TeleTeachers Roadmap: Where Are We Headed in the New Year?

In 2020, we are going to hit the ground running. All of our company-wide OKRs have owners, and this is a team effort we can't wait to begin. 

Where do we want to be in 2020? Over the last several weeks, our team has been busy reflecting and visioning: in my opinion, the two most important factors that drive execution. We have set both personal goals and company-wide Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). 

It’s been a process and I’m grateful the team has been willing to participate in some unconventional techniques that help us paint the picture of how we use all our best strengths to push the company forward.  If you haven’t done a Zone of Genius or Someday Goal exercise, you should try it! It was not only fun but incredibly insightful in having these discussions brings out talents and growth desires that don’t always surface in team meetings or weekly 1:1s. 

Everyone’s talents and growth goals in sight, I’m excited to tell you what we are aiming for as company in 2020. 

Revenue drives everything, including our mission and the good we seek to bring into the world. That said, as our sales and marketing team grows, we will be looking for consumers who are looking for us-- identifying our ideal customers that is. At this early stage especially, it’s important to have school partners that are needing what we offer and motivated to solve their recurring therapist shortage challenge. 

We are defining who our ideal customers are, where they are, and how we best communicate with them, which leads into our marketing goal of being industry leaders in the way we present content that’s actually valuable and approachable. 

Being that teletherapy is an emerging practice, especially in the school setting, we want to grow the number of people that are aware of the service enough to consider it in planning for their upcoming school year. This is a big goal that requires us to think outside the box, which we love to do, and above all else, be consistent. 

We are identifying companies that we think are doing an amazing job educating their respective communities and are using them as our fuel to kick our education & awareness efforts into high gear. Read: top of funnel. If we do this right, our competitors will also benefit as we drive more consumers to this model. It’s a bit of coopetition, which is a hot word right now, but we know our differentiated value and others will too.  

On the clinical side of the house, the individuals committed to delivering life-changing services to students everywhere, we are roadmapping the training and support needed to enable a true Students First culture. We want every therapist to be able to sit down at their computer, energized and enabled to do their best work. Because we are a services business at our core, we understand the clinical team will grow faster and larger than our other teams and are hyper-focused on creating onboarding, training and mentorship programs that account for the needs of this growing, diverse group of clinicians. Q1 is all about creating the roadmap that allows for us to scale while making each therapist feel valued, challenged and supported to deliver the services that will move the needle of our vision forward.

Technology allows us to do everything from working together as a remote team to connecting with our students, families, and schools. Our OKRs wouldn’t be complete without significant efforts in the area of tech development. Our vision is to deliver the highest quality online services to more students, easier. This involves everything from supporting our therapists in planning and delivering therapy to measuring and communicating outcomes seamlessly. As we make a big push to further differentiate ourselves in the market in this area, we are excited to gain the perspectives and feedback of diverse stakeholders who can help our roadmap evolve toward what is best for consumers and therapists alike.

High level, this is where we are going in 2020.

It takes a team of talented, vision and values-aligned people that can get us there together. So as we focus on the team we want to recruit and the skills we want to bring into the organization to grow, we celebrate the team we have. Our founding efforts over the last 10 months have been challenging and inspiring as we reflect on our progress. 2020 will be our year to really define how we incentivize and recognize each team member. We are better together and are prioritizing structures and programs that allow us to lead inspired, balanced and growth-focused lives.

Cheers to 2020, a new decade! We're ready for it.






Posted by

Emily Smith, Founder & CEO

Emily Smith is the Founder and CEO of TeleTeachers, a Chicago-based telehealth services company working with schools to ensure every student has the opportunity to communicate, learn, and thrive- no matter where they live.

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