Learning Progress Tracking System at A Language Learning Company From Problem Definition to Delivery

The Client: A Leading Language Learning Company

The client is one of the world's leading EdTech companies and among the largest language learning apps globally, serving millions of learners across Europe and the United States. The product helps users build real-world language skills through structured courses aligned with recognized proficiency levels.

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The Mission: Interim PM for Progress & Continuous Assessment

We unlocked momentum for a strategically important Progress & Continuous Assessment initiative by bringing discovery, alignment, and delivery threads together across multiple teams.

How we delivered:

• Improved learner engagement strategy by validating the problem space and shaping a progress system concept that made learner effort visible from day one
• Reduced execution risk by aligning contributing product teams around a shared progress vision and a clear path to delivery

🎯 The core opportunity: increase learner motivation by making progress feel more visible and credible. Internal research confirmed "not making enough progress" as one of the top reasons users left. The app measured content completion, while learners defined progress as skill improvement and real-life language ability. Bridging that gap became the heart of the mission.

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Our Main Quest: Making Learner Progress Visible

Getting Oriented: Fast Onboarding, Rapid Impact

We created immediate clarity across teams by mapping the problem space, identifying the key initiative areas, and presenting a structured discovery plan to leadership within the first two weeks.

1. Competitive Analysis

Our first major deliverable was a competitive analysis benchmarking 13 platforms, ensuring that whatever we built would be differentiated and credible in the market.

Three patterns stood out across competitors:

• Most measure completion, not competence
• Gamification often masks whether skill is actually improving
• Feedback rarely explains why mistakes happen or what to do next

This shaped the positioning: the client could differentiate by making progress measured, visible, and credible — not just trackable.

2. Problem Space Definition

We reduced solution risk by grounding the initiative in existing user research, additional user interviews, and a deep dive into product data before defining any solution.

💡 The core insight: The product experience defined progress by content completion, while learners defined progress as skill improvement. Bridging that gap required a system that tracks both effort and ability growth, then surfaces it in a way that feels motivating and personally relevant.

This became the strategic backbone for all subsequent discovery and delivery work.

3. Aligning on Goals

We improved decision quality by building KPI driver trees that connected feature decisions to measurable business outcomes. We grounded targets in industry benchmarks and validated them against internal product data, giving teams a shared definition of success before any build began.

4. Pitching the Vision to Leadership

We secured senior leadership buy-in by creating and presenting an 18-month strategic vision for Progress & Continuous Assessment. This aligned contributing teams around a shared long-term roadmap — not just their individual workstreams.

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From Discovery to Delivery: Our Initiatives

Initiative 1 – Progress Points: Rewarding Effort from Day One

Problem:

The team needed to improve early subscription engagement because many learners became inactive within the first week. Internal research showed that learners were not leaving because they lacked motivation to learn — they left because they could not see that they were learning. The app primarily measured lesson completion, creating an opportunity to better reward effort and visualize progress.

What We Delivered:

We turned Progress Points into a delivery-ready initiative through a multi-month effort spanning discovery, concept design, validation, and delivery setup.

• Aligned the team on solution direction by running cross-functional workshops and landing four core design principles: make insights clear, be explainable, connect insight to action, and show progress over time
• Reduced build risk by validating the concept with users through unmoderated testing, confirming the feature was intuitive and motivating before moving into delivery
• Created a scalable measurement foundation by defining the scoring logic with the Data Science team, establishing how points accumulate based on learner activity and accuracy
• Moved the concept from idea to delivery-ready solution by driving the design process end-to-end with designers‍
• Maintained delivery momentum by establishing ways of working with the development team and coordinating backend scoring logic and frontend delivery in parallel

The Outcome:

By the end of the mission, Progress Points was fully scoped, validated, and in active delivery — with a comprehensive handover prepared so the incoming PM could continue without losing momentum.

Initiative 2 – Strengths & Weaknesses: From Data to Insight

The Problem

The client collected meaningful performance signals, including error rates and activity patterns, and needed to surface them to learners in more understandable and actionable ways. Learners needed clearer answers to three fundamental questions:

1. What am I actually good at?
2. Where do I consistently struggle?
3. Am I actually getting better, or just doing more exercises?

Research prioritized this opportunity by showing that both active and dormant learners had a strong unmet need to understand progress across specific skills, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

What We Delivered

We accelerated the next product opportunity by running a focused four-week discovery for Strengths & Weaknesses after Progress Points entered delivery.

• Created a shared foundation for decision-making by defining the problem space and clarifying that learners needed meaningful insight into where they stood and how to improve, not just data about their performance
• Identified a differentiation opportunity by conducting competitor research focused on skill visibility and personalized feedback, finding that no major competitor had successfully closed the insight-to-action loop
• Aligned product, design, and learning content experts by facilitating a cross-functional ideation workshop to shape a solution direction that was technically sound, didactically credible, and worth validating
• Reduced concept risk by validating the direction with users through semi-moderated interviews
• Turned the concept into a holistic product system by refining the solution with learning content specialists and designers, surfacing skill insights across multiple product touchpoints
• Protected delivery continuity by preparing a structured handover for the incoming PM, including problem space documentation, solution direction, stakeholder map, and clear next steps

The Outcome

In four weeks, we turned an undefined opportunity into a validated Strengths & Weaknesses concept with clear, delivery-ready next steps for the next PM.

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Mission Achievements: Delivered Outcomes

💡 Moved Progress Points from identified problem to active delivery by running workshops, defining scoring logic, validating with users, and driving design end-to-end. The initiative was fully scoped and in active development by mission end.

💡 Created a ready-to-execute Strengths & Weaknesses opportunity in four weeks by benchmarking competitors, running a cross-functional ideation workshop, validating with users, and coordinating on design direction.

💡 Gave a multi-team initiative the structure and momentum to move forward with confidence by mapping the problem space, establishing ways of working, and aligning teams around a shared direction within the first few weeks.

💡 Secured senior leadership buy-in on an 18-month strategic roadmap by aligning contributing teams around a shared direction, not just their individual workstreams.