COHORT MANAGEMENT IN ACADEMIES
The Academies product from Degreed provides organizations with longer-term learning and development solutions, commonly utilized for training, onboarding and workforce upskilling. Our user research indicated that collaborative learning is one of the primary advantages of an Academy, however, there was no real method to create multiple user groups that could engage with an Academy together with varied start dates, such as an employee onboarding academy. This project aimed to develop a cohort management solution to address a significant user need within Academies.​
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Company: Degreed
Role: Product Designer
Contributions: Lead research, analysis, ideation, designs, iterations, testing, and implementation in product
Tools Used: Dovetail, Maze, Confluence, Jira, Figma
Research & Analysis
Research included a round of surveys, a review of client and prospect feedback data, and user interviews. Analysis of all research data highlighted several themes focused on the administrative need for more granular management of users, groups, and dates within Academies.​
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The concept of adding a cohort management approach to Academies was proposed to solve many client feedback requests and needs, leading to a more collaborative Academy experience and more streamlined administrative experience with Academy setup and maintenance.
Themes and insights from Academies research compiled in Dovetail
Ideation & Design
Initial design wireframes and explorations began with developing more streamlined methods for user management (i.e. adding groups to the members list and the ability to add multiple users at a time) utilizing the existing Academies design system and components. From there, explorations expanded to include all of the downstream impacts cohorts would have on the overall Academy experience.
Through early explorations and ideation, it was discovered that introducing cohorts each with their own start and end dates would introduce new complexity across the entire Academies management experience. Further iterations included designs to address all of the complexities around user management, Academy creation, due dates, and new reminder flows. To accommodate these iterations, I also redesigned the Academy experience to be more in line with the updated Degreed Apollo Design System components.
Early wireframe explorations for adding cohorts and more robust membership management to an existing Academy.
Iteration & Outcome
Initial high level conceptual mock-ups were used at company client-facing presentations in early 2025 and were met with positive feedback. Design iterations took place based on engineering need and final scoping from product throughout 2025.
The full Cohorts in Academies work was released to production with the July 2025 major product release. Additional iteration and user testing along with additional scope and improvements will take place through 2026.
Cohort and membership management for Academies, including new search and filtering capabilities and the ability to add users and groups as members to a cohort and academy.
Due Date management at the cohort and step level for academies - net new flow for this project top accommodate various cohort start and end dates within one academy
