This was a 3 month-long project where we built out a feature to make our two week trial more clear for students. The team consisted of myself, our product manager, and our engineering team. This case study focuses on user research, ideation, design, testing, and iteration.
TLDR
Defined the problem by conducting user interviews and competitive analysis.
Built system requirements, wireframes, and high fidelity prototypes.
Conducted usability testing and user interviews to gather feedback.
Completed iterations on design feedback for implementation.
Feature reduced student confusion and improved retention.
Our students were confused, overwhelmed, and were not signing up for the full program
Auditing the current system showcased issues of information overload and deep inconsistencies
Initial explorations & research
I conducted user interviews with students who were a) currently in the free trial, b) had just completed the free trial and signed up, and c) had finished the free trial without signing up.
We asked questions like: Did you know what you needed to do each week? How did you feel when working through your tasks? These are some of our high level findings:
Building system requirements for multiple industries involved heavy collaboration and understanding greatest user needs
I developed a 2-week trial experience for students in 6 different industries, all of which had their own unique needs. There were several tool integrations I had to take into account, like scheduling in Calendly or uploading docs to google drive.
The five main information types were
Upcoming sessions
Resources to review
Group workshop sessions
Tasks to complete each week
Contract signature requirements
I researched other syllabus type guides to make sure I was on track, reviewing Udemy, Coursera, and various bootcamp syllabuses. I also took inspiration from Turbo Tax's linear step by step tax filing process (it was tax season, y'all) and bill summaries from different banking institutions.
Testing wireframes with stakeholders helped prepare us for high fidelity design creation
Testing high fidelity designs showcased even more information needs from students to make the product a viable solution
There were technical constraints to be solved and additional testing to be done for next iterations
When I presented next steps with the design to engineering and the product team, a technical constraint came up. We were wanting to track our student's task completion automatically, but when it came to uploading their resume and watching workshops, we couldn't verify on the backend that the tasks had actually been done.
Ultimately, my solution was to create a manual check off so that students could say they completed those tasks. While not 100% accurate, we decided to use the honor system with those tasks. I tested the new check boxes with a couple users to make sure it was clear the items needed to be checked off during the trial.
We chose to take the product live with a beta test so we could keep a close eye on any issues
We beta tested the syllabus feature with our software engineering students first, gathering feedback, and iterating once more before going live across the entire program.
We had multiple career mentors over the software students, and we included them in the beta process, asking them to touch base with students in the free trial to collect any feedback or issues that came up for them. If issues arose, they were asked to connect with me directly. I also chatted with the mentors at several touch points over the next couple weeks to gather feedback.
I conducted user interviews with multiple students involved in the beta test, and received glowing reviews. Our users described the trial as being very clear, and said they found it easy to understand what to do next. Users were also using the FAQ icons to learn more about their mentors and workshops. This was a huge win for our team.
V2 and rollout to the entire program
Engagement with the syllabus exceeded expectations and followup interviews showed we solved for free trial confusion
The syllabus feature was our first success before diving into a full task management system
The syllabus was the first project of several aimed to overhaul our internal task management system at Pathrise for both students and career mentors. The next big push would be a task management feature, which I also worked on!