The Five Stages of Academy Growth

Defining the Vision and Strategy

Before an Academy can launch, the foundation must be built. The Ideation phase is where businesses clarify their education goals, align with leadership, and establish a strategic vision.

Key Focus Areas:

• Securing stakeholder buy-in and executive sponsorship
• Defining the Academy’s mission, vision, and value proposition
• Identifying core learner needs and business objectives
• Establishing a financial model and key success metrics
• Assessing existing education content (if applicable)
  
  

Testing and Iterating for Success

Once a strategy is in place, the next step is testing. The Beta phase allows SaaS companies to validate their educational content and learning formats before scaling.

Key Focus Areas:

• Running pilot courses or beta programs with select customers
• Testing content formats (videos, live sessions, self-paced modules)
• Refining learner personas and engagement strategies
• Gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback
• Establishing benchmarks for learning outcomes and business impact

Launching with Confidence

With proven content and a refined strategy, it’s time to go live. The Live phase is when your Academy is officially launched and integrated into the broader user journey.

Key Focus Areas:

• Expanding educational offerings with a mix of foundational and advanced content
• Rolling out courses to a wider audience of customers, partners, prospects, and employees
• Establishing distribution channels (LMS, community, in-product learning, email sequences)
• Tracking business impact metrics (customer retention, TTV, product adoption)
• Building a feedback and optimization loop for continuous improvement

Expanding Reach and Efficiency

Once an Academy is live and delivering value, the next step is expansion. The Scale phase focuses on growing the impact of education while maintaining operational efficiency.

Key Focus Areas:

• Expanding educational content to cover new use cases, industries, and learner needs
• Scaling education across global markets with localization strategies
• Automating content delivery, learner engagement, and reporting
• Integrating your Academy with Sales, CS, Product, and Marketing efforts
• Building out certifications, partner enablement, and community-led learning

Driving Continuous Learning Evolution

A mature Academy doesn’t stop evolving. The Innovate phase is where companies experiment, refine, and push boundaries to keep education fresh, engaging, and high-impact.

Key Focus Areas:

• Testing new learning formats (cohort-based learning, AI-driven recommendations, interactive content)
• Developing partnerships with industry experts, associations, and higher education
• Building thought leadership programs to position the academy as an industry standard
• Exploring monetization strategies for education (premium certifications, partner programs)
• Investing in cutting-edge learning technology and personalization