Project Info
Table of Contents
Tarea Progress Companion
Tarea is a research-backed concept app that helps online tutors track each student’s progress, surface homework history, and share encouraging updates with parents without juggling a dozen tools.
The Challenge
Our community brief asked how independent educators sustain trust with families. Russian online English tutors told us their nights disappeared into spreadsheets, messaging threads, and manual reminders just to prove students were learning.
Discovery Research
We began by mapping the ecosystem around independent tutors. Twelve semi-structured interviews explored tooling, motivation, and the emotional labor of parent communication. We captured every session in Otter, tagged moments in Notion, and synthesized them into a journey map that exposed hotspots around homework tracking and progress updates.
- •Tutors spend 5–7 hours per week stitching together spreadsheets, chat apps, and shared drives to prep updates.
- •Parents crave evidence of incremental progress but receive irregular, text-heavy messages they cannot easily forward.
- •Students disengage when homework feedback arrives late; tutors want a channel to celebrate wins in real time.
Persona
Natalie, a 28-year-old online English tutor from Smolensk, Russia, personifies our core user. She is tech-savvy yet overwhelmed by the admin burden required to keep lessons meaningful and parents informed.
- •Needs one place to log lessons, payments, and homework so nothing slips between apps.
- •Values warm relationships with families; language in Tarea emphasizes shared wins instead of punitive reminders.
- •Prefers tools that work on her laptop between sessions and on mobile when she sends quick updates.
Our Solution
Across twelve interviews and collaborative synthesis we mapped the tutor–parent relationship, then prototyped a focused progress companion. Tarea logs lessons and feedback per student, generates shareable progress cards, and keeps tutors ready for parent check-ins.
My Role
As product manager I orchestrated the research plan, facilitated workshops, and kept the team aligned on Natalie’s needs while shaping the narrative and prototype scope.
Key Contributions
- •Scoped and moderated twelve contextual interviews, aligning the schedule and research scripts for our Russian tutor cohort.
- •Synthesized findings into the Natalie persona and experience blueprint that guided prioritization.
- •Facilitated a two-day design sprint to define the progress timeline, homework tracker, and parent digest touchpoints.
- •Partnered with design and engineering to translate insights into a Figma prototype and feasibility notes.
Technical Highlights
- •Research synthesis wall combining interview affinity maps, workflow diagrams, and JTBD statements.
- •Persona artifacts (Natalie) and service blueprint articulating tutor–parent touchpoints.
- •High-fidelity Figma prototype featuring homework assignment flows, progress snapshots, and parent digest screens.
- •Usability test plan capturing success metrics, emotional resonance, and desirability feedback.
Prototype Walkthrough
- •Onboarding flow lets tutors declare subjects and student roster, syncing future dashboard modules.
- •Homework composer bundles due dates, attachments, and voice notes, then auto-generates parent-friendly summaries.
- •Progress timeline highlights achievements, attendance, and flagged risks so tutors speak confidently in check-ins.
Challenges & Learnings
Balancing qualitative stories with actionable requirements was the hardest part—each tutor improvised a different tool stack. Creating the persona and blueprint forced us to isolate the universal friction: communicating progress and coordinating homework without losing time to admin.
Future Improvements
- •Validate the concept with a longitudinal diary study across an entire semester.
- •Explore lightweight invoicing integrations so tutors can consolidate billing with progress updates.
- •Prototype a parent-facing web portal to complement the tutor mobile experience.
Team
4 team members:
- •Product manager & facilitator (me)
- •Lead researcher – Anastasiia Firvosa
- •Prototype engineer – Tof
- •Product designer – Hendy Octavian