THE TRAINING MARKETPLACE
The company
The Training Marketplace (TM) is a global B2B platform that connects business training providers with corporate training buyers. With a vision to become the go-to marketplace for business training professionals, TM currently hosts 8,000 training providers and aims to scale up to 3 million worldwide. The platform differentiates itself by eliminating brokerage fees, ensuring unbiased search results, and offering robust filtering options to help businesses find the most relevant training providers.
The challenge
As TM prepared to launch its platform, the team recognised the potential value of leveraging data insights to enhance user experience and drive revenue. They aimed to develop a dashboard that would provide training providers with meaningful analytics on user interactions. The goal was to use this feature to encourage free users to convert to premium accounts, thereby generating a new revenue stream. However, with no in-house expertise in data science or analytics, TM needed support in understanding what data to capture, how to structure it, and how to transform it into actionable insights for their users.
The collaboration with NICD
TM partnered with the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD) to explore how best to harness their platform’s data. The collaboration aimed to:
- Identify key data points that could provide training providers with actionable insights.
- Develop a user-friendly dashboard to visualise these insights.
- Empower TM’s leadership with the knowledge required to manage and evolve the tool over time.
Peter Evans, Co-Founder of the Training Marketplace highlights:
"The collaboration was incredibly well-managed. NICD set clear expectations from the start and maintained open communication throughout. They were always available to answer questions, and their post-project support has been excellent. We felt confident that we were in good hands."
The approach
NICD initially adopted a skills transfer model, teaching TM’s leadership team foundational data science techniques, including SQL and Python for querying their PostgreSQL database. However, as the project evolved, it became clear that TM needed direct technical support rather than in-depth training. The approach shifted to a knowledge exchange model, where NICD provided:
- Guidance on leveraging Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and BigQuery to track user behaviour.
- Assistance in structuring and exporting TM’s website data for analysis.
- Development of interactive data visualisations to test different user engagement metrics.
- A hosted Plotly dashboard on Azure to allow TM to explore insights dynamically.
- Support for TM’s newly hired development team in integrating and refining the dashboard.
The outcome
Over the course of the 18-month collaboration, NICD helped TM develop a fully functional dashboard prototype. The dashboard provides training providers with insights into:
- Profile engagement metrics, including views, favourites, and direct inquiries.
- Popular search terms and filters used by training buyers.
- Geographic distribution of platform visitors.
- Overall platform performance metrics, helping providers optimise their offerings.
The tool serves as a crucial step toward monetisation, enabling TM to introduce a premium subscription model where users can access more granular analytics. While the original target of converting 0.5% of free users per month was misaligned with platform go-live dates, the project succeeded in laying the foundation for future revenue generation.
Lessons learned
The TM gained valuable insights throughout the project. TM’s leadership team developed a deeper understanding of data infrastructure, analytics capabilities, and platform limitations. Key takeaways included:
- The complexity of structuring and interpreting raw data for actionable insights.
- The importance of refining data capture methods to improve analytics accuracy.
- The need for iterative improvements, as the dashboard will continue to evolve with user feedback and AI integration.
“It was a pleasure working with Training Marketplace on this project, which brought some unique challenges around reusing historical Google Analytics data. The team approached the complexities with openness and curiosity, and together we navigated some intricate data engineering and data visualisation hurdles. Their clear vision and collaborative spirit made it a rewarding experience, and we’re proud of what we achieved together.”
Louise Braithwaite, Data Scientist, National Innovation Centre for Data
Next steps
Looking ahead, TM plans to further develop the dashboard, integrating AI-driven recommendations to help training providers optimise their services. NICD remains a valuable resource, with potential future collaborations in machine learning and advanced analytics.
“We had an excellent experience working with NICD. Their expertise helped us transform raw data into a valuable product for our users. The project was well-structured, flexible, and insightful, providing us with the knowledge and tools to take our platform to the next level.”
Anna Nguyen, Co-Founder, The Training Marketplace
Conclusion
The collaboration between TM and NICD exemplifies the power of data-driven innovation. By leveraging NICD’s expertise, TM has taken a crucial step toward monetising its platform and providing greater value to its users. This case study highlights the importance of strategic data use in driving business growth and enhancing customer experience.
To discover more about The Training Marketplace, visit their website.
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