Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself and the founding story of OpenClassrooms?

I’m one of the co-founders of OpenClassrooms, a company that traces its roots back 25 years. It began in 1999 as a personal hobby in an effort to share online tutorials about learning to code. In 2007, that passion project formally evolved into a company, which eventually became OpenClassrooms. From the beginning, I’ve been dedicated to building and freely publishing online educational content, which steadily attracted a growing community of learners. Eventually I served as the company’s Chief Product Officer. Today I focus on shaping both the pedagogical approach and the underlying technology that powers our platform.

When did impact measurement and management start becoming a priority at OpenClassrooms?

I would trace the beginning of our focus on impact measurement and management back to around 2012 or 2013, when we made the decision to define a clear company mission. It took us a while to settle on it, just three simple words, but they carry a lot of weight: Make education accessible. Once we had that mission in place, we began to realize the importance of tracking our impact. Things became more concrete when we formally became a mission-driven company; a public benefit corporation in France. That legal status comes with specific responsibilities, including the creation of a mission committee composed of all the company’s key stakeholders.

How did you define the metrics to measure your mission and impact?

Over time, we realized that while we were providing education, the true goal for most of our learners was to find a job. That insight led us to adopt career outcomes as our North Star metric. We’ve given this metric a precise definition within our systems: it includes anyone who, over the course of a year, secured employment thanks to OpenClassrooms, whether they accessed our free content or enrolled in our paid programs. We also count individuals who changed jobs, advanced in their careers within the same company, or started their own businesses. These are specific events we track closely in our system. Career outcomes are now central to our strategy and are one of our three core KPIs, alongside revenue and employee satisfaction.

How do you attribute those outcomes to OpenClassrooms?

"Originally, we relied on manual surveys sent to users each year to collect information about their outcomes. It wasn’t scalable, but it served as an important first step in understanding our impact, and we still use elements of that approach today. Over time, we began embedding impact tracking directly into the product experience. Now, at specific moments along a learner’s journey, we automatically capture signals related to career outcomes. This data feeds into a central database that distinguishes between free and paid users and includes more detailed information for each case. While the system isn’t perfect yet, it’s increasingly integrated into the product and evolving to become more robust."

Does impact work cross-functionally at OpenClassrooms?

Impact work is spread across the entire company, which is why career outcomes is one of our three main KPIs. That said, some teams contribute more directly than others. For example, teams focused on student success or career placement are naturally closer to the outcome itself, while others, like finance, support the mission in more indirect ways. Still, we make a concerted effort to ensure that everyone at OpenClassrooms has goals that tie back to this overarching objective.

How did you build a culture of impact?

Culture starts with the personality of the founders. For us, the commitment to impact was a reflection of who we are and how we wanted to build the company. From the very beginning, we embedded that focus into everyday decisions, small and large, making impact part of both our strategy and operations. Early on, it required constant reinforcement. But over time, the team internalized it and began passing it on to others, including new hires. Today, impact is deeply rooted in our culture, thanks to twelve years of consistent effort. That said, we still find it important to regularly reaffirm why impact matters. It’s not optional, it’s core to who we are. The mission-driven nature of OpenClassrooms is now widely understood and undisputed across the organization.

How do you approach your annual mission report?

Each year, while we build on previous mission reports, we also take the opportunity to step back and re-examine our approach. One recurring section is titled “What does it mean to make education accessible?” Because although our mission remains constant, the way we interpret and pursue it naturally evolves. Our focus areas, methods, and strategic priorities may shift, and we believe it’s important to reflect on those changes openly. The process typically begins at the end of the fiscal year: we define the key messages we want to convey, gather relevant data, consult with the team, compile insights, and hold internal discussions. From there, we begin drafting the report.

What role does your mission committee play in that process?

The mission committee operates independently when it comes to gathering data and publishing the mission report. It doesn’t require board approval. That autonomy is critical. If the committee identifies an issue, it can raise it publicly, and the board is obligated to respond. While the committee’s formal authority is limited, how it exercises that power matters. OpenClassrooms is quite unique, even in France, in how it leverages its mission committee. The committee actively helps shape company strategy. Twice a year, during board meetings, the committee, the President, and I have a dedicated slot to present and discuss specific topics that can lead to concrete decisions for the company. Although we don’t have voting rights, we do influence the direction of the business. For example, we’ve pushed for initiatives to increase the number of women in tech roles. We calculated that doing so would require 20% more marketing spend, but we also projected the potential impact, and presented that case to the board for approval. That’s the kind of balance we aim to strike: we don’t always prioritize profit above all else. Instead, we actively seek to balance profit and impact, and we believe that balance is essential.

Are there any recent updates you’re proud of?

We’ve made significant progress on our accessibility goals, which we had defined as a strategic priority. Last year, we specifically focused on increasing the number of learners with disabilities. To support that, we trained internal teams to better assist these students and developed specialized training for mentors and external contributors as well. These combined efforts are beginning to have a visible impact. We’re seeing more learners with disabilities coming to OpenClassrooms who might not have had access to education otherwise. We also made a concerted effort to feature more women as role models within our training courses, and that’s an area where we’ve seen real success.

What does the next chapter of impact at OpenClassrooms look like?

I would love to reach a point where we no longer need to use manual surveys to get our impact data. That in itself would be an amazing achievement, and it’s something we’ve been aiming for for quite some time. I’d also really like to see our impact scale in the U.S. I believe we’re getting close to receiving some important accreditation that would allow us to offer degrees or certifications combined with apprenticeships, which would be quite unique in the U.S. I’d love to see how that plays out and how we’re able to help people grow their income — for example, their household revenue — thanks to OpenClassrooms. We started last year by measuring the revenue impact, and we’re trying to look at it both qualitatively and quantitatively. If we’re having an impact on just 5% of learners, that’s okay, but it’s not huge. Of course, revenue is just one way of looking at impact, but it’s a fairly obvious and meaningful one. We’re really looking forward to being able to measure that in real time, and maybe even publish the data in real time someday for the sake of transparency.

What misconceptions have you encountered about impact?

One common misconception is that impact should be placed in a separate box, separate from the company, separate from the strategy. I think that’s a mistake. Impact has to be embedded. It has to be one and the same with the company’s core direction. People often aren’t used to that, and part of the challenge is that we still lack the tools, processes, and know-how to make it happen effectively. The root of the problem is that we know what financial documents look like, as we have clear standards. But when it comes to impact, especially social outcomes like career mobility, there are no widely accepted reporting standards. If you can’t structure the data in a table like you do with financials, people assume it doesn’t exist. So we need a way to present social and environmental impact data alongside financial data, ideally in connected but distinct tables. That’s the idea behind Triple Bottom Line reporting, and while it’s still new, I believe it’s the future. People often think it’s not possible, just because they haven’t seen it done. But I know it is possible. It’s just cutting-edge. Ultimately, we have to stop thinking in terms of choosing one priority over another. We need to balance environmental, social, and financial outcomes in a smart and integrated way. That’s easier said than done, but it’s a goal worth pursuing.

What helped you learn about embedding impact early on?

What helped me the most was talking with people who were working on similar challenges and simply sharing my own questions and issues. Those conversations were incredibly valuable. It was also helpful to engage with financial partners; both existing shareholders, like you, who care about impact and want to see the data, and also potential future investors who are very smart and forward-thinking, but who still lack the legal tools to help build the next version of capitalism. I’ve had conversations with some very bright people who’ve really helped me make sense of things and see where this could go in the future. I’ve also explored the literature, but much of it is still too theoretical to apply directly to business. That said, there’s already meaningful work happening. We’re at a moment when some companies. cutting-edge ones, are beginning to implement these ideas into daily operations, even though the legal system hasn’t quite caught up yet.

Any advice for someone just starting out with impact measurement?

Be intentional and be public about it. That applies within the company, but ideally outside of it as well. Try to be as transparent as possible, because doing so will hold you accountable. It forces you to stick to your commitments and follow through on what you set out to do. You also need to carve out space to work on impact—dedicate real time and resources. At some point, depending on your company’s size, you’ll need one or two people focused on it. Above all, don’t treat impact as something separate from the business. It has to be embedded in the strategy. And as a leader, you have to show the way.