The setting
is a digital education company for consumers. Its gives short, game-like lessons on phones and the web, and most learners use it for free, supported by ads.
The speaking promise is attracting subscriptions while the evidence for paid lift is splitting.
The allocation protects growth momentum on one side and protects Finance from paying for subscriptions that would have happened anyway on the other.
Who you’d be doing this for
“I saw the speaking ad twice this week, and I’m still trying to work out what I’d actually get.”
Selamawit Beyene · Commuter language learner · a character in this brief
A free learner considering Super for more regular speaking practice during a daily commute.
What is at stake
The next-quarter plan must deliver 12,000 incremental Super starts at $38 or less. You have to weigh growth momentum against evidence that the reported channel gains are not all paid-driven.
Why it isn’t already fixed
Every obvious fix costs something else. That’s the part you’d have to decide.
- subscription growth versus defensible incrementality
- agency commitment versus reversible spend
- speaking demand versus message fatigue
- platform attribution versus Finance trust
Why Duolingo
Super acquisition now depends on how learners value speaking practice after Video Call became available on the lower-priced plan.
Written with these in mind
Not your kind of problem? 23 more at Duolingo, or browse every organization.
Where the organization context comes fromThe postings this brief was written from, and the reporting read before it.
The organization context comes from public information. The situation and characters are written for the brief.
Job postings it was written from
Public descriptions of the work at Duolingo. They are listed as sources, not as openings. The lines under a posting are its own words, where it meets this brief.
- Performance Marketing Lead (opens in a new tab)
- Run user acquisition across platforms such as Google UAC, Meta, TikTok, AppLovin, and programmatic partners, plus channels in China.
- Own Duolingo’s paid user growth goals, setting the strategy for acquiring new users who stay and learn.
- Head of Influencers & Community (opens in a new tab)
- You’ll define the vision for how Duolingo engages influencers, creator partners, and our global learner community — from celebrity partnerships to superfan advocacy programs to community experiences in and out of app.
- Ensure new feature launches, vertical expansions, and cultural moments are systematically amplified through creator and community channels
- Senior Performance Marketing Manager · no longer posted
- Tiktok, and programmatic partners, focusing on high LTV/CAC, efficient spend, and sustainable global growth.
- Own day-to-day execution of global performance marketing campaigns, including setting the creative strategy, with a primary focus on mobile user acquisition and growth.
- Senior Director of Performance Marketing (opens in a new tab)
- Own the global paid acquisition budget and portfolio across Google, Apple Search Ads, Meta, TikTok, AppLovin, DSPs, and China platforms, deciding where to scale, hold, or pull back as efficiency changes
- You’ll own the strategy, the budget, and the people, and you’ll be accountable for proving what our spend actually buys.
- Senior Marketing Analytics Manager (opens in a new tab)
- Create data-driven insights about the impact of our global performance marketing campaigns
Reporting read before this brief was written
The pieces closest to the situation in this brief.
As of Q2 2026 Duolingo says the cost of a Video Call fell from about 30 cents to under a cent after it switched to open-source models, and the feature has moved from Max down to the Super plan.
Duolingo Q2 2026: 100M User Push Reshapes Its Plans (opens in a new tab) · classcentral.com · Sep 3, 2026
This is the setup. The work is inside.
Running it puts you in the room: the full situation and its constraints, stakeholders who push back in their own words, and the decisions that are yours to make. What you produce becomes a Day One Plan — work you can show someone instead of describing.
Where similar work appears
Other live briefs connected to this one, and what connects them.
Similar problems at other organizations
Like this one, each of these turns on committing to a deal before it checks out.
Exam-season ads could fund channels that do not add subscriptions.
You must choose which evidence governs a budget that cannot be easily moved back.
Newly acquired pros are purchasing an initial lead, then cutting back before their first month is complete.
You must weigh a sharper acquisition promise against whether early lead revenue can support it.
New subscribers are entering the editor but too many leave before downloading a usable design.
You have to weigh subscription volume against proof that paid media is creating publishing customers.
The same setting, from another role
Each is set around Duolingo’s Duolingo Language Learning App, written for a different role. They’re separate briefs, not the same scenario.
iOS learners are being returned to a completed exercise while their streak still advances.
You must decide how far the AI carries the trace from the release's Swift changes to a named cause, and at which point an iOS engineer takes it over.
Learners preparing for specific conversations are seeking practice outside their usual short lesson routine.
You must weigh personal relevance against a flow that remains simple enough to become a repeat habit.
Support contacts rose 34% in the limited rollout, and affected learners may lose their daily practice window.
You must weigh a fixed access boundary against an explanation and recovery path people can trust.
Other problems with a similar purpose
In each of these, as in this one, the aim is to turn conflicting market signals into a focused growth bet without pretending uncertainty has disappeared.
Employers need evidence that subsidized memberships produce ongoing health engagement, not unopened devices.
You must weigh a test that is useful to benefits leaders against claims and measurement the evidence can support.
Late-trip travelers leave available hotel rooms to compare cancellation terms on other sites.
You have to weigh incremental hotel demand against booking shifts from comparable homes.
Programmatic buyers are spending through the Carrot Ads API but do not have a clear route into repeat self-serve campaigns.
You have to weigh a fast expansion motion against claims that brand finance teams can defend.
