Just One Simple Online Course…
The whole thing started because we wanted to offer one excellent online course to our clients - The Retail Sales Academy. The site where the course previously lived was slowly deteriorating, so we decided to build our own course delivery software. I mean, who doesn’t? 🙄 Our collaboration with the amazing team at Rapid Development Group begins here.
Why Not Add More Courses?
The idea just kept popping up… if we could use this software to deliver one awesome course, why not build it so we could offer more of our courses? The big square labeled Retail Training Academy in this whiteboard drawing captures the initial flash of insight, the rudimentary structure that would eventually become Brilliance.
Enter The Custom Company Course
The next step seemed perfectly logical. If WE could use the software to create training courses for stores, why couldn’t we allow store owners to create their OWN courses and deliver company-specific training to their employees? Seemed like an incredible idea that added a ton of value for the retailers. So we did it. Our little piece of course delivery software was becoming a platform.
Education Is a Very Powerful Thing
It was an off-hand remark, a random suggestion to take an online class about running a platform business that led to the next evolution. Within the first 15 minutes of that class, our minds were blown and we realized that what we were building was only half of a great idea. If we could create and deliver courses to retailers, and the store owners could create and deliver their own courses, why not open it up so that ANYONE could create and deliver courses to retailers? Two sides to the platform. Retailers (the learners) and Course Creators (the teachers). How hard could that be?
“Dave”
It was clear that this was going to be bigger than just one simple online course. It wasn’t just the Retail Sales Academy anymore, so internally we started calling it “Dave.” Imagining and building Dave, the open, two-sided platform of our dreams, was fun, and fascinating, and frustrating, and plain old hard. But feature by feature, idea by idea, Dave grew. Eventually, it outgrew its placeholder name.
Brand Transition
After months of brainstorming and back and forth with the design team, the Brilliance name, logo, and full brand kit were finalized. Our little baby owl was hatched and the new branding along with new multi-course functionality was added to the platform. There was just one more big hurdle to complete.
Opening The Platform to Other Course Creators
The last, exciting steps were to upgrade the course builder, reveal the public course catalog, and open up the platform so anyone could set up an account, create a course, and make a sale. How incredible to see something that was only a glimmer of an idea come to life!
