Lessons Learned

Purpose: Capture what worked, what didn't, and pivots made — so future campaigns build on real experience, not repeated mistakes.

How to Use This File

After each campaign or major initiative: 1. Add an entry with date and context 2. Note what worked (keep doing) 3. Note what didn't (stop or change) 4. Document any pivots made mid-campaign 5. Extract actionable insights for next time

For invalidated assumptions specifically, update assumptions.md.

Strategic Insights

The Young Professional Reality — What "yoga studio" means to our target demographic

The Young Professional Reality

From peer discussions, December 2024

What Young Professionals Expect:

Physical experience: They want to feel a workout at the end of a yoga session. Breathing and meditation alone may feel incomplete to someone expecting studio-style intensity.
Ecosystem, not isolation: A yoga studio normally has things like pilates, strength classes, wellness programming in the vicinity. We're competing with that integrated experience.
Community space: Young professionals want somewhere to hang out — food, connection, after-class socializing. The practice is the hook; the community is what keeps them.

Implication: Our center needs to feel like a place to belong, not just a place to take a course. The journey isn't Intro → Course → Gone. It's: Show up → Feel welcome → Keep coming → Eventually want to go deeper.

The Free Yoga Sessions Failure — Why 3 months wasn't enough, and what we should have done

The Free Yoga Sessions Failure

Retrospective on discontinued program

What Happened: - Started free yoga sessions at the center - After ~3 months with low attendance (1-2 people), we stopped - Volunteers commuting from suburbs for 0-1 attendees felt like a waste - Teachers who were supporting the effort had no visibility into decisions - They fell off, disengaged from center activities entirely

Why It Failed:

Surface Reason	Deeper Issue
Low attendance	No community to attract people yet — chicken-and-egg
Volunteer fatigue	Suburban volunteers carrying unsustainable burden
3-month horizon	Community building takes 12-18 months, not a quarter
Decision opacity	Teachers didn't know why it stopped, felt dismissed

What We Should Have Done:

Longer runway: Commit to 12+ months before evaluating. Community doesn't form in 90 days.
Reduce volunteer burden: Make it easy for suburb teachers to contribute once a month with clear, minimal expectations.
Parallel community building: Food events, hangouts, non-yoga touchpoints — give people reasons to show up beyond "class."
Communicate decisions: When pivoting, explain the why. Teachers who feel excluded don't come back.

Core Lesson: We optimized for immediate conversion when we should have optimized for sustained presence. Footfalls first, conversion follows.

The Suburb Teacher Problem — Making it easy to contribute from afar

The Suburb Teacher Problem

Why good teachers don't engage with center activities

Current State: - Teachers are organizers from A to Z for their own events - Those who are really good can pull it off, but barely have bandwidth - They definitely don't have energy to support other teachers' events - Result: siloed efforts, no collaboration, center activities feel like "extra work"

The Vision: Sakhi for All

What if the system itself became the supportive buddy?

Make it effortless to contribute:

Barrier	Solution
"I don't know the process"	Clear, documented runbook for each activity
"I have questions"	AI buddy (or human Sakhi) to answer instantly
"It's a big commitment"	Once-a-month contribution, not weekly ownership
"I don't know what's expected"	Explicit expectations: arrive, do X, leave

The Ask Becomes Simple:

"Can you come to the center once a month and lead [specific 45-min session]? Everything else is handled. Here's exactly what you need to know. Questions? Ask Sakhi."

Efficient System Backing: - Every weekly activity has one owner + one backup - Owner handles logistics, backup covers absences - Neither is expected to do everything alone

Footfalls Before Conversions — Rethinking what success looks like

Footfalls Before Conversions

A different success metric

The Usual Thinking:

"How many course registrations did we get this month?"

The Reframe:

"How many new people walked through our doors this month?"

Why This Matters:

Word of mouth: Every person who comes is a potential ambassador, even if they never register. They tell friends. They normalize the center.
Low-pressure = trust: If people feel we're not pushing them to buy something, they relax. Relaxed people return. Returning people eventually want more.
Stumbling into knowledge: Some of the most devoted practitioners didn't register for their first course — they stumbled into it after being around long enough. Create the conditions for stumbling.
The center's real purpose: Not course registration. Bringing people to knowledge. Registration is one path, not the destination.

Practical Implication: - Measure footfalls, not just conversions - Celebrate "new faces this month" not just "registrations" - Create low-stakes reasons to visit (food, community, events) - Trust the long game

Rotating Leadership Model — Fresh energy, guiltless growth, mentored handoffs

Rotating Leadership Model

Mega Course governance that grows people, not just events

The Problem with Fixed Leadership: - Same people carry every course → burnout - New volunteers never get leadership experience - Approaches get stale; "we've always done it this way" - Central team becomes bottleneck, not enabler

The New Model:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   CENTRAL TEAM (2)                       │
│   Role: Support, not control. Follow the leads' lead.   │
│   - Bring new leads up to speed                          │
│   - Provide institutional memory                         │
│   - Handle escalations and blockers                      │
│   - Stay consistent across rotations                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                          ↓ supports
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              3 ROTATING LEADS (per course)               │
│   Role: Own this course. Implement. Improve.             │
│   - Fresh perspective each cycle                         │
│   - Bring their energy and approach                      │
│   - Not judged — space to grow as leaders               │
│   - Leave the playbook better than they found it        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                          ↓ mentored by
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              PREVIOUS 3 LEADS (handoff)                  │
│   Role: Warm handoff, not abandonment.                   │
│   - Share what worked, what didn't                       │
│   - Answer questions during transition                   │
│   - Available for first 2 weeks of new course           │
│   - Then step back completely                           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

What This Achieves:

Old Model	New Model
Same tired team	Fresh energy each course
"We've always done it this way"	"What if we tried..."
Leaders feel stuck	Leaders feel they're growing
Burnout	Sustainable rotation
Central team = bottleneck	Central team = support

The Leadership Growth Path: 1. First course: Learn the ropes, make small improvements 2. Second course: Lead with confidence, mentor next cohort 3. Third course: Optional — step back or take on central role

Guiltless, Unjudged Space: - New leads aren't expected to be perfect - Mistakes are learning, not failures - Central team catches them, doesn't criticize - Each cohort leaves the system better

Sakhi's Role in This Model:

Timing	What Sakhi Does
6 weeks before course	Remind leads of upcoming milestones
At each milestone	Surface relevant templates, past drafts, checklists
When leads have questions	Provide institutional knowledge instantly
After course	Prompt for retrospective, capture learnings

Example Sakhi Nudge:

"Hey! Intro talks start in 10 days. Last course, the team scheduled 3 sessions across 2 weeks. Here's their schedule template and what they learned. Want me to pull up the venue booking checklist?"

Campaign Retrospectives

[Template]

Campaign: [Name] Dates: [Start - End] Lead: [Who]

What Worked:

What Didn't Work:

Pivots Made:

Key Insight for Next Time:

Add retrospectives after each campaign. Honest reflection > polished reports.

Index — Documentation home

Last updated: 2025-12-24