Frenalytics is a healthcare technology startup that aims to provide personalized learning software for patients and students. My project was within FrenalyticsEDU which is a digital learning software that personalizes the learning process to help cognitively impaired students with special needs live more independent lives.
In August 2022, Frenalytics launched FrenalyticsEDU Freemium, an easier way for teachers and schools to implement the platform without any upfront costs. This case study describes the research plan I executed to integrate payment services and account registration into the platform.
Guiding questions for this research helped us to inform what our overall objectives were, and understand which research methods were necessary to include.
As the sole product design intern, I worked with my design manager to create a research plan that focused on approach and scope. With a limited time-span (Freemium launch was given a deadline of August to compete with school reopening) it was imperitive to avoid scope-creep and provide value at each step.
Findings from interviews and other sources provided insightful feedback about how teachers and schools expect registration and onboarding to be presented. In addition, we were able to create a pricing strategy that reflected the needs of smaller classrooms as well as larger school districts.
Findings from interviews and other sources provided insightful feedback about how teachers and schools expect registration and onboarding to be presented. In addition, we were able to create a pricing strategy that reflected the needs of smaller classrooms as well as larger school districts.
The biggest takeaway from this project is that design and development is not linear. There is a great deal of uncertainty that comes with each new project, and having to iterate and pivot is a good thing rather than a burden. External factors such as time and cost have a huge bearing over the viability of a solution and the balance between these is why product design is so important.
In-line with trying to make the account registration and payment services as efficient as possible, I also explored the use of growth loops as a part of our product strategy. In the previous platform, user growth was locked to a linear progression with lots of manual intervention. The new freemium release focuses on product-led growth which is self-reinforcing and has the potential of becoming exponential.
A large part of this project focused on dealing with uncertainity and being upfront about the information collected and how it could be used. During the summer, we have limited access to a classroom setting to test assumptions with, and thus required us to think creatively about solutions to our problems.
Overall, this uncertainity allowed me to recognize when/why it was necessary to pivot. When originally working on integrating payment services, it was our goal to have users change their Stripe subscription plan directly within the Frenalytics web application. However, through an unforseen product gap in Stripe’s architecture, this wasn’t possible without a custom solution that would have pushed the deadline much further. Instead, we engaged in multiple brainstorming sessions to architect a new solution that placed the pricing table directly in the registration while users signed up.
Overall, this uncertainity allowed me to recognize when/why it was necessary to pivot. When originally working on integrating payment services, it was our goal to have users change their Stripe subscription plan directly within the Frenalytics web application. However, through an unforseen product gap in Stripe’s architecture, this wasn’t possible without a custom solution that would have pushed the deadline much further. Instead, we engaged in multiple brainstorming sessions to architect a new solution that placed the pricing table directly in the registration while users signed up.
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