MVP OF A LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In compliance with NDAs, some confidential information has been generalized or omitted.
All info below is my own, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the company.

THE PROBLEM

There was no one (or consistent) software across the organization that could be used, monitored for compliance or be iterated on for improvements. All sections and departments were using different third-party softwares that were not always compliant, and sometimes shared logins were being used. Building our own software provided a more controlled environment, and would be scalable across BCM.

The team I was on was tasked with designing and developing a proprietary training platform to support trainers, trainees, and administrative staff. The product also needed to support sub-roles to accommodate for the organization’s vast reporting structure.

THE TEAM

Project Manager/Product Owner
User Experience/Visual Designer
Dev Team Lead
Front-End Developers (2)
Back-End Developers (2)

PROJECT SCOPE & CONSTRAINTS

The largest constraint was that we did not have access to the initial (C-Suite) stakeholder; we were only given their MVP requirements.

There was only one mid-level HR manager we were able to use both as a sounding board and as a tester.

While we were able to leverage real data for employees, departments, etc., we were given no actual content for any of the courses, aside from a list of initial course titles (that were being developed concurrently).

Luckily, the reqs and functionality given were straightforward enough to provide a robust MVP.

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MVP REQUIREMENTS

Individual user logins authenticated through the traditional BCM IT entry point (called Signature) with rights-managed user roles:

• Administrators auto-register employees in courses and determine if course was required or optional.
• Trainers also register employees, and control, upload and curate the course content, based on topic.
• Trainees can search all courses, take courses they are auto-registered for and self-enroll in courses they are cleared for, based on their role in the organization.

A comprehensive global platform search (with filtering) for employees, business groups, departments, job codes and courses.

The ability to upload many different types/formats of data and info: employee lists, course content (PPT, PDF, audio, video), etc.

The ability to receive notifications (e-mail and system) and automated reminders based on organizational unit, course materials and assessment status.

NOTE: The creation and delivery of notifications were handled by a different internal IT group.

Two different dashboards:

• Admin: view users and user groups, active and past courses, analytics/reporting, user management
• Trainee: current courses, past courses, completion certificates

Three different modules (see below for more details on each):

• User Management
• Course Creation and Delivery
• Assessment Creation and Delivery

Standard compliance content such as user agreements, user logging, completion certificates, etc.

NOTE: This was worked in tandem and systematically with the organization’s Compliance Team (through monthly check-ins).

The entire platform needed to be responsive and consider major breakpoints: desktop, tablet, mobile.

MODULE FUNCTIONALITY

USER MANAGEMENT CONSOLE:

• Group creation through integration of search, filters and/or spreadsheet uploads
• The ability to create, edit and manage user groups and courses

COURSE CREATION AND DELIVERY:

• Interactive, in-system content creation with flexibility to include images, tables, text, embedded hyperlinks, audio, video and document uploads
• Intermittent learning checks with additional detailed explanations provided based upon response trainee has provided

ASSESSMENT CREATION AND DELIVERY:

• Allow user to demonstrate course knowledge through individual questions and exams
• Confirmation of correct/incorrect answers and graded content
• Feedback provided upon correct/incorrect answers
• Flexibility to add links or reference points to materials
• The inability to continue if employee has not yet answered question
• Notifications if user attempts moving on to next question, or upon submission of exam if questions are still blank

RESEARCH AND DESIGN PROCESS

A deep dive into three separate competitive learning management systems was done, and a comparative document was created that outlined: things that worked, things that didn’t and specific considerations for our software.

A task analysis for each user type was created, and all individual critical paths were outlined for all above features in the MVP.

All user flows for each persona were whiteboarded by the team and mapped out during multiple interactive sessions.

LEARNINGS ALONG THE WAY

Wireframes were originally created in
Adobe Illustrator as rough “click-thrus.”
Unfortunately during testing, our HR
stakeholder had issues navigating them,
so we rebuild the prototypes in Axure,
which was more familiar to BCM employees.

Axure was used to create wireframes for testing. We did try and incorporate as many “pieces” from the Adobe Illustrator build as we could. We were also able to make iterative tweaks to the second round of Axure wireframes.

Click on a thumbnail to see full set of wireframes.

Two different high-fidelity designs were created and presented for predetermined “main screens” of the platform. In typical fashion, the final design incorporated pieces from both.

Lastly, all components were arranged by module and handed over to the engineering team during a set of presentation Q&A meetings, laid out according to the platform development roadmap.

LEARNINGS ALONG THE WAY

While the mobile breakpoint was an original requirement
for the MVP, we soon realized that a separate mobile experience
would be necessary. We pivoted to focus on the design and
development of desktop and tablet views, but did not get
to the reimagining of mobile before the end of the project.