Expanding the Babbel App for Language Learning in the B2B Market
1M+
Active subscribers
Passed in 2016, with brand awareness above 70% in core markets.
750
Employees
Across offices in Berlin and New York.
15
Minutes per lesson
Short enough to fit into anyone’s schedule.
The client
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Babbel is a language learning platform on the web and on iOS and Android. Markus Witte and Thomas Holl founded it in 2007 with two colleagues from a Berlin software company.
It passed a million active subscribers in 2016 and was named the most innovative company in education by Fast Company. Its approach is motivation-based: different combinations of material depending on why someone is learning, in lessons short enough to fit a real day.
The challengeWhat the teams actually needed
Babbel had done very well with individual customers, many of whom said the company should serve corporate ones too. Market research confirmed the potential, so the existing application had to stretch to fit B2B.
Challenge 01Three things business users need
Courses and learning modules stay the same in both products, but business users additionally need easy administration, information on whether and how team members use the app, and a higher level of customisation.
Challenge 02No way to manage a group
Babbel could not approach B2B customers because there was no way to create groups inside an organisation or give certain members admin access.
Challenge 03A codebase with many authors
The client had worked with many freelancers, so a large number of contributors had touched the codebase before this project started.
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What we did
An admin dashboard that opened a B2B market
Netguru built an additional module for the existing app, preparing it for a new B2B strategy and giving administrators far more flexibility over their users. A scoping session with both teams set the direction first.
Built for a lot of data
The dashboard had to handle the volume that comes with a customer base this size.
Babbel’s own style guide
The new module aligns with the current style guide rather than looking like an addition.
Across several views
Moving between views had to stay easy, with access to invoicing, app usage data and every active member.
One invoice, one dashboard
Business customers no longer need a separate subscription per person: one invoice, everything managed in one place, and data on how far employees are using the app and progressing. Babbel now supports teams from startups through to Hyundai, Paramount, N26, Bacardi, Pirelli and Acer.
Client testimonial
I’ve had a long-lasting partnership with Netguru. Next to the great job the design and development teams have been doing, I also participated in the first edition of the Disruption Forum as a speaker. Great event where everyone was engaged. Happy that it works so well and hopeful that we can cooperate on more projects in the future. Netguru always tries to make things possible.
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