Defining the MVP for Outdo Education

A foundational research project to understand student study habits and inform the product roadmap for a new EdTech tool.

Project

Foundational Research for an educational technology startup

My Role

Lead UX Researcher Recruitment, Moderation, Synthesis, Reporting

Challenge

Identify student pain points to define a valuable, user-centered MVP.

Impact

Research insights directly prioritized key features in the product backlog.

The Problem

Outdo Education, an early-stage startup, aimed to improve student learning with smarter study tools. However, without a deep understanding of existing student behaviors, they risked building a product that wouldn't fit into established workflows. The core challenge was to move beyond assumptions and answer the critical question: What are the most significant, unaddressed pain points students face when preparing to study? Answering this would be the key to defining a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with a strong product-market fit.

My Research Process

As the sole researcher, I owned the entire end-to-end process. I designed a multi-phase research plan to first validate my core assumptions and then dive deep into the qualitative "why" behind student behaviors.

Step 1: De-Risking the Research with a Lean Survey

Before conducting time-intensive interviews, I created a screener survey. This had two goals: 1) Recruit qualified participants, and 2) Validate my interview questions to ensure they targeted the most critical areas for the business. This lean approach ensured our subsequent interviews would be focused and high-impact.

Step 2: Uncovering the "Why" with In-Depth Interviews

I conducted 11 remote, moderated interviews with current and recent students. The goal was to uncover the nuances of their study habits, focusing on how they managed materials across different platforms. Participants, including current students and recent graduates, discuss their typical study routines, how they organize and manage their study materials across different formats (digital and physical), and the challenges they face in this process.


  • Participants consistently struggle with study materials being scattered across diverse online platforms and formats.

    "I have stuff in my Google Drive, on my desktop, in Canvas, in my downloads... I spend more time looking for things than actually studying them."

  • Managing digital clutter, especially an overwhelming number of browser tabs is a significant issue.

  • Many study activities, such as synthesizing notes, creating study guides, or manually organizing information, are described as time-consuming, painful, and tedious clerical work

    "Turning three lectures and a textbook chapter into one study guide is the worst part. It's just clerical work, and it takes hours before I can even start learning."

Step 3: Synthesis, Archetypes, and Journey Maps

After the interviews, I analyzed hours of transcripts using thematic analysis. This process revealed distinct patterns in student behavior, which I synthesized into three user archetypes. These archetypes were not just personas; they represented different *approaches* to studying. For each archetype, I created a journey map to visualize their process and pinpoint key moments of frustration and opportunity.

The Digital Navigator

Manages scattered resources across many platforms, using the browser as a central (and cluttered) workspace.

The Synthesizer

Manually consolidates information from many sources into a single, self-created study guide.

The Mastery Analyst

Learns by doing practice questions and meticulously analyzing their mistakes, often in complex spreadsheets.

Recommendations: A Phased MVP

My findings revealed that the most widespread challenges were material gathering and digital organization. Therefore, my primary recommendation was to build an MVP focused on solving these core problems first. I proposed a phased approach, starting with a tightly-scoped product that directly addressed the most critical user needs.

    • Materials are scattered across too many platforms.

    • Managing browser tabs and digital clutter is overwhelming.

    • Processing large volumes of complex information is difficult.

    • An accessible, centralized platform to easily save, link, and categorize digital study materials (PDFs, links, documents) by course/subject

      • Ability to be accessed through a shortcut or permanent, unobtrusive UI element.

      • Ability to easily save digital study materials (like PDFs, website links, cloud documents)

      • Ability to link digital study materials

      • Ability to categorize digital study materials by course or subject

      • Functionality for saving and organizing links associated with a course or topic

      • Functionality for organizing uploaded files associated with a course or topic

    • Basic Contextual AI Summarization/Simplification: An integrated feature to summarize, simplify, or rephrase highlighted content in digital materials

      • Ability for AI to be summoned through a shortcut or permanent, unobtrusive UI element.

      • Ability to summarize highlighted content from digital study materials (web pages, PDFs, etc.)

      • Ability to simplify highlighted content from digital study materials

      • Ability to rephrase highlighted content from digital study materials

      • Integrated feature available when selecting text