Creating a learning platform from the idea
to implementation
Tasks: Product discovery/design, User research, Workshop facilitation, Brand identity creation, Project Management,
Team: Ivet Dyulgerova (New Designers) ⎮ Time: 8 weeks
Clients: Nanna Freeman & Wypkje van der Heide
Project
Overview
The clients came to us with great ambitions:
“We want to create a learning platform for teachers, offering different types of resources on how to teach critical thinking through film.”
Before proceeding with any solutions, we thoroughly examined the problem to ensure that we were building something of value.
Outcome: The launch was successful: within a week, FlickThink garnered 40 email sign-ups and a handful of online course participants. Within a couple of months, they had built a community of over 100 LinkedIn followers to inspire & educate.
Overall, the educational materials received positive user feedback, fulfilling our phase 1 goal of transforming an idea into a functional platform & community for teachers.
Project
Process
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Quick
Links
Alignment
Why Would
Anyone Care?
In the Problem Space, we focused on answering three main questions: Who are our users? (pains, gains, needs); What problem do we address?; Is this problem worth solving?
We kicked off our project with an engaging workshop with our clients, where we established clear project and business objectives. By crafting two primary personas, we were able to outline key assumptions surrounding our product concept and the possible pain points and needs of our desired target audience.
Our two personas Noa & Maria.
Desired target audience:
university-level teachers interested in improving their teaching methods
Assumption map (click to expand)
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The assumptions established during our kick-off meeting served as a north star on what aspects of the idea/product to test with real users.
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Research
"As a teacher with a full packed schedule, I have no time to develop lessons"
Experiment A:
User Interviews
As part of our exploratory research, we were eager to learn more about our potential users and gather their first opinions on our idea.
See our Lean approach on the right:
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3 - Run an experiment
We hosted interviews with eight members of the target audience. Our research intent was to investigate our assumptions that "our users have a need for a professional learning community (PLC)" and subsequently "see value in an online platform with all our planned offerings (workshops, online courses, materials, etc.)".
Additionally, we aimed to learn more about our users and refine our proto-persona (their motivations, goals, pain points, etc.) to craft a suitable value proposition.
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We created an experiment canvas for each step to clearly communicate our steps to the client and to keep track of our learnings. (click to expand)
Part 1: Empathy Interviews
Semi-structured interviews to learn about our users.
Interview guidelines:
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don't ask leading questions
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ask "why" & seek clarity for generic answers
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don't mention our solution yet
We brainstormed interview questions based on our assumptions (click to expand)
Example of one participant's card sorting outcomes (click to expand)
Part 2: Feature Card Sorting
We presented all our feature ideas for the platform to gather user reactions/ratings.
Sorting guidelines:
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ask 'why' & seek clarity on their choices
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present empty cards & ask what features participants miss
Click here to go to the FigJam file with all observations from the experiment OR scroll further to see the summary of insights.
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4 - Insights
The Majority Of Our Target Group Is Motivated By
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They Therefore Find These Features Most Valuable
Ideation
Ideation
We Are Reshaping Education Through Film
Entering the Solution Space, we harnessed our user insights to formulate a strong value proposition and brainstorm ways to meet user expectations through our platform's features in our "Solution Discovery Workshop" (click here to see the full workshop outline in FigJam).
We also conducted research into where/how we could host our platform and what legal restrictions we could face when using film examples and providing educational content.
Ultimately, we decided on Podia, an online platform that allows users to create and sell online courses, memberships, and downloads. We chose this route, as it best fit within the project scope and would enable the clients to easily upload content after our collaboration.
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Value Proposition
Customer Segment
Note: We translated the user insights of the Research phase into the Customer Segment. From there, we established our value proposition to ease user pains and play into their desired gains.
Value Proposition
FlickThink is the go-to professional learning hub for film education. It provides easy-to-implement teaching materials and resources to help teachers engage students and foster critical thinking in the classroom.
Experiment B:
Landing Page
We created a landing page to swiftly communicate our unique value proposition and gather vital feedback from our audience to ideate our offering.
The page was live for two weeks and spread among university channels, the founders' personal network and teacher conferences.
Quick Summary
Assumption: We believe that our value proposition sparks interest in our target group
Metrics: To verify our assumption, we measured page views, conversion rate, and session duration
Success criteria: We are right, if we achieve 50 unique page views, a minimum 2% conversion rate, and an average session of no lower than 30 sec
Outcome
👍 114 unique page views
👍 12,3% conversion rate (sign ups)
👍 53 sec average session rate
Final design (click to expand)
Final design
Initial wireframe of landing page
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Based on the experiment outcome, we were fairly confident that we had a large enough target audience to build from and test our initial offerings with.
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Creation & Validation
Putting FlickThink To The Test
Experiment C:
User Testing
For our next MVP, a rough version of the platform was presented to the target audience.
Six test users were asked to voice their opinions while browsing through the homepage and exploring parts of an online course and downloadable content.
Quick Summary
Assumption: We believe that our content is desirable and engaging to the target audience
Metrics: User feedback
Success criteria: We are right, if the majority of feedback is positive
Outcome
Overall, the content was perceived as relevant and engaging. Improvements were suggested in terms of copy/ messaging and consistency of branding.
Example of a downloadable tool on the platform
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We sorted the feedback into 'works well', 'needs to change', 'questions' and 'new ideas' to inspire ideation
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Based on the target group's feedback, some last cosmetic iterations were made before launching.
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Launch
Welcome Curious Teachers, We Are FlickThink
Through continuous testing and refining, we've transformed our vision into reality.
Meet FlickThink, a platform where curious teachers can get the resources they need to easily incorporate critical thinking and film education into their teaching.
Branded imagery
Online course: How to teach critical thinking with film - an introduction
Social media templates
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Mission accomplished! FlickThink now has the first version of its platform, from which the offerings can be further iterated and improved upon.
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Reflections
Whereas I am a big believer in rapid experimentation for product discovery, I found myself grappling with the flexibility of this method during this project.
The iterative nature of Lean methodology means there is always a temptation to endlessly validate, gather more data, and seek greater certainty before moving forward, which can sometimes lead to delays or indecision. This of course clashes with project timelines and client requirements for tangible outcomes.
In the future, I'll aim to balance flexibility and structure. I will set clear criteria for validating hypotheses and prioritize efficient experiment design within project timelines. By fostering clear communication and aligning expectations, I can navigate the tension between thorough validation and project requirements more effectively.
Think We Might Be A Good Fit?
I am open to part-time or full-time opportunities in
● Brand Strategy ● CX Strategy ● Market/User Research
● Product Mgmt ● Product Marketing, and more...
I would love to hear from you about your ideas or projects!
Don't like filling out forms? Mail me then:
Laura.Hopfenmueller22@gmail.com