Overview
What this challenge is about.
Build a platform model for Glow Naturals with two revenue streams in 12 months, then earn a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
Glow Naturals, founded in 2021 in Nairobi, sells organic skincare directly to Kenyan consumers online and has built an engaged community of roughly 40,000 followers and repeat buyers, but rising advertising costs and softening repeat purchases are now threatening its single-product-line model.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Determine whether Glow Naturals should transform from a single-brand direct-to-customer seller into a multi-sided beauty creator platform, and design a viable model that does so without losing its existing customer base.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Translate a struggling linear business into a multi-sided platform model using the business model canvas
- Map an ecosystem of participants and articulate the incentives that make each side join and remain
- Ground a strategic recommendation in unit economics rather than intuition
- Design layered revenue streams suited to a platform rather than a single-product seller
- Communicate a reasoned go/no-go judgment to a non-technical founder under real constraints
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Business Model Canvas
Apply business model canvas to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Platform Design
Apply platform design to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Ecosystem Mapping
Apply ecosystem mapping to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Value Proposition Design
Apply value proposition design to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Revenue Modeling
Apply revenue modeling to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
Strategy Consultant
This challenge mirrors a real consulting engagement: you diagnose a failing growth model from a client file, design an alternative business model, and defend a go/no-go call to a founder, building the core toolkit of an entry-level strategy consultant.
This challenge sharpens
- business-model-canvas
- platform-design
- value-proposition-design
Platform / Marketplace Product Manager
Designing a two-sided marketplace, reasoning about which side to seed first, and aligning participant incentives are everyday tasks for a marketplace product manager, and this challenge has you practice all three on a concrete case.
This challenge sharpens
- platform-design
- ecosystem-mapping
- value-proposition-design
Venture / Growth Analyst
Grounding a strategic pivot in unit economics and modeling new revenue streams against real data is the heart of evaluating a startup's next move, exactly what a venture or growth analyst does when assessing a business model change.
This challenge sharpens
- revenue-modeling
- business-model-canvas
- ecosystem-mapping