Grammarly for speech – market size and attitude

Problem space: English Speaking is very stressful (esp.) for non-native speakers 

Many non-native English speakers say they have lost overall confidence because of their lack of English skills. However, traditional methods of speech training mainly focus on rote memorization and the cost of a 1:1 human tutor is too expensive (= low accessibility).

Market size calculations for a “Grammarly for speech” style speech tutor. TAM/SAM/SOM

• Bottom-up Calculation

• Top-Down Calculation

• • The market value is set to grow by USD 14.37 billion (CAGR 16.78%)
  • 45% of Growth from APAC (China and India key markets)
  • English is spoken by 20% of the global population. And it is the Official Language of Business
  • Digital tutoring growing at  18.2% (2022~2030)

Interviews for two members of the market.

Interview Questions

1. Interview Questions

   Background questions

   1. Before we begin, do you mind spending 1-2 minutes introducing yourself?
   2. Where are you from? Educational background?
   3. What is your mother tongue? Where did you learn english?
   4. How long have you been living in the US?
   5. Take them on a tour: Walk me through a time when you had to prepare for a presentation or speech?

   Communication

   1. How would you characterize your current communication capabilities in english?
   2. Can you tell me about a time where you had to improve your speech or public speaking skills? What are the errors that you catch? Have you used tools or any resources to help you improve? 
   3. Has your preparation changed over time? If so, how?
   4. What was the hardest communication assignment you have had so far this quarter? How did you feel about it?
   5. If there’s one thing you could change about the process of speech improvement, what would it be?
   6. Do you have anything else you’d like to share about this topic?

   * it is key to observe if the attention goes to either delivery or content — if it doesn’t come up naturally, ask straightforward  — what does worry you more, delivery or content?

   Wrap-up

   1. After all, how easy would you say it is for you to succeed in oral communication?
   2. Did we miss anything? Is there something you expected us to cover that we didn’t? Check in with team for additional questions
   3. We’ve asked you a lot of questions. Do you have any questions for us?
   4. Thank You!

Interview 1: Design Impact 1st year student

• • Main concerns when it comes to speaking or delivering speeches:
    • Timing
    • Pace
    • Fillers -worse when nervous
  • She gets too nervous if
    • not well prepared
    • don’t care about the topic
    • Care too much about the topic
  • Algo, have I talked about it before? That makes it easy.
  • An ideal solution would be having a third person listening, telling me in real time if I need to speed up for example. When pushback on real time says: I would like to have the option of real time (fine tuning for last stages of my speech iterations) or postrecord comments (early iteration, with big room for improvement).
  • She gives the example of Ted talks, where a team makes sure you are ready. You should reach that point where you can say “I am ready”. There is a big emotional factor also. I feel I am ready

Interview 2: Design Impact 2nd year student.

Transcript

• Bilingual in Kazakh and Russian.
• Worked for 14 years between both countries.
• Formal English used at work.
• Started learning English at 10 yo. Very bad experience until he got a good teacher at 13 yo.
• He prepares “wrong” for speeches. He prepares speeches in Russian and then translates using a translator. The reasons behind this are laziness and time required to think in English, where he feels much slower.
• From 0 to 10, he would set himself at 5. Maybe six sometimes. Uh, yeah. It depends on the day. It’s like one day I speak more or less better. Or sometimes like, just stuck. I don’t remember any words.
• He is fluent with foreigners. But lacks comprehension for native speakers. Especially for jokes, idioms and structures he doesn’t know.
• He feels the lack of vocabulary is annoying. He suggests that studying 10 words per day could solve things.
• He is worried that, in short interaction, spontaneity and rapid comprehension are key, otherwise people will believe you are stupid. And he is not performing as he wishes.
• His laziness is stronger than his fear of the public.
• Usually he doesn’t prepare much, just go ahead trusting he will do the best possible.
• He believes that he could have learned much faster when he was young.
• People at Stanford are very polite. So sometimes he thinks they don’t show that they didn’t understand me.
• I think it’s better to combine different ways to learn English, including everything:speaking, writing, reading and listening.
• Some words – for example jeopardize – make you sound smarter. He also thinks, unconsciously, that there’s a connection between bad speaking skills and your mental ability. 
• But some people are shy and when somebody corrects them, they just stop speaking. Nto his case.