Spark.

Spark.

This project accomplished something that had never been done at Harvard Business Publishing. The team designed an offering and brought it to market in less than six months. Along the way, we forged many process improvements, and rallied the business to adopt a new mindset around product development.

My Role:
UX Lead + Product Owner

Responsibilities:
• Facilitated Design Sprints
• Led User Research
• Fostered Design Collaboration
• Ensured Participatory Design 

The chairman of our board had expressed to our executive team that we were in jeopardy of being disrupted by an industry trend called micro-learning. This urgency was conveyed to me, and I was given one week to propose a solution. I leveraged the Design Sprint methodology pioneered at Google Ventures, and, within a week, had an interactive prototype (try it here) that balanced our business goals with unmet user needs. 

We combed industry analysts reports, did competitive reviews, and engaged stakeholders across the business in divergent thinking. As development began, we partnered with Harvard Business Review (HBR) to conduct painted door tests on their website that helped us gauge interest in potential features. I also worked closely with HBR’s design lead to ensure their existing design language was reflected in this new offering. 

We recruited a cohort of Client Design Partners to help inform design decisions, and provided early access to their Learners. Through participatory design sessions we had real users in the room with us—sketching, pitching, and debating ideas along with the team. The result is that we built something that was immediately desirable and intuitive for our Learners. 

Built as a companion app to HMM, to date Spark has secured $16M in HMM renewals. The Lean UX process improvements I brought to bear have created a blueprint for how teams can work to quickly develop products that deliver value to both our clients and our Learners.