devices.

We crossed 1000 users in the first two months. As usage grew, we tracked user behavior closely, including time spent on pages, bounce rate and exit rate. These insights guided our product decisions.

One key learning from data was that users preferred mirror view far more than back view. Based on this insight, we removed the back view feature and just kept mirror view with rest of the features.

While there was much more we wanted to build, financial constraints forced us to prioritize carefully. Every feature decision had to justify its impact on user value and retention.

Initially, our subscription rate was around 9.34 percent of registered users. That is when I stepped into sales and hired an additional person. Building a good product is important, but helping users understand its value is equally critical.

This journey taught me that product development is about users, data, trade-offs and continuous learning, not just features. Being deeply involved in product research, design, analysis and iteration was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.

Product thinking stays with you long after the product itself.

Sharing the video link of our customized video player features below: https://youtu.be/81GHAE0JuEM