Julianne “Jules” ShapiroProfessor Kirsten Sandberg Academic PublishingJuly 4, 2011

Introduction:

I started at Pace University with an editorial background after majoring in journalism with a magazine emphasis at San Jose State University. I decided to pursue classes focusing on book publishing with an interest in digital and social media, so I wouldn’t repeat my education.

After deciding to just take classes and not work after moving from California to New York, I quickly got bored and interned at Publishers Weekly in the reviews department. After three weeks, I responded to a post on the publishing program’s blog for a marketing coordinator position at Kensington Publishing. The responsibilities included B2B marketing for sales reps to pitch book buyers. I quickly found I was more interested in selling directly to consumers and would rather be doing what the digital marketing manager was doing.

Then, three months into the position, a classmate asked me what I wanted to do and created a job for me in mind at the digital publishing company Vook. Working there opened my eyes to not only digital marketing, but also how important the reader experience is in new digital product lines.

One day in early 2011, someone named Brett Sandusky, director of product innovation, from Kaplan started following my Twitter feed. I connected with him on LinkedIn, saw his presentation at Book ^2 Camp in February about digital workflow and have been listening to him speak at industry webinars ever since. His interesting background of digital marketing and product innovation always captivated me.

The Kaplan Advantage:

The user experience sets Kaplan Publishing apart from the competition. Kaplan offers a holistic, integrated approach to prepping students for tests

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based on more than 70 years of experience. One example is its experimental products that incorporate new technology, such as those on imprint KaplanLabs, which Brett manages. The imprint is digital-only and launched in April 2011.

For the larger Kaplan organization, this means offering an experience that spans from books to courses to tutoring and beyond. In Brett’s world, this is related to UX (or user experience) of digital products. Kaplan strives to push the limits of technology, specifically related to eBooks.

The products on KaplanLabs include an interactive 3D eBook about organic chemistry reaction, ACT test prep word dictionary sent to your smartphone via text messaging, and a portable video eLesson that demonstrates a nursing procedure (“About KaplanLabs”). Kaplan tries to capitalize on the lifestyle of students who are on the go and want products they can use to study while they’re checking their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices rather than just using traditional paperback books with quizzes.

The Kaplan ACTionary is a new product by Kaplan Labs that sends ACT study words directly to smartphones via text messaging.

Barron’s still focuses on the incorporation of CD-ROMs and audio CDs in their education bundles. Digital is not a big part of Barron’s website nor their product lines in different verticals. In comparison, Kaplan Publishing gave away 130 of its eBooks for a week in January under Brett’s direction, showing that it’s a leader in the market by having these products in the first place, as well as experimenting how to market them.

Also, after reviewing The Princeton Review’s catalog, it also does not focus on digital products. Instead, its emphasis is test prep paperback books with access codes that can be redeemed and will provide “exclusive online content” with some DVD bundling (“The Princeton Review Bookstore”).

Click here to see the products inside the College Board Store. Here, you will notice that pdf files of exam guides and online courses are featured alongside traditional print books. Although these are technically eBooks in

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their simplest form, the products aren’t nearly as interactive as what Kaplan Publishing is presenting to students to help with their studies.

Read this passage from Brett Sandusky’s article in UX Magazine to see how Kaplan approaches the challenges of changing technology

in academic publishing:

My company's transition from a print-only model to one where we're about to publish more digital products than print ones in 2011 was difficult in many respects. The growing pains of uncertainty and unmapped terrain, of new endeavors, of new skills, of new product models, all touched our organization at every level. Having made it out on the other end alive, I came to realize that there had been a guide for us all along: user experience.

It's important to realize that in publishing, the print business is something we all know very well. It's an assembly line, and the ins and outs of greenlighting, creating, producing, manufacturing, selling, and marketing a print book is a process we're accustomed to. Having been through this same process hundreds of times, it is almost second nature. The give and take, the push and pull of creating a printed book is clear and comfortable, but this is not yet the case with eBooks.

Not long ago, I had a conversation concerning spine size of a printed book—how the weight of the paper used for printing can aggrandize or diminish the spine of a book, leading to a different perception of the book's value as related to the product's price point. The level of granularity of thought has yet to extend to our digital products.

But these types of considerations, whether about print or digital books, are concerned with how users perceive and interact with the products we put into the marketplace. This is user experience.

Acquiring new skills is never easy. Changing an entire organization is incredibly difficult.

Several months ago, the president of my company tweeted about how she let all of her book industry association memberships run out without renewing them. The next day, she signed up as a member of the Software and Information Industry Association. And that was that. We were now a digital company. (Sandusky, “"Portraits of an Industry in Flux: Digital Publishing and UX”)

Top 3 Competitors: The Princeton Review:

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We accommodate students on every budget and every schedule, with classroom courses in 41 states and 21 countries, online and school-based courses, one-to-one and small group tutoring, software, books, and in emerging technologies such as handhelds and podcasts. We provide PSAT, SAT, SAT subject tests, ACT, AP subject, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, USMLE, and TOEFL preparation. We publish a series of test preparation books, including the best-selling Cracking the SAT. (“About The Princeton Review”)

Barron’s:Among the most widely recognized of Barron’s many titles … are its SAT and ACT test prep books, its Regents Exams books, and its Profiles of American Colleges. In recent years, Barron’s has expanded into many other publishing fields, introducing extensive lines of children’s books, foreign language learning books and CDs, pet care manuals, gift books, cookbooks, business and financial advice books, parenting advice books, and art instruction books, as well as learning materials on audiocassette, VCR, Compact Disc, and CD-ROM. ("Info")

Test Makers (GMAC, LSAC, College Board, etc.)

Corporate Positioning:

Although the majority of Kaplan’s revenue comes from the higher education market, the company not only does test prep materials that span elementary students to professionals, but also is inventing new approaches to learning.

While other brands, such as Barron’s and The Princeton Review, come off as more traditional in their approaches to study aids, Kaplan Publishing offers a hipper, fresher and younger approach. The brand strives to be on the cutting edge with innovative and educational learning tools for the generations who grow up with new technology.

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Kaplan Customers:

Kaplan customers vary from vertical to vertical because their test prep products range from middle school (high school entrance exams, PSAT, etc.)

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to graduate school (LSAT, GMAT, GRE, MCAT, etc.) and through professional development (nursing, teaching, law, medical). In the precollege market, parents purchase items for their kids. However, this is generally not the case for graduate students. One of the challenges of Brett’s job is learning about all of these segments and making sure Kaplan has the correct data collected to make informed decisions about products for all of them.

Product Acquisition and Development Process:

Kaplan has many avenues of acquisition with the majority of content commissioned for specific projects. The company does a substantial amount of repurposing content in collaboration with other Kaplan divisions, and within Brett’s imprint at Kaplan Publishing, which is KaplanLabs.

Product development goes through the product management team, which is made up of four stakeholders:

Figure 1: Kaplan Publishing’s Product Management Team

The four of them meet, and help shape what projects to pursue, and how to go about developing them. According to Brett, the editors are incredibly involved in shaping Kaplan’s products on a more granular level.

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Product Management Team

Director of New Media Product Development

Senior Vice President of

Product Development

Editorial Director of

Editorial

Director of Product

Innovation (Brett)

Brett’s Unique Blend of Skills=Kaplan Creates New Position:

Brett’s educational background is in comparative literature, so he started at Kaplan from a book perspective and not a technical one. He said that his job today is “very much a combination of creativity, structure, project management, tech consulting and data analysis” (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro).

Q. What advice do you have for students who wish to go into digital marketing, the area that launched you into product innovation?

It’s very important to be analytical and able to look at raw data and draw pertinent conclusions. I have to keep abreast of current movements in the digital world both within and outside of the publishing sphere.

I do quite a bit of writing for proposals, project plans, product concepts, etc. so a decent word processor is key. But, I also do a lot of internal and external presentations, which I mostly use PowerPoint. Then there is the data side of things. For that there is combination of database knowledge, as well as Excel, Access, etc.

That said, I also am heavily reliant on cloud-based technologies, and could not live with things like Google Docs, Dropbox, etc. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Figure 2: Brett’s Specialties

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• Digital product development• Product incubation• Transition to digital workflow• Web 2.0• Social media and social networking• Consumer marketing• Branding and identity• Online community building• Copywriting

Source: Brett’s LinkedIn Profile

Figure 3: Brett’s Education

Brett’s Road to Director of Product Innovation:

Figure 4: Brett’s Work Experience

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Université Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV)Licence, Comparative Literature2004 – 2006

McGill UniversityBA, French Language and Literature1999 – 2003

Source: Brett’s LinkedIn Profile

Source: Brett’s LinkedIn Profile

Q. What led you to Kaplan and the field of product innovation?

I started at Kaplan in the marketing department. At the time, about three years ago, we had no eBooks and little online presence. And we certainly were nowhere to be found in the social media space. I began working on our marketing strategy for entering the online space and building a presence. This went on for some time. Simultaneously, we were running traditional marketing campaigns, doing a ton of outreach to Kaplan students, and cross-promotion with other Kaplan divisions. Little by little we started building up data based on all of our efforts. This data, and the data systems we set up during that time, have benefited every aspect of our business, from further marketing effort to editorial to sales to product development.

While still in marketing, I began involvement in our eBook program. Mostly because I was interested, and had already been working on digital initiatives. In October of last year, I switched roles from Director of Marketing to Director of Product Innovation, and have devoted my time solely to product development, particularly for digital products, since then.

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It’s incredibly different coming from the marketing side to be on the product management side of things, but my current role is very fulfilling. While marketing has a great impact on how the business runs, product development shapes the future of the business. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Q. Has your current role changed since it started? If so, how?

I began my current role working on a mobile project, which we decided to discontinue to focus on the building and launch of KaplanLabs, a usability imprint that we launched in April of this year. As the resident innovation guy, and someone who’s been active in working with eBook User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX), I was asked to run the KaplanLabs imprint, and we launched within a period of about 2.5 months.

In reality, my job has not changed immensely, partially because I have not been in this role for an incredibly long time. But also, because I remain focused on product management, product development, UX, data mining and execution. These things are my constants. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Read this article Brett wrote for UX Magazine to gain a greater understanding of UX (User Experience).

Brett’s Job Responsibilities:

Figure 5: Brett’s Areas of Focus

As the head of KaplanLabs, part of Brett’s performance evaluation is based on his ability to keep the imprint running, on schedule and to put out product.

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KaplanLabs - Running the imprint, developing and testing future revenue generating products

Digital product development

Execution of product plans (overseeing eBook development)

Usability testing Data analysis

He also oversees digital development for all non-direct conversion eBooks, and works closely with his boss, the executive director of editorial, on the digital product line. Brett does not receive bonuses.

Q. What advice do you have for those who want to become digital marketing managers?

Learn how to cultivate both your creative side to be an effective communicator, and your analytical side to make sense of customer response and behavior. I feel like most marketers are either one or the other. Being both is rare. But, the payoff is huge. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Q. How do you keep up with industry trends?

I like to remain open to topics around digital products and not only industry-specific sites. I read a ton of articles on UX and digital product development. I like to look at what the software industry is doing and take cues from there in terms of development strategies. I read a lot of articles that people post on Twitter. I have a core group that tends to post interesting and pertinent stuff. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Q. Where does your role fit in the value creation process?

In our organization, I am at the forefront of defining and improving our user experience for digital products every day. I work with our editors, production editors, marketing teams, and infrastructure teams all the time to improve our workflow and our product output. These things allow us to not only offer the best UX possible, but also do it in the most cost-effective, efficient manner. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Q. Who do you work every day, outside your job function? What shared goals do you have that factor into performance appraisals?

I work with people from all departments. Our organization functions like a soccer team, running down the field passing the ball all the time. I routinely work with people from editorial, marketing, sales, design, production, manufacturing, tech, etc. on any given project. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Q. How many people are on your team?

Me. I am one person. I work very closely with the other three people … who form the product team. I am also part of the editorial department. But, I do not have a team working directly for me. In fact, KaplanLabs is worked on

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New Product

by the same personnel who handles all of our other print and digital products. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Figure 6: Digital Workflow Process for New Products

Source: Brett Sandusky.Note: Diagonal lines refer to positions that are not always involved in the process but might be called in to assist.

Every organization needs to find its own way to a best workflow for digital. For us, we took cues from the software and web development world. We’ve modeled our workflow on an agile process whereby we try to keep a small but committed group of stakeholders involved at all times. At the very least, this means: an editor, a marketer, a production editor, a designer, and at least one member of the product team are assigned to each product and sees it through. In reality, we tend to have a few additional people in the mix at any given moment based on needs of the products themselves. So, we invite UX specialists, subject matter experts (SMEs), instructional designers, etc. into the conversation and make sure their needs are met. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Q. What are the top issues of the market, and how are you

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EditorEditor

MarketerMarketer

Production Editor

Production Editor

DesignerDesigner

UX SpecialistInstructional Designer

Subject Matter Expert

Product Team Member

(maybe Brett)

Product Team Member

(maybe Brett)

addressing them, with specific examples of products and services?

Across the board, we have a need to offer the most accurate information to our customers. Whether the product is digital or print or otherwise, we have to be accurate in what we are telling students to do. A lot of how we conceive of our digital business, for example, is based on the idea of versioning. In this paradigm, we would put out a V1 of a product, like in the software world, and then improve on that product iteratively. This iterative approach is meant to always be improving our products for accuracy, tone, changes to the tests, etc. (Sandusky, Interview by Julianne Shapiro)

Works Cited

"About KaplanLabs." KaplanLabs | New Ways to Learn. Kaplan Publishing,

n.d. Web. 20 June 2011. <http://www.kaplanlabs.com/content/about>.

"About the Princeton Review." The Princeton Review. The Princeton Review,

n.d. Web. 22 June 2011. <http://www.princetonreview.com/about-

us.aspx>.

"Info." Barrons Educational Books. Barron's, 16 06 2011. Web. 20 June

2011. <http://www.barronseduc.com/info.html>.

"The Princeton Review Bookstore." The Princeton Review. The Princeton

Review, n.d. Web. 20 June 2011.

<http://www.randomhouse.com/princetonreview/college/>.

Sandusky, Brett. "Portraits of an Industry in Flux: Digital Publishing and

UX." UX Magazine 3 Jan 2011: n. pag. Web. 20 June 2011.

<http://uxmag.com/strategy/portraits-of-an-industry-in-flux>.

---. E-mail Interview by Julianne Shapiro. 20 06 2011. 20 June 2011.

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