ClassFindr
Ed Tech Software for College Credit Transfers
Overview
ClassFindr is an early-stage edtech startup working to define and validate its product direction. The initial idea needed refinement, so the focus shifted to identifying the target audience, clarifying the problem space, and translating insights into product requirements.
The outcome was a high-fidelity prototype that streamlined the college credit transfer process, providing a clear product vision and a concrete artifact to support investor pitches.
Role
Founding UX and Product Designer
UI Designer
UX Research
High Level Goals
The goal was to research, design, and validate a mobile-first solution that simplifies the college credit transfer process for students. This project focused on defining a market-ready MVP for an early-stage edtech startup by identifying core features that align user needs with business objectives. Market and user research informed each stage of the design to ensure the product addressed real problems while supporting stakeholder goals.
Process at a Glance
Discovery
Stakeholder Discovery Session
Understanding the Problem
Secondary Research
Desk Research
Landscape Analysis
Stakeholder Interview Materials
Stakeholder Conversation Guide
Stakeholder Interviews and Synthesis
Remote Interview Sessions
Interview Synthesis
Interviews Insights
User Research Planning and Materials
Research Plan
User Interview Guide
Note Taking Space
User Interview Sessions and Synthesis
User Interviews
Holistic Synthesis as MVP Discovery
Product Ideation
Early User Flows
Early Sketches
Low Fidelity Wireframes ​
Branding and UI Design
Brand Ideation and Design Library
Design
First Round MVP Mockups
Usability Testing
Identifying Tasks and Test Planning
Remote Usability Sessions
Usability Test Findings and Report
Contiuned and Final Product
Prototype V2
Final Prototype
Wrap Up
Lessons Learned
Impact ​​
Discovery
Stakeholder Discovery Session
To kick things off, I met with the ClassFindr team to get a shared understanding of their vision for the product and the problem they wanted to solve. We talked through goals, priorities, and any open questions, using a loose discussion guide to keep the conversation focused but flexible.
These early conversations helped us align on expectations for the discovery, research, and design work ahead and set the tone for a collaborative process.
Discovery
Understanding the Problem
After aligning with stakeholders, I focused on clearly framing the core problem ClassFindr set out to solve: improving and streamlining the college credit transfer process. To explore the problem space, I used How Might We statements to translate broad goals into actionable design opportunities.
One guiding question was: How might we design a product that makes transferring college credits as simple and transparent as possible?
This framing directly informed key design decisions, helping prioritize clarity, reduce complexity, and focus the MVP on features that removed friction from the transfer experience.
Snapshot of How Might We Brainstorm
Secondary Research
Desk Research
Designing a user-focused product in a largely untapped market required thorough research and a clear strategy. My desk research uncovered key user pain points, industry trends, and gaps in the credit transfer process, which directly informed design decisions and shaped the features of the MVP.
This groundwork ensured that ClassFindr would address real user needs while remaining viable for the business.
Secondary Research
Landscape Analysis
The first step in the research phase was understanding the market, so I conducted a UI landscape analysis. By reviewing existing credit transfer solutions, I identified common patterns, gaps, and usability challenges.
Most products were narrowly focused on homeschool students and lacked a universal, dashboard-style experience. This revealed a clear opportunity for ClassFindr to create a centralized, intuitive platform that could simplify the process for a broader audience, directly shaping the design direction for the MVP.
Findings from Part of the Landscape Analysis
Stakeholder Interview Materials
Stakeholder Conversation Guide
Conducting internal interviews with ClassFindr stakeholders was a key first step in understanding the problem the product aimed to solve. I prefer to run multiple rounds of interviews when possible, which helps uncover not just pain points, but also stakeholder expectations for the design and guidance on defining the most viable product.
These conversations provided firsthand insight into priorities, constraints, and opportunities, shaping the direction of the MVP.
Stakeholder Interview and Synthesis
Remote Interview Sessions
After finalizing the discussion guide, I met individually with all five ClassFindr stakeholders. Combining insights from these discovery conversations with secondary research, I developed a clearer picture of what an ideal MVP for ClassFindr could be. Speaking directly with higher-education subject matter experts on the team helped deepen my understanding of the credit transfer landscape and informed early product decisions.
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Conducted remotely, each interview was facilitated to align on ClassFindr’s long-term vision while collaboratively exploring and refining potential product features.
Snapshot of the Stakeholder Interview Note Taking Space
Stakeholder Interview and Synthesis
Interview Synthesis
After completing the stakeholder interviews, I synthesized the key insights from the founding team to identify shared priorities, assumptions, and constraints.
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Some impactful insights that came to light during synthesis were:
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Stakeholder interviews revealed a strong assumption within the ClassFindr team that college students are the sole target users. However, this perspective overlooks the diversity of user types that exist within the broader “student” category, each with distinct needs, behaviors, and motivations.
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Stakeholder interviews highlighted a strong belief in a significant market opportunity for this type of tool, informed by the team’s diverse professional backgrounds and firsthand experience with existing gaps in the space. With limited comparable solutions currently available, the ClassFindr team sees a clear opportunity to establish a first-mover advantage.
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This synthesis directly influenced product decisions by clarifying the problem space and aligning the team on goals, while also shaping a more focused and effective user interview strategy.
User Research Planning and Materials
Research Plan
With stakeholder insights in hand, I transitioned into planning user research for ClassFindr with a strategic focus on discovery. Rather than validating preconceived ideas, the research plan was intentionally designed to surface unmet user needs and challenge assumptions, ensuring that subsequent product decisions would be grounded in real user behavior and priorities.
Snapshot of the Research Plan for Customer Interviews
User Research Planning and Materials
User Interview Guide
With the research plan finalized, I led the development of a comprehensive interview guide to support the next phase of user discovery. As the founding product designer, I owned the end-to-end research strategy—translating early hypotheses into structured interviews designed to surface core user needs, behaviors, and unmet pain points.
These insights directly informed the definition and scope of the ClassFindr MVP, ensuring product decisions were grounded in real user discovery rather than assumptions.
Snapshot of the User Interview Guide
User Research Planning and Materials
Remote Note Taking Space
Because the interviews were conducted remotely and I owned the research end to end, I approached note-taking as a system rather than a one-off activity.
I recorded each session and relied on transcripts post-interview to ensure accuracy and reduce in-the-moment bias during facilitation. I then designed a structured FigJam note-taking environment aligned to the interview guide, creating a repeatable workflow that connected live conversations, recordings, and synthesized insights.
This systematized approach ensured consistency across sessions, reduced cognitive overhead during interviews, and created a durable foundation for synthesis, making patterns, themes, and opportunity areas easier to identify at scale.
User Interview Note Taking Template
User Interview Sessions and Synthesis
User Interviews
I led and executed 10 remote user interviews, owning the research process from facilitation through synthesis. I interviewed current students, recent graduates, and students in the process of reenrolling or applying. Each session was recorded and guided by a structured interview framework to ensure consistency and depth across participants.
Afterward, I systematically reviewed recordings and captured insights using a standardized note-taking system I designed.
This enabled me to surface clear, cross-interview patterns and make informed product decisions, directly influencing MVP feature prioritization and guiding early design iterations of the ClassFindr experience.
Snapshot of User Interview Session Notes
User Interview Sessions and Synthesis
Holistic Synthesis as MVP Discovery
With all interviews complete, I led a holistic synthesis to transform user and stakeholder insights into a focused product strategy for the ClassFindr MVP.
Using a streamlined synthesis framework, I cut through qualitative noise to identify high-impact patterns, align insights to business goals, and prioritize product-facing opportunities that directly shaped the MVP scope and direction.
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Some emerging themes that started to shape the MVP were:
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The college credit transfer process is not well known to students
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Understanding an overview of requirements and credits could a more positive experience for students
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ClassFindr should be available in both a desktop and mobile application
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Class searching would be an improvement for more proactive students
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Real time communication with an advisor is preferred
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Lower level courses are often more difficult when securing seats to meet requirements
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Students have difficulty getting the correct classes at the correct times, and it can effect graduation timelines
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Snapshot of In Progress Synthesis Board
Product Ideation
Early User Flows
After synthesis, I translated validated user and stakeholder insights into a tightly scoped MVP feature set designed to reduce risk and accelerate learning. This feature list established clear priorities for the first release of ClassFindr and ensured design efforts were focused on the highest-impact problems.
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User research consistently surfaced transfer credit uncertainty as a major pain point, making the ability to search for classes and submit transfer credit requests a critical MVP capability.
I centered the user flow around this core task, designing an end-to-end experience that enabled students to quickly find relevant courses and confidently submit requests, directly supporting the MVP’s primary success metric: successful transfer credit submissions.
Snapshot of a Simplified User Flow
Product Ideation
Early Sketches
With the core user flows established, I moved directly into rapid, low-fidelity exploration. I began with paper sketches to maximize speed and flexibility, allowing ideas to be tested and iterated on quickly before committing design resources.
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Given the MVP scope and the need for continued validation, I intentionally avoided mid-fidelity designs at this stage. Keeping the work analog reduced upfront cost and design debt while allowing me to focus on validating flow logic and interaction patterns, de-risking future design and development decisions in the first phase of the product.
Snapshot of Sketches
Product Ideation
Lowest Fidelity Wireframes
I translated my sketches into low-fidelity wireframes to keep the focus on product structure and core functionality, intentionally deferring visual design. Using annotated grayscale wireframes, I walked ClassFindr stakeholders through key flows and decision points, creating a shared understanding without the overhead of a high-fidelity prototype.
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These wireframes served as both a design blueprint and a strategic alignment tool, bridging user research insights with ClassFindr’s business goals and enabling focused, iterative feedback that shaped the MVP direction with clarity and speed.
Lowest Fidelity Wireframes
Branding and UI Design
Brand Ideation
As the founding UX designer at ClassFindr, I owned not only the user experience but also the product’s visual and UI direction. One of my early challenges was establishing a lightweight brand system that would allow us to move quickly into usability testing with a semi-polished prototype.
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To align the team, I facilitated a short, unstructured workshop with key stakeholders. The outcome was a simple but cohesive brand guide that defined our visual foundation and enabled faster design decisions as we progressed into testing.
Brand Assetts and Design Libarary
Design
First Round MVP Mockups
With the component library and style guide finalized, I created high-fidelity mockups that translated the brand into functional product experiences. I made intentional decisions about which screens to design for the MVP, prioritizing critical user flows and high-risk assumptions to maximize learning in early usability testing.
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The screens below showcase ClassFindr’s first MVP and were used in the initial round of usability testing.
Snapshot of First Round of MVP Mockups
Usability Testing
Identifying Tasks and Test Planning
Before conducting usability testing, I first defined the testing scenarios and learning objectives to ensure each session generated actionable insights.
The tests were designed to evaluate whether users could successfully create an account, understand and use the core class search functionality, and navigate the MVP as intended to support the college credit transfer process.
Testing Sceanrios Brainstorming Space
Usability Testing
Remote Usability Sessions
I conducted 12 remote, moderated usability testing sessions to evaluate the ClassFindr MVP. I developed a structured testing guide based on the highest-priority questions identified during discovery, ensuring each session produced consistent and actionable insights.
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The testing focused on validating users’ ability to complete critical end-to-end tasks, including creating an account, logging in with existing credentials, setting up a ClassFindr profile, searching for classes, and comparing courses using the comparison tool.
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Insights from these sessions directly informed the final round of design iteration for the student-facing experience.
Snapshot of Usability Testing Board
Usability Testing
Usability Test Findings and Report
After completing testing synthesis, I consolidated key insights into a comprehensive usability report and shared it with ClassFindr stakeholders. While testing surfaced several actionable improvements, it also revealed a larger issue: the product was not yet robust enough for users to fully understand the breadth of tools and features available to them.
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Rather than iterating on isolated usability findings, I made a strategic decision to design and build out the ClassFindr MVP end-to-end. This approach allowed me to establish a clearer product vision, ensure feature coherence, and create a more holistic experience that better supported user understanding and long-term scalability.
Usability Test Findings Report
Contiuned Design and Final Prototype
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Prototype V2
Following usability testing analysis, I transitioned into the next phase of the ClassFindr MVP with a focus on strategic expansion. Rather than refining individual flows like class search or login, I used research insights to identify what was already working and intentionally scaled those successful patterns.
This approach allowed me to strengthen the core value proposition, establish a more cohesive system, and advance the product toward a more complete and future-ready V2 experience.
Features that were added in this phase of design included a student pathway creation feature, which allowed students to design a graduation pathway themselves and a communication feature, which allowed students to select classes and be able to send messages to their advisors about swapping classes and credit transfers. ​
ClassFindr 'Build Your Pathway' Feature
ClassFindr 'Advisor Communiations' Feature
Contiuned Design and Final Prototype
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Prototype V2
After two focused design sprints, the final ClassFindr student prototype was ready for stakeholder review and development handoff. This MVP moved beyond foundational functionality to showcase a fully realized suite of tools that define ClassFindr as a comprehensive higher-education platform.
Designed specifically for college and university students, the final prototype demonstrates how ClassFindr supports real academic workflows at scale. Every design decision in the finished MVP was grounded in user interview insights and validated through usability testing, ensuring the product not only met user needs, but did so with clarity, cohesion, and purpose.
ClassFindr Student Demo
Wrap Up
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Lessons Learned
ClassFindr was a masterclass in designing across the full product lifecycle through a UX lens. While the final outcome was a strong and scalable tool, the process surfaced several critical lessons common in early-stage and startup environments.
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First, lead with discovery. Assumptions—especially those held by stakeholders—can limit clarity around the true problem space. Continuous research is essential to align teams around real user needs. Second, rely on users as active partners in shaping features and flows; their input consistently led to more intuitive and meaningful solutions. Finally, trust the design process. Even when the path felt nonlinear, following a structured, research-driven approach ultimately resulted in stronger decisions and a more cohesive product.
Wrap Up
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Impact
ClassFindr was enabled by the design and product leadership I initiated and sustained throughout the project. I defined the user-centered vision, established research and design practices, and aligned cross-functional stakeholders around shared goals, creating the conditions for the product to move from concept to execution.
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As a result, ClassFindr now addresses one of higher education’s most complex challenges: credit transfer. The platform helps students and staff navigate institutional requirements, reduce administrative friction, and minimize delays to graduation. By translating user insights into scalable product decisions, the work drove meaningful progress toward a more transparent and efficient academic transfer experience.