Case Study: Hachette Learning

About the client

Hachette Learning is part of one of the world's largest publishing groups, providing educational resources and learning materials to the UK schools sector. With an independent curriculum review underway that could significantly reshape what is taught in English state schools, Hachette Learning needed to ensure they were well placed to respond to whatever changes lay ahead.

The brief

Hachette Learning wanted a deep, wide-ranging understanding of the needs, challenges and pain points facing teachers, parents and students in Humanities and Social Science subjects at GCSE and A Level. Rather than testing specific product ideas, the goal was to view the sector through a broad lens and use the findings to inform future product development.

Our approach

We designed a qualitative research programme that captured the perspectives of all three key audiences. We conducted 25 hour-long in-depth interviews with teachers across a diverse range of school types, subjects and levels of seniority. To complement this, we carried out paired interviews with 16 students and separate interviews with 6 parents. Participants were recruited via our teacher panel and supplemented through the Hachette mailing list to ensure we reached under-represented subject areas. The research explored the full school year, typical lesson structures, resource usage, and attitudes towards emerging issues such as AI.

The outcome

The research uncovered a rich picture of the pressures facing educators, from the relentless pace of a content-heavy curriculum to the challenge of differentiating for mixed-ability classes. It identified key pain points including marking workload, tight budgets and the growing uncertainty around AI in the classroom. Critically, it produced a detailed set of "jobs to be done" that mapped unmet needs across areas such as lesson resources, differentiation, assessment, and professional development. These findings gave Hachette Learning a strong evidence base to guide strategic decisions ahead of the curriculum review, and a clear framework for developing resources that genuinely address the challenges teachers face.

"Jill really took the time to understand our needs and then set to work researching and reporting back to us. She really conveyed the voice of the teachers, parents and students we were researching with and has helped us to understand these user groups even better." Product Manager, Hachette Learning