Navigating EdTech Trends to Drive Real Impact: A Conversation with Thor Prichard

Marketing and Education

In this episode of All Things Marketing and Education, Elana sat down with Thor Prichard, President & CEO at Clarity Innovations—a mission-driven, K-12 education-focused professional services and consulting firm. Clarity Innovations specializes in everything from education strategy and content creation to engineering and design solutions.

You may remember Thor from our last conversation about the challenges of creating effective EdTech products and the importance of designing with learning outcomes in mind.

Thor shares his insights on some of the most fascinating trends and innovations in education technology. Elana and Thor discuss the impact of generative AI, the importance of integrating EdTech products into the everyday practices of educators and students, and the different business models shaping the industry. They also explore the evolving role of family-school partnerships and future trends in product development.

Thor concludes the conversation with thoughts on what he believes are the keys to creating lasting and impactful products in education. This episode is packed with valuable insights and is not to be missed. Enjoy!

Questions Asked:

• What types of products and services have you and your team developed in the EdTech space, and at what stages of product development do you typically focus?
• From your experience, what are the most critical elements that a product needs to have during the design and development process?
• How do you ensure that a product achieves product/market fit, effectively meeting the needs of buyers, users, and the business?
• How do you approach prioritizing feature development, and how do you determine when a product might have too many features?
• Is it better to develop a product that excels at one or two key functions or one that offers a broader range of features? How do you balance depth versus breadth?
• How do you continuously evolve your product to stay aligned with the changing needs of users and buyers, while also meeting your firm's and clients' objectives? Can you share any examples where things didn’t go as planned and any warning signs to watch for?
• What’s something you’ve read or watched recently that has inspired you?