New discovery experience

Designing for the new parent experience of this SaaS marketplace in the e-learning industry

My role: working end-to-end from discovery to delivery

Team: 7 people

Context

This marketplace in the e-learning industry wanted to increase revenue by changing its business model, from one-off payments to a monthly subscription. As the codebase was outdated, we had the opportunity to rebuild the platform from scratch and address known pain points. All the squads collaborated on a joint roadmap.

This marketplace in the e-learning industry wanted to increase revenue by changing its business model, from one-off payments to a monthly subscription. As the codebase was outdated, we had the opportunity to rebuild the platform from scratch and address known pain points. All the squads collaborated on a joint roadmap.

Goals

Shipping the MVP of the new parent experience in 6 months

My role

  • Working in a product trio with the tech lead and the PM on the parent experience. Also part of a wider cross-functional team

  • Responsible for conducting & analysing user interviews and usability testings, presenting to stakeholders, creating userflows, delivering high-fidelity prototyping and collaborating with developers

  • Gathering feedback and collaborating with designers from other squads.

Constraints

Navigating ambiguity with little time on our hands

Collaboration to resolve ambiguity

We had to decide quickly on what the best experience for parents would be, so as a trio, we had a workshop to identify the next steps and most urgent issues to solve.

Empatizing with customers

Analysing where existing customers were struggling

🤯

Paradox of choice

Parents feel overwhelmed by the amount of choice (both when searching for tutors online and on our platform) 

🤯

Paradox of choice

Parents feel overwhelmed by the amount of choice (both when searching for tutors online and on our platform) 

Endless process

When parents finally find the right tutor, their request has a 20% reject rate and 11% no response rate

Endless process

⏸️

Inactive tutors

 50% of tutors that reject requests are not looking for work

Unavailable tutors

30% of tutors didn’t update their availability once last year 

Unavailable tutors

Defining the problem

Parents struggle to find suitable, available tutors due to outdated availability and an overwhelming number of options, leading to drop-offs and low conversion rates.

Analysing competitors to identify opportunities

Analysing competitors to identify opportunities

The PM and I looked at both direct and non-direct competitors to understand what was their common behavior in matching customers with contractors.

Direct competitor: GoStudent

They would first ask for requirement and then call parents with a list of tutors available

Direct competitor: GoStudent

They would first ask for requirement and then call parents with a list of tutors available

Non-direct competitor: taskrabbit

Customers fill a form with their requirements, and are then presented with a list of possible matches

Non-direct competitor: taskrabbit

Customers fill a form with their requirements, and are then presented with a list of possible matches

Non-direct competitor: Bark

Customers select their requirements, and a 'request' gets sent to the marketplace. Contractors contact customers by phone or email

Non-direct competitor: Bark

Customers select their requirements, and a 'request' gets sent to the marketplace. Contractors contact customers by phone or email

Crafting a new discovery experience for parents

Parents would fill out a form with their tutoring needs and create a ‘tutor request’, which would be sent to tutors on the marketplace. Only tutors that are actually available, and area good match would come forward. I presented user flow to the wider tech team, which agreed on the approach.

User flow showing the process from land to checkout, and finally booking lessons

User flow showing the process from land to checkout, and finally booking lessons
User flow showing the process from land to checkout, and finally booking lessons

Collaborating with the tutor squad

Collaborating with the tutor squad
Collaborating with the tutor squad

I worked closely with the designer in the tutor squad, to understand how parents would create tutor requests, and how willing tutors would come forward. We moved the account creation after the 'tutor request' to match the original products mechanics and learning from it.

I worked closely with the designer in the tutor squad, to understand how parents would create tutor requests, and how willing tutors would come forward. We moved the account creation after the 'tutor request' to match the original products mechanics and learning from it.
I worked closely with the designer in the tutor squad, to understand how parents would create tutor requests, and how willing tutors would come forward. We moved the account creation after the 'tutor request' to match the original products mechanics and learning from it.

User flow showing parents creating a tutor request and tutor coming forward

User flow showing parents creating a tutor request and tutor coming forward
User flow showing parents creating a tutor request and tutor coming forward

User story map of the parent and tutor experience

User story map of the parent and tutor experience
User story map of the parent and tutor experience

Testing the concept with parents 

We organised some sessions with parents to check if:

  • the amount of information requested was appropriate 

  • how long they’d be ok to wait for matches

  • how many matches they would like to see 


Below are some of the screens I tested

We organised some sessions with parents to check if:

  • the amount of information requested was appropriate 

  • how long they’d be ok to wait for matches

  • how many matches they would like to see 


Below are some of the screens I tested

We organised some sessions with parents to check if:

  • the amount of information requested was appropriate 

  • how long they’d be ok to wait for matches

  • how many matches they would like to see 


Below are some of the screens I tested

Summarising insights from usability testings

  • 5 out of 5 parents found the approach straightforward

  • 4 out of 5 are fine with waiting a few hours if highly relevant tutors respond to their request

  • 2 out of 5 parents wanted more than three matches

“It’s pretty straightforward” - Iwona

Making the concept come to life

A previous CRO test I worked on, proved that adding benefits in the staggered flow, parents would see immediate value and complete it.

Catering for small screens

Catering for small screns

As we were rebuilding from scratch, I had the chance to propose a new component for the staggered flow.

I presented various iterations to other designers until we all agreed the new component was working.

Resolving paradox of choice

Testing the concept with parents

On the previous experience, parents would feel overwhelmed by the amount of tutors they were presented with.

During the usability testings 40% of parents wanted more than three matches so we found a midground solution and decided to cap the matches at 6.

Results

🗓 +9% Free Meetings Booked

Our solutions allowed parents and teens to find tutors relevant to their needs and that were available at the time needed, resulting in increased free meetings booked

✍️ +2% sign ups

We used findings from the a/b tests we conducted, to inform the sign up flow. We added more relevant fields and imagery.

Learnings

  • Overcommunication is vital

  • Roadmaps need to be aligned

  • Organise a coworking sessions with designers in different teams as soon as possible: they might have requirements very different from yours

Let's connect

For work enquiries email me at: fernanda.gasparin8@gmail.com

Let's connect

For work enquiries email me at: fernanda.gasparin8@gmail.com

Let's connect

For work enquiries email me at: fernanda.gasparin8@gmail.com