Running a K-12 school district requires teaching to a set of skills and concepts mandated by the state that the school is located in. On top of that, teachers have their own flair. When provided with digital curriculum, they need to make sure it fits state requirements, their teaching preferences, and caters to students with special accommodations. This project made that possible.
Subject.AI
B2B Tools • 0->1
4 months
About Subject
Subject provides curriculum and learning platforms for grades 6–12 — serving credit recovery, core instruction, and elective expansion for school districts across virtual and in-person settings. In many cases, Subject becomes the engine for a virtual school, giving teachers and admins visibility into how thousands of students are performing, where they're struggling, and what they need next.
The Problem: Courses are Currency, and Subject's Teachers Needed More, Delivered at Speed.
Curriculum Developer (Internal Employee)
I need to be able to better envision the courses I write in the platform, so that I can create better courses, faster.
Lead Teacher (Paying Partner)
I need to receive courses that better align to my state and district, and have the autonomy to customize courses as I see fit.
Business
Business is losing deals due to not having courses for certain states, creating budget risks for existing partners, and losing feature parity on course customization.
Existing Process
Write (Google Docs) → Review → Transfer to Spreadsheet (Google Sheets) → QA in Platform → Edit (Google Sheets) → Re-Upload to Platform → Launch
Subject's course building software was stuck in 'workaround' mode. Tech debt slows down course development. This prevents entry into new states (new business expansion), new districts, and adjustments for special education use cases. This whiteboard shows the process for creating a new course, before it even gets to a teacher.
Once it gets to a teacher, they have no recourse other than a 'locking' workaround.
The Workaround
If a student wasn't getting taught a topic (for example, let's say they already mastered Order of Operations in Algebra), instead of removing that content from their view or progress calculations, they just saw this:
Identifying the Most Impactful Starting Project
I worked heavily with the Chief Product Officer, Education Lead, an Engineer, and the Customer Success to find the appropriate scoping and sequencing for this project. I found that this project was like a game of Jenga, poking at different blocks to see what would come out the most easily, without harming the structural integrity of the roadmap.
Option 1
Release a feature that allows material to be removed by our partner teachers first without tackling root course building inefficiencies.
Option 2
Extend release timeline, but give partner teachers the ability to remove, combine, remix, rename, edit any element of a course.
Option 3
Start by building an internal portal to speed up and democratizing course building. Build in state-level controls for compliance.
Option 3: Internal to External Sequencing
Internal Courses Portal
Deep collaboration with Curriculum Developers and Engineers. I believe building internal tools with thoughtful UX is paramount. I provided mocks for guidance, and while we didn't get to pixel perfection, we got state-access controls and in-app course writing & previewing. The Curriculum Development team has released over 50 courses in 4 months with this new model.
Partner-Facing Course Customization
Goal 1
Optimize for most common actions. Our teachers and administrators are not always tech-savy.
Goal 2
Give teachers the right amount of information to make a decision, not more and not less.
Goal 3
Make roles and permission access simple to set, view, and update.
User-Research: Figma Make Prototypes to Test Building Experience
Since our teachers are not always the most tech-savy, I wanted to really test the building experience. It needed to be transparent, and I specifically wanted to test the amount of information provided on the page, how we show removed items, and how intuitive bulk editing was. I used Figma Make to create three prototypes.
'Lego Blocks' Style
Tactile, very different from the competition. Use progressive disclosure on deeper information. Use color and icons to indicate lesson types.
Minimalist
No icons, show only the lesson titles and reveal everything else through progressive disclosure.
High Information Density
Bring in checkboxes that are familar from competitors, show all possibly relevant information to see what sticks.
Takeaways
Standards are Key
These are concepts and skills that schools are required to teach. They're essential to display for compliance.
Bulk Options Streamline Work
Giant checkboxes were too much, but being able to work in bulk is an expectation.
Estimated Time To Complete is a Huge Value Add
Courses generally must provide 55-60 hours of work per-semester. Teachers need to know how their edits affect that.
Final Feature Delivery, Iterations Ongoing
Final design uses a more muted checkbox for bulk actions, standards will be incorporated as engineering has capacity, even deeper progressive disclosure.
Outcomes
Our partner base is LOUD. However, I heard little to no complaints upon release. Teachers were creating and enrolling their students in 10s of custom courses and making progress within days of feature release, without an influx of tickets.
What's Next? Ability to add and remix content between courses, as dictated by partner demand.