Turning Learning Into a Product With Erick Prospero

Education should not just be content organizations produce. Used well, it should be a product that solves real problems for the people who pay for it.

In this episode, I speak with Erick Prospero, CEO, also known as “Chief Ninja”, at Ninja Tropic eLearning, a learning experience design company focused on external education and monetized learning products. Erick brings a deeply practical view shaped by over a decade of building certification and education programs for associations and organizations. His point is simple, but important. Learners are not employees to be pushed through compliance. They are customers who have to be earned.

We talk about what it means to treat learning as a product, why good content still fails without a product mindset, and how associations can use tools like the fake door test to validate real demand before building. Erick's phrase stays with me: content is a catalog, but a program solves a problem.

Some curious takeaways:

• Treat learners as customers, not employees to be pushed through content
• Validate demand with a fake door test before building the full course
• Bundle courses with community and network access, not just standalone content

Episode highlights:

(00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner

(00:30) Turning training from a cost center into a product

(02:25) Why learning products fail behind the scenes

(06:18) The shift from vitamins to Vicodin thinking

(08:46) Why good content alone does not guarantee success

(10:20) A tax association example of product thinking

(13:07) How to start monetizing expertise through education

(16:39) Building feedback loops after a course launches

(18:14) Selling access to networks, not just courses

(23:43) The Medical Learning Institute and meeting learners on social media

(26:05) Warning signs a learning platform is not gaining traction

(31:21) The fake door test for validating demand

(39:31) Advising an association on new learning technology

(42:48) Building requirements and running a vendor tender

(45:08) Extreme ownership and the future of associations

Connect with the guest:

Erick Prospero on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erickprosperotorres/

Explore Ninja Tropic eLearning: https://www.ninjatropic.com/

Follow me on the following sites:

Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/

Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/