The EdTech Graduating 150K by 2X’ing Completion Rates | Zach Heller, VP of Prod. (Penn Foster)

Today, we’re talking with Zach Heller, VP of Product at Penn Foster Group. In this episode, we discuss: How Penn Foster plans to literally “fill a stadium” with 150,000 graduates by 2029—doubling completion rates to do it Why they shifted focus from acquisition to graduation—and how that’s now driving over 50% of enrollments through word-of-mouth How AI-powered learning tools boosted course completions by 25% in just one year, setting a new record for outcomes Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ztheller/ Resources The Hidden Cost of 0.1% Churn | Ken Houseman, VP of Product (Zuora): https://youtu.be/-wDVkPUK104 Chapters 00:00 Doubling Completion Rates & Graduation Goals 02:04 Filling a Stadium: The 150K Graduate Vision 04:09 Fixing the Funnel: Retention Over Acquisition 06:14 Experimentation That Doubled Completion 08:17 B2B vs B2C: Why Completion Rates Drive Revenue 10:19 Word of Mouth as a Growth Engine 12:21 Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Experimentation Mindset 14:24 AI-Powered Learning: Writing Coach Breakthrough 18:00 Human + AI: Scaling Student Support 20:34 Product-Led Growth in EdTech 24:37 Economic Mobility Through Education 26:41 Looking Ahead: Scaling to 150K by 2029 36:56 Final Takeaways: Experimentation at Scale Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Zach Heller.