SaaS Business Platform for EdTech: Pivot from K–12 to Medical Education
Insight Dashboard Ecosystem is designed to handle all aspects of conducting enterprise-level business, from deploying full-featured learning products to selling subscriptions to individuals and institutions.
Mission
Insight had a sophisticated learning technology powering its products but lacked a capable infrastructure for conducting SaaS business at scale. We had to build new supporting systems to facilitate market penetration and growth.
My Role
- Investigating the legacy user experience and highlighting the pain points holding the company back
- Developing personas, predicting edge cases, and providing rules for a variety of use cases
- Collaborating with scholars to grasp pedagogical objectives
- Partnering with data scientists, business analysts, and domain experts to execute visions within business requirements
- Work with engineers to ensure design quality and resolve usability issues
- Introduce new identities and microsites
Execution
We kicked off the effort by partnering with business analysts to provide us with a competitive analysis and a new business plan as we were preparing to enter the medicine space. The management's vision and survey results concluded that we should identify educators as our core target audience. In parallel, we developed a set of user personas to examine need differences between existing clients and prospective ones, so that no use case scenarios are overlooked.
Building a multi-purpose platform with varied target users has complex challenges. One is prevalent intertwined behind-the-scenes permission checks. This example logic gate keeps product access, balancing user goals with business ones.
Process
We developed features and tools incrementally over multiple phases. Our core development loop in each stage consisted of brainstorming sessions, expansive clickable wireframes, and a strategy with rigorous prioritization. We regularly tested our prototypes with pilot contributors and revised decisions based on internal design QAs, user interviews, and usability audits.
Once we had an acceptable solution validated by real-life users, we matured usability and polished presentational aspects. Utilizing our close partnership with UCLA Human Perception Lab, we were able to test and validate our ideas with medical students and professionals from UCLA and other institutions.
Example User Interfaces
- User & Class Management
- Individual & Group Analytics
- Guided vs. Unguided Modes
- Timed Assessments
- Subscriptions & Payments
- Data Import-Export
- Dynamic Help Center
- Responsive UI
The Impact
This new system allowed Insight to deploy full-featured learning products rapidly, sell subscriptions to individuals and institutions, and provide supportive learning systems for educators who need a systematic approach to education management and customized learning experiences for individuals and groups.
As a result, Insight was able to enter new markets (e.g., medicine), make partnerships with reputable players (e.g., Primal Pictures, TDS Health), and acquire international institutional clients (e.g., UK, Australia, New Zealand). It was also able to collect scientific data for peer-reviewed publications (e.g., Community College Mathematics Project).