How Springboard honed its impact by listening to learners

Key Results

• Graduates report higher income, successful career transitions, and job satisfaction
• 74% of graduates say their confidence in themselves and their abilities increased
• 83% of graduates report they learned skills that help them find better employment opportunities

Springboard is an online learning platform that provides personalized learning experiences

with the goal of addressing the world’s skills gap. The platform uses a project-based curriculum and helps learners build professional portfolios that prove their skills and outcompete experienced applicants. Springboard graduates have been hired by industry tech leaders like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Apple, leading consulting firms such as Deloitte and Accenture, and a plethora of emerging startups. 

“We’re focused on equipping learners with competence and confidence to achieve positive career outcomes,” said Seth Greenberg, VP of Learning Experience at Springboard. “Our programs connect learners with three key supporters: mentors offering technical guidance; career coaches to help navigate the job market; and program success managers providing personal accountability throughout their journey.”

SJF Ventures invested in Springboard in 2020, recognizing the company’s impact potential: closing the skills gap in a changing labor market. The improved employability of Springboard’s learners aligns with SJF’s objective to advance opportunity through workplace readiness. But SJF also aims to improve employee wellbeing with its investments. These are the “intangibles” of a new job and career path: confidence, productivity, quality of life. To better understand its impacts beyond job placement, Springboard worked together with SJF Ventures and the impact measurement company 60 Decibels to survey its learners.

Challenge: Uncovering meaningful feedback on long-term learner impact

For companies focused on social and environmental impact, feedback from end-users — in Springboard’s case, learners — is key to both impact measurement and business performance. Learners must experience Springboard’s intended impacts, namely better employment opportunities, to fulfill the company’s impact potential and drive strong business results. 

60 Decibels, an independent social impact measurement company, knows that listening to customers directly is important because it provides a real-world perspective on how investments are transforming lives. 

“It’s not just about financial returns,” said Ramiro Rejas, Co-Head, Latin America at 60 Decibels. “It’s about understanding the human impact and ensuring that companies are meeting the needs of those they serve. Incorporating the feedback and experiences of customers can drive more meaningful and sustainable impact, ensuring investments truly make a difference. For companies, this approach fosters trust, loyalty, and long-term success as they create solutions that are genuinely aligned with the needs of their customers.”

For Springboard, understanding the platform’s impact on learners — both immediately post-graduation and well into their careers — would reveal which methods were most successful, as well as common challenges Springboard could solve to increase impact.

Solution: Invaluable 1:1 insights

Collecting outcomes data can be a complicated and time-consuming exercise. 60 Decibels makes the process easy, resulting in a useful data baseline that allows Springboard to benchmark, set targets, and improve impact over time. Such surveys also enable SJF Ventures to proactively identify areas where portfolio companies like Springboard may benefit from added support.

Springboard enhanced its understanding of student satisfaction and intangible outcomes with a 60 Decibels report. The report — based on in-depth online and phone interviews between researchers and learners — was sponsored by Springboard investor SJF Ventures as part of its mission to “bend the curve” on impact. 

So what did the report reveal?

More than four in five (83%) learners report they learned skills that help them find better employment opportunities. Additionally, nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents said their confidence in themselves and abilities increased because of Springboard.

Overall, 68% of learners said their quality of life improved because of Springboard, citing increased income and successful career transitions. Respondents also spoke to their job satisfaction after completing the courses: 79% are satisfied with their job; 72% say their work gives them a feeling of personal accomplishment; and 80% report their working hours are “just right.”

60 Decibels conducted follow-up interviews with some respondents to capture qualitative feedback. One survey respondent spoke to Springboard’s impact in job interviews: “I felt a lot more confident speaking about my skills in interviews. I credit this to the career advisor.”

“The mentor was a fantastic match, one of the best aspects of the program,” one 44-year-old respondent told 60 Decibels. “He provided me with invaluable insights into what potential managers and companies would be looking for, which set me up for success when I went into interviews with companies.” 

Another, a 31-year-old student, noted that before Springboard, they lived at home and could only find part-time work as a tutor. 

“After Springboard, my life has made a complete 180,” said the student. “I moved into my own place, I paid my bills, I bought my first car, I moved to the city, and I’m pursuing a career as a BI Analyst, for which I am passionate. This life transformation couldn’t have happened without Springboard, and I am eternally grateful to have chosen them as my boot camp.”

“We were extremely excited to work with SJF and 60 Decibels on this project, as it gave us very meaningful quantitative and qualitative insight into how we’re impacting the lives of our learners, as well as what they value about our courses and how we can best serve them,” said Andrew Moers, President, Consumer Business at Springboard. “These 1:1 insights are invaluable, particularly given how significant an investment our learners make into our courses and how much they rely upon Springboard to advance their careers.”

Results: Data-driven action to accelerate impact

Armed with the 60 Decibels data, Springboard is already taking action.

The company has already implemented three strategic changes as a result of the report feedback:

• Recognizing a challenging job market for designers, Springboard has bolstered job placement efforts specifically for design students. These efforts include extended career coaching Industry Design Projects (e.g. “group internships” with companies), and post-course support to keep skills sharp.
• The qualitative feedback emphasized the impact that can be magnified by a high-quality mentor. While Springboard consistently reviews the quality of mentors based on a diverse range of factors including attendance, student ratings, timeliness of assignment reviews, this report reinforced the importance of ensuring the bar is high for mentors within the Springboard community. 
• The company expanded their events and community support for students who have completed programs including post-completion mentoring, group portfolio reviews and topic-focused events like mastering informational interviews and job searching as a working parent.

Springboard opens career paths to people who wouldn’t be able to access them through traditional degree programs. With the data from the impact report, Springboard understands both the tangible impact it’s having on people’s lives and the long-term intangible impact that’s allowing learners to be successful in their new careers. Springboard and SJF Ventures are now doubling down on that impact.