Aug ‘24 - Oct ‘24
Product Innovation for Educators in India’s Public Education Systems
User research
Product Innovation
MVP Strategy
For :
My role :
UX research, Client coordination, Solutioning workshop design and co-facilitation
Industry :
Non-profit, Education
Team :
Project with Network of Creative Thinkers
Anisha Bijur (Lead)
Tanvi Maisheri
Rishiraj Charan
Rudransh Mathur (Director)
Empowering educators with sustainable self-learning practices to create better learning spaces.
Quest Alliance is a non-profit that partners with 3,350+ institutions to equip youth with 21st-century skills, reaching 1.9 million learners and 27,500 educators through education technology and capacity building.
The aim was to design a scalable, self-sustaining tool for educator’s self-learning.
Through qualitative research across six states in India, we explored the public education ecosystem. The insights informed a co-creation workshop with Quest Alliance’s leadership to develop a focused product strategy and an MVP plan followed by design in Phase 2.
TL:DR
We designed a scalable tool to support educator self-learning in India’s public education system.
Primary research across six states uncovered key motivations, tech gaps, and regional differences.
We co-created and refined ideas with Quest Alliance through design workshops and regular touch points.
I helped shape the research and synthesis, and co-facilitated the workshop along with organization of artifacts throughout the project.
The final solution rethinks the learning experience of the current Quest App. It builds a sustainable cycle of self-reflection and goal-setting.
We wrapped up with a solid MVP and product plan, ready for the design phase (which I continued on for as the lead).
PART 1
Understanding the Ecosystem
Knowledge gathering and on-field research
To deeply understand educators’ mindsets, needs, and challenges, we:
- Deep-dived into Quest Alliance’s past research, current programs, and their understanding of the educational ecosystems.
- Conducted 35 online and in-person interviews across six states with teachers and Quest stakeholders. Along with a team member, I went to Haryana and Karnataka while the other team went to Gujarat. We all conducted different virtual interviews.
35+ Interviews Conducted across states
Research docs
Mapping behaviour patterns to define need-based user segments
To account for diverse languages, socio-economic backgrounds, behaviors, tech access, and learning openness across regions, we created broad user segments, balancing scale, impact, and implementation constraints.
User archetypes
Understanding mental models and behaviors through cross-platform competitive study
We analyzed 15+ direct and indirect competitors, along with cross-category apps, to uncover usage patterns and mental models. Our focus was on habit-forming features, nudges, choice architecture, and community engagement, assessing user responses to different design approaches.
Slides from the benchmarking deck
PART 2
Turning Information into Insights
Synthesizing existing data and past research to uncover actionable insights
We synthesized raw attitudinal and behavioral data through collaborative affinity mapping, grouping field notes and quotes. Combined with past research, these insights helped uncover the 'why' behind behaviors and informed the solutioning process.
Mapping exercises
Key Findings (relevant to this project)
Educators are most motivated when their efforts are viewed as direct contributors to student success, finding both personal and professional fulfillment in visible impact.
Educators’ identity is deeply tied to being knowledgeable mentors, shaping their motivation through both internal drive and external expectations.
Educators already engage in self-learning practices based on interests, student needs, or curriculum gaps but don’t relate it to Quest’s concept of ‘self-learning.’
With a lack of agency and little recognition for their expertise, educators feel obligated rather than engaged, making them resistant to external training efforts.
Educators’ effort levels are shaped by peer expectations and competition, with most institutes following a clear and accepted hierarchy.
In addition, we also explored factors affecting adoption and engagement, including tech access and comfort, state-wise differences in expectations and behavior, and varying preferences for recognition and rewards.
Identifying opportunity areas
We identified key opportunities by clustering insights into themes, validating them with Quest Alliance stakeholders, and mapping them to educator needs. Prioritization was based on scalability, feasibility, and potential impact on engagement and learning outcomes.
PART 3
Co-defining solutions
Workshopping solutions with the Quest Alliance team
During a day-long session with Quest Alliance’s leadership and product teams, we presented our findings and used their insights to creatively workshop concepts targeting the key opportunity areas. The workshop included multiple rounds of ideation in cross-vertical teams, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives.
The takeaway from this session was a set of research-backed concepts, refined with Quest Alliance’s expertise, to be developed into the final solution.
Solution refining, prioritization, and end-user validation
Putting together the concepts
For all 4 concepts, we outlined the key features, impact, assumptions, and any unresolved questions. We created the key flows required and conceptual mocks.
Internal validation with the clients
The concepts were then prioritized with the Quest team based on impact, confidence, and feasibility. This process also revealed gaps and potential blockers from an implementation perspective and aided with internal buy-in from all verticals.
End-user validation
On-field concept validation with 8 end-users helped identify which aspects resonated with them, potential blockers, and feature preferences among the final concepts. Key learnings included preferred methods for peer interaction, perceptions of self-evaluation and reflection, language limitations, and favoured recognition mechanisms.
PART 4
Final solution and MVP suggestion
A digital tool to enable and encourage reflection-based learning and implementation in educators
The final solution developed into a set of enhancements to Quest Alliance's existing application, designed to sustain a continuous cycle of learning and implementation for educators. Key features include goal-setting, progress tracking, and the development of personalised learning pathways to maintain educator agency and create accountability for ongoing engagement.
In the second phase of the project, this product evolved into a replacement to the existing Quest App and redefined the learning experience ground-up.
Key features
Goal-setting through self-evaluation
Through a baseline test, users identify their key strengths and improvement areas to define their learning goals and create their personalised learning pathways.
Personalised learning pathways
The app offers personalized, actionable recommendations based on teachers' tech access, infrastructure, and learning environment. Educators set goals—guided by evaluations or personal choice—each linked to a learning path. Progress is tracked through milestone-based badges and a progress tracker, fostering motivation and mastery over time.
Community of practice
This is a public and social space among peers, for teachers to share and document their individual efforts while working towards their selected Goal. The community of peers offers teachers accountability, support and peer-recognition.
Defining the requirements for the MVP to move into design
As the next step, we defined the MVP for the additions to the Quest app. This involved identifying key features and providing simplified versions where necessary for ease of implementation. We created an incremental plan to build towards the ideal product, allowing for user testing and feedback to be incorporated throughout the process.
Slides from the Product strategy doc
Reflection
Highlights :
The potential for real world impact at a large scale in a space that I deeply care about (creating efficient and impactful learning systems).
My favourite part of the process was designing and conducting the solutioning workshop- and making it fun!
Everyone involved was interested, excited, and open to creative solutions- making this one of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on.
Challenges :
Jumping into the deep end in a completely new industry, especially one that includes multiple layers of influence and bureaucracy had a steep understanding curve.
Interviewing in regional languages presented challenges.
The ambiguity of the problem statement required a lot of back-and-forth with all teams to come to a solution that catered to (most) expectations.
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