Curriculum before technology
The most common failure is buying a platform before the outcome the programme promises has been defined. Write the transformation, the modules that deliver it and the evidence a learner has achieved it. Everything else is delivery infrastructure.
The minimum viable stack
Hosting for content, payments with regional methods, a learner community, scheduling for live sessions, and an email or WhatsApp sequence for onboarding and nudges. Missing any one of these produces predictable churn.
Retention is an operations problem
Completion rates rise with cohort start dates, visible progress, deadline pressure and human check-ins at week two and week five. No amount of content quality substitutes for that rhythm.
Instrument the funnel from day one
Track lead source through to cohort completion. Without it, you cannot tell whether a weak launch was a traffic problem, an offer problem or a delivery problem.