Accelerating Zensai’s Course Player Redesign Delivery, Enabling Rapid Iteration and Outcome‑Driven Metrics

The Client: Zensai

Zensai is a Denmark-based HR-tech company offering an AI-powered “Human Success Platform” seamlessly embedded into Microsoft 365 and Teams. Founded in 2009, Zensai now serves millions of users across 60+ countries with a team of over 200 professionals. In April 2023, Zensai raised $20 million in Series A funding, led by Blue Cloud Ventures.

The Human Success Platform combines learning, engagement, and performance workflows into a unified, AI-driven suite, removing friction from the employee experience.

Product Suite:

• Learn365: A SCORM-compliant LMS for course creation, compliance training, skills-based learning, and reporting, fully integrated into Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
• Engage365: Tools for pulse surveys, check-ins, peer recognition, and engagement analytics.
• Perform365: Features for OKRs, 360° feedback, 1:1 meetings, talent mapping, and performance analytics.

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The Mission: Interim Product Manager

We were brought in as interim Product Managers to support Team TITANs during a critical delivery window, covering for the team’s permanent PM on maternity leave. The team was delivering a major redesign of the Learn365 Course Player—a central component of the broader Human Success Platform initiative.

Reporting to the VP of Product Management, we ensured strategic momentum and operational clarity were sustained throughout the delivery lifecycle. Our remit included unblocking decision-making, driving product definition, and orchestrating delivery in close collaboration with Engineering, Architecture, Design, and QA.

🎯 The objective of the Course Player redesign was to enhance the learning experience—making it more intuitive and engaging—in order to boost CSAT, improve course completion rates, reduce learner drop-off, and ultimately contribute to ARR growth and NRR uplift.

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Our Main Quest: Course Player Redesign

Our main goal was to facilitate the delivery of Course Player Redesign in the absence of the Product Manager, who was leading this initiative.

Getting Oriented: Fast Onboarding, Rapid Impact

Upon joining in mid-January, we immediately onboarded and assumed full ownership of the product backlog. Within days, we identified risks threatening the Q1 timeline and collaborated with leads across functions to regain clarity and control.

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🔢 Initiative 1 – Breaking Down the Initiative for Feasibility & Speed

Problem:

When we joined, concerns were raised about whether the ambitious Course Player redesign—one of the company’s flagship initiatives for 2025—could realistically be delivered within the existing timeframe and team capacity.

What has been done:

• Collaborated closely with product, engineering, and design stakeholders to reframe the initiative and improve the plan based on feasibility constraints.
• Broke the redesign into four clear incremental parts (V1–V4), balancing user value with delivery complexity.
• Led a t-shirt sizing session to guide scoping and sequencing decisions for the engineering team.

Outcome:

We arrived at a well-aligned, pragmatic approach that enabled faster time-to-market without compromising on long-term vision. All stakeholders positively received the incremental breakdown as a good trade-off between ambition and feasibility.

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🔂 Initiative 2: Launching the First Iteration of the Course Player in Q1 2025

Problem:

With the scope now defined, the challenge was executing and shipping the first version of the redesigned Course Player within Q1 2025 despite previous delivery delays.

What has been done:

• Refined user stories with clear acceptance criteria and estimation.
• Maintained delivery focus and cross-functional alignment throughout the sprint cycles.
• Proactively managed dependencies, blockers, and communication across functions.

Outcome:

By 31st March 2025, we delivered the full outer frame Table of Contents, Header, and Footer into production, capturing an early win that re-energized the team and built customer anticipation for the course player redesign.

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⏯️ Initiative 3 – Supporting the Delivery of the Second Iteration of Course Player

Problem:

Version 2 encompassed the majority of the Course Player redesign effort, including the most critical and complex content features such as learning modules, quizzes, documents, and other interactive components. This phase required strong cross-functional alignment and transparent communication around team capacity and development effort to ensure feasible planning.

What has been done:

• Worked closely with the design team to align on UX improvements, offer input, and ensure the feasibility of proposed changes.
• Continuously updated requirements and backlog items based on evolving design directions and stakeholder feedback.
• Facilitated ongoing coordination across functions to maintain alignment and momentum during implementation.

Outcome:

We played a key role in ensuring V2 progressed steadily toward delivery, with improved clarity around scope and implementation. Our efforts supported the team in making informed trade-offs while preserving the integrity of the redesigned user experience.

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📊 Initiative 4 – Proposing a Metrics Framework to Measure Success

Problem:

To evaluate the impact of the redesign and support data-informed decision making, a consistent framework was needed to track relevant product success metrics before and after each iteration.

What has been done:

• Proposed a tracking framework to measure the Course Player’s performance over time, comparing key metrics from the pre-redesign version with subsequent iterations.
• Focused on currently available data such as course completion rates, drop-off rates, and satisfaction scores to establish immediate benchmarks.
• Recommended future metrics to address key business questions and gain deeper insights into user behavior, supporting long-term optimization and strategic decisions.

Outcome:

The framework provided a clear pathway for measuring redesign success and laid the foundation for more structured analytics and decision-making processes going forward.

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Discovery Mini-Missions: Our Side Quests

As Interim Product Managers, we also supported Zensai with discovery initiatives through competitive research. These side quests focused on analyzing how leading platforms approach product strategy, helping surface patterns and opportunities to inform future direction.

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Mission Achievements: Delivered Outcomes

💡 Successfully broke down a complex redesign initiative into 4 manageable increments, enabling the delivery of Version 1 on time and setting a realistic foundation for future releases.

💡 Restored team alignment and stakeholder trust by delivering the first production-ready version of the Course Player by Q1 2025, demonstrating execution capability and product clarity under interim leadership.

💡 Proposed a success measurement framework using available metrics (e.g., course completion, drop-off, CSAT), empowering Zensai to track redesign impact and evolve toward more data-informed product decisions.