Project Name

Community Moderator

My Role

Product Designer

Project Type

Web

Project Year

2022

CONTEXT

Communal Learning

At Thinkific, we envision that the quality of the learning experience will be a key factor in determining why customers choose, remain, and expand their engagement. Our focus has been on empowering creators to monetize their communities by providing them with the tools to price, package, and sell their offerings, or use them to promote other products.

PROBLEM

Community
Moderation

The most significant hindrance to widespread community adoption and utilization was the absence of a moderator role. Previously, only administrators had the authority to moderate communities, and many plans imposed strict limitations on the number of administrative positions available. This left customers with the challenging decision of granting access and passwords to their team members for moderation purposes, leading to communities that lacked proper moderation and, as a result, were less captivating for learners.

COLLABORATION

The Design Sprint

To address the customer's challenge and ensure the involvement of engineers in the early stages of the design process, I addopted a design sprint approach - a streamlined five-day methodology that leverages design, prototyping, and customer testing to resolve vital business inquiries. In this case, I adapted the design sprint process to align with the timeline and prioritize asynchronous activities.

CONCEPTS

Ideas into reality

After my Product Manager and I had identified the pivotal concepts aligned with the business opportunity and customer needs through the design sprint, I began creating initial draft wireframes for discussion with internal stakeholders to uncover potential dependencies and risks. Additionally, I conducted concept testing with customers to enhance our assurance in the solution prior to its official release to the customer base.

REFINE

Feasible viable
and usable

Following stakeholder feedback, I performed concept testing, presenting a product prototype to five customers and a subject matter expert, to determine the feasibility and value of certain ideas in future design iterations. The testing of the prototype provided a clear understanding of the essential features that needed to be incorporated into the project. Please find below several of the designs that I created as a result:

SLICES

Story Map

Once we had established the required features, I initiated discussions with the Product Manager to divide the feature into manageable components. Rather than relying on cumbersome requirements documents, we utilized a story map to visually depict the tasks, steps, and nuances of the user journey. This story map was also instrumental in determining and communicating with engineers and stakeholders the contents of each component and the timeline for achieving a market-ready feature.

SLICE 1

SLICE 2

SLICE 3

MARKETING RELEASE

MAP

System & interactions

During the design sprint, I created a visual representation of some of the key discussions to promote clarity and understanding for all parties involved in the project. I created a map of the Thinkific community system, including users and their interactions. This visual representation provided a comprehensive understanding of the project landscape, enabling the identification of initial and future dependencies and the need for documentation, ultimately leading to greater impact and success.

THE IMPACT

Positive results and much more to do

The early beta users were highly enthusiastic about the releases related to the moderator project, which established Thinkific as a dynamic and forward-thinking company in the community. This resulted in a noticeable increase in the number of users adopting communities. Although the feature has yet to be fully launched and certain components are still in development, we have already received overwhelmingly positive feedback and promising indicators.

4.6%

Increase of new creator adopting Communities as a learning product

89%

Increase in community engagement compared to 2021

73%

Of customers who adopted communities rank the moderator role as a high need.

Ray Santos

For any further info or if you would just like to
reach out to me and say hi.

Vancouver, BC - Canada
Contact: renanfscanada@gmail.com
Instagram: @renanfsdesign
Linkedin: @renanfsdesign

Design and content  ©Ray Santos 2023