Pivoting to a Digital Learning Platform

HowNow transitioned from an event and activity pass platform in London to a fully digital video learning marketplace. This pivot aimed to give instructors the ability to run their businesses online and reach a global audience, while also enabling learners to find experts in their chosen fields.

As the Design Lead and first employee, I worked closely with the CEO to guide the company’s transformation from a brick-and-mortar-focused business to an all-digital platform and marketplace.

Goals

With limited resources and a short runway, our primary goal was to quickly develop a functioning video learning platform. We needed to validate user journeys swiftly by iterating on designs, ensuring a seamless experience for both instructors and learners.

Key questions we aimed to answer:

• How can users easily find experts to teach them?

• How can instructors earn money doing what they love?

Research

By 2016, online learning was already widespread, with platforms like YouTube providing access to free, self-taught education on almost any subject. However, while platforms such as Udemy and Skillshare offered pre-recorded courses, they faced high drop-off rates due to the passive learning experience. We saw an opportunity to provide a more engaging, live-learning environment.

Live streaming, in its infancy at the time, was gaining traction—especially in the gaming industry through platforms like Twitch. We recognized its potential for real-time learning interactions between instructors and students, setting us apart from traditional pre-recorded course providers.

Designing a Marketplace

We experimented with various flows and layouts, aiming for a frictionless user experience from discovery to purchase to learning. Leveraging our existing marketplace technology allowed us to efficiently manage content organization, discoverability, and administrative functions.

Our design process focused on:

• Creating a seamless system for users to book and attend classes.

• Exploring models of pre-recorded video lessons, bite-sized learning, and live streaming.

We saw live streaming as a game-changer for learning, and our designs revolved around two key formats: one-to-one learning and one-to-many learning.

One-to-One Learning

Our first iteration focused on providing a simple, effective learning experience on desktop. The setup allowed for live, interactive video calls between instructors and students. As development progressed, we expanded the functionality to include:

• Screen sharing.

• A secondary camera for more dynamic instruction.

• A whiteboard tool for real-time collaboration.

• Post-lesson feedback.

One-to-Many Learning

Based on direct feedback from instructors eager to expand their earning potential, we also designed features to enable group learning sessions. This allowed instructors to teach multiple students simultaneously, from anywhere in the world. Key features included:

• Grid views for instructors to monitor and interact with students.

• The ability to expand and collapse individual student video feeds for personalized feedback.

• Integrated chat functionality to enhance real-time engagement.

Initial Prototype

A significant challenge was creating a high-fidelity prototype to secure funding before development started. In a pre-Figma era, we used InVision and Sketch to build a clickable prototype. This prototype allowed the founders to pitch to investors, showcasing a working platform concept before a single line of code was written.

We also developed a design system and visual language that communicated the platform’s simplicity and scalability, which helped align stakeholders around the product vision.

Results

After securing funding and bringing on an engineering team, HowNow’s platform rapidly evolved. Within the first year:

• Our customer base grew from 0 to hundreds, with thousands of lessons across diverse subjects.

• Instructors from the Bahamas were teaching women-only yoga classes, while others offered one-on-one guitar lessons or English language courses for Chinese children.

• The platform's flexibility and accessibility proved essential to its early success.