Krister Svensson
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edX credentials

In 2016 the market saw edX as free courses. I led the content strategy that made it a place for credentials worth paying for, without losing the mission.

OutcomeMicroMasters and Professional Certificates: zero to five million learners across 150+ programs in 24 months. My product lines; company-wide figures are separated below.
Open courseVerified CertificateA single course, audited free or certified for a fee. The product edX was known for.
Built from zeroProfessional CertificateA series of courses teaching a career skill, from universities and companies such as Microsoft and McKinsey.
Built from zeroMicroMastersGraduate-level program, credit-eligible toward a master's degree at the partner university.
Partner degreeMaster'sThe university's own degree, with the MicroMasters counting toward it. The reason the ladder exists.

The credential ladder as it stood by 2020. I owned positioning, audience, pricing and portfolio for the two middle rungs.

My role
Senior Product Manager, Content (2016–2020), after Senior Partner Manager and Partner Manager. Employee twenty, promoted twice.
When and where
2013–2020 · Cambridge, Massachusetts
Scope
Positioning, audience definition, pricing and portfolio strategy for both lines; the quality bar across 100+ contributing institutions and companies; a seven-person squad.

The operating model

More than a hundred universities and companies contributed content, each with its own faculty, legal terms and production capacity. The job was one quality bar for all of them, delivered faster than the bespoke model allowed.

I sat on the professional services team, which negotiated the partner agreements, and built the self-service development model: a published standard, templates and review gates that let Microsoft and a small university ship to the same quality. Time to market fell by 90 days and partner NPS rose 15 points.

Numbers I'm accountable for

Outcomes of the lines and teams I led. Each figure says what it measures.

Credential lines5M

Learners enrolled across 150+ MicroMasters and Professional Certificate programs within 24 months of launch.

Content pipeline2×

New users to the platform doubled over 18 months from the strategic plan and content pipeline I set.

Program revenue+30%

Year-over-year growth from the seven-person squad I led: experiments, new KPIs and engagement work.

Partner delivery200+

Courses and 50+ blended programs acquired under the self-service model, 90 days faster to market.

edX in the same years, for context and not claimed as mine: global partnerships grew about thirtyfold, roughly 4,000 courses and programs were added, and 35 million new users joined. My team's work contributed to those totals.

Key decisions

Price the credential, keep the course free. The audit track stayed open; the certificate and the credit pathway carried the price. The mission and the business stopped competing.

Portfolio before program. Which subjects, which partners and at what price were decided before any single course was built, so the catalog read as a product line rather than a list.

One bar for everyone. A self-service model with a published standard meant a corporate partner and a small university shipped to the same quality, and faster.

Credit is the proof. MicroMasters earned its price because the partner university accepted it toward a degree. Positioning followed that fact rather than inventing one.

All workContact