Prodigy Tutoring

My Role: Product Design Lead

Prodigy is a math game for students in grades 1-8. The company decided to test out an online tutoring service based on the game. The audience was interested, but what would differentiate Prodigy in the tutoring market?

How Prodigy works

Prodigy mantains a database of lessons and curriculums that are matched with each child based on age, aptitude and location.

In the Prodigy game, children compete in Pokemon style battles by answering math questions from the database.

Competitive Analysis

We studied the market (and signed some of our kids up for tutoring) to understand the typical onboarding process for tutoring companies.

Identifying pain points

The centerpiece our competitors was a personalized learning plan for each child, but to generate the plan, parents had to pay for their child to take a lengthy, stressful, in-person test. This was a pain point we felt we could capitalize on.

The Prodigy Difference

Since the game recorded the child's progress relative to their curriculum, it could potentially be used as free, online, and enjoyable assessment. Parents were intrigued!

Leveraging the tutors

Automated learning plans seemed to good to be true and we had doubts that the Prodigy game data could be immediately translated into actionable lessons.

I created a feedback loop using our tutors. The game would generate a learning plan for each child and present it to the tutor, who would then assess and modify the plan. Our success metric was the percentage of tutors who felt comfortable sharing the plan with minimal modifications.

Diverging on UX

I gathered a working group of execs, product folks, engineers, and tutors to ideate what the learning plan UX might look like. As a team we wanted something that would strike a balance between the playfulness of the Prodigy brand but still be scholastic and informative.

Converging on an MVP

We continued to build confidence in a solution that the tutors could share with parents. While parents appreciated the visibility of the plan, they were more invested in the flexibility of our tutors, so that flexibility became part of the design, with the tutor and parent able to switch topics and leave each other notes.

Interactive Whiteboard

While part of our team focused on the parent experience, other members focused on the lesson experience.

Tutors relied heavily on Zoom whiteboards to demonstrate math concepts. This solution took things a step further by integrating exercises from the learning plans and the fantasy aesthetic from the game.

Experimenting with gameplay

Our most popular and creative tutors would reward their students by drawing, playing games or bringing in elements from the game. We began expanding on this practice by designing mini-games that the tutors could play with their students.

Results

Though we steadily increased conversion to paid accounts, exhaustion with online school took a toll on our business. The tutoring project was eventually abandoned, but it remains for me a great example of teamwork and innovation.