1
WEB • 2024
Growth for Activation and Acquisition
Scope
Design
Research
Role
Product Design
Hand-off
Testing
Timeline
4 months
Platform
Web
Overview
Teachers are often short on time and overloaded with responsibilities. Preparing for each class takes significant effort, leaving little room to explore new tools. Discovery usually happens through word of mouth or school-wide recommendations. This means when a teacher finally tries a tool, it’s critical they see its value quickly and with minimal friction.
Use our strongest advocates to share the tool with other teachers and administrators, creating organic growth.
Expand teacher networks
Make it effortless for new teachers to get started, guiding them to host their first game quickly and confidently.
Activate a teacher quickly
We started investigating
We wanted to approach the problem from first principles and try to figure out what's causing a major drop-off during activation and what's preventing them from sharing the tool with others.
Speaking to teachers
We connected with new teachers to learn their first impressions, motivations for trying the product, and challenges they faced.
Data to the rescue
Analytics and user recordings revealed key drop-off points, validating teacher feedback and helping us focus on the right improvements.
UX audit
We reviewed the product end-to-end to spot quick design wins that could instantly improve the experience and reduce friction.
What was not working?
Low word-of-mouth growth
Even teachers who loved the product weren’t spreading it. We needed better incentives for them to recommend it to peers.
Limited school-level adoption
Sales hinged on hitting a teacher threshold (5 per school). Without it, admins lacked proof and confidence to commit.
Unclear activity flow
Teachers couldn’t preview how activities would run in class. Too many controls created confusion and slowed adoption.
Paywalls were dead ends
When teachers hit limits, their only option was to upgrade.
No alternate paths existed to unlock features through engagement.
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Conducting Experiments
We embarked on our journey of improving our key metrics. We did a bunch of small experiments over a few weeks. Moving with speed to validate our hypotheses. Experiments were met with success and failure but each gave us a valuable lesson to carry forward. This was my first time working as a growth designer, and the projects taught me a lot.
Key metrics for us
Referrals
We launched three tailored referral programs based on a school’s maturity—measured by active teachers. Each was designed with a distinct goal and path to rewards.
We designed referral nudges around the “magical 5” teacher mark. For schools close to the mark, rewards required higher commitment (e.g., hosting a quiz). For schools with fewer teachers, rewards were simpler to unlock (just a sign-up). We tested cash incentives against free trials to compare impact. To drive adoption, referral prompts were placed at key paywall moments, making actions seamless.
Acquisition
Activation
Problem
Need to get more teachers on the platform
Hypothesis
Incentivising teachers with trials will encourage them to refer others
Approach
Run multiple referral campaigns tailored to school maturity levels
Metrics
Referrals per teacher and new teachers acquired
Learnings
Trial incentive was weak unless teachers hit product limits
How we approached this
We wanted to have some pillars based on which we wanted to design the experience
Identified the most impactful paywall touchpoints and limited referral prompts to these key entry points.
Key moments only
Adjusted referral offerings based on teacher engagement levels and potential business impact.
Tailored offerings
Gave teachers clear visibility into who they invited and where rewards
came from.
Easy reward tracking
Used a straightforward action-to-reward model, avoiding complex or tiered incentives in the first version.
Simple rewards
0
1
2
3
4
5
NUMBER OF TEACHERS
Free for school
30 day trial
$20 gift card
Easy to track participation
Having clearly visibility of the offer, who have joined and who have been invited.
Impact
2%
Referral rate for all the experiements
12%
Conversion to purchasing our paid plan
ThankQ
To celebrate Thanksgiving, we created a wholesome way for teachers to appreciate each other by sending thank-you notes to their peers.
Teachers are often overworked, underpaid, and rarely thanked. We wanted to change that. The ThankQ campaign let teachers send notes of gratitude to peers, sparking small moments of joy and connection within our product. To make it even more meaningful, each note triggered a $1 donation to charity. The feature was designed to feel celebratory, spreading positivity across the community.
Acquisition
Resurrection
Problem
Get more teachers on the platform and resurrect inactive ones
Hypothesis
Enabling teachers to thank each other during Thanksgiving will encourage sign-up
Approach
Let teachers send thank you notes on Quizizz, including a charity aspect
Metrics
Number of teachers signed up and resurrected
Learnings
Generated positive buzz but no growth in teacher activations
Sending a ThankQ note
We wanted to keep the experience exciting and invoking a sense of festivity. Teachers
loved our design and the delightful experience.
We got a lot of love on social media 💜
We hit our goal quickly, got teachers signing-up on the platform and donated $10,000 for a noble cause.
Impact
6.1K
Teachers sent a thank you note on Wayground
18%
Teachers who landed on the page sent a note
My Schools Page
We turned the school landing page into a hub for showcasing activity and inviting others to join Wayground.
Teachers often visited their school page to see content peers were using. This made it an ideal spot to drive invitations. But the existing invite option was unclear and underused. We redesigned it to highlight school activity and make inviting peers simple and compelling—turning the page into both a discovery space and a growth driver.
Acquisition
Resurrection
Problem
Need to get more teachers from a school to sign-up
Hypothesis
Reducing friction to share from their school page will help
Approach
Add a prominent share area; show teachers already on platform
Metrics
Number of new teacher & teachers/schools added
Learnings
Teachers only added people from their department, limiting scope
Highlight others in the school
We tried to solve the issue of a cold-start by showing others in their school and relied on the network effect for people to join.
Use imagery to evoke emotions
The artwork update between different images to promote diversity. It's a small detail but goes a long way to show our values.
Nudges to help start an action
We kept the features blurred so that the teachers can get a sense of what they will unlock.
Impact
5%
Teachers visiting the page invited their peers
160
New admins were added to their schools
Activity Preview & Trust
Teachers often found the right resource but felt unsure about the classroom experience or its quality. We wanted to bridge this trust gap quickly.
Many teachers dropped off after landing on the activity page because they didn’t know if a resource was reliable or how it would run in class. To solve this, we added trust markers—like standards alignment and verified tags—and gave teachers the ability to preview the activity in student view. This helped build confidence, reduce drop-offs, and encourage classroom use.
Activation
Problem
Teachers were dropping off after discovering a resource
Hypothesis
Add trust-markers and a preview will instill confidence
Approach
Show trust-markers and help them preview the game
Metrics
Activation rate and teachers previewing the game
Learnings
Teachers want to know that they've landed on the right resource
Impact
34%
Teachers previewed the game before hosting
2%pt
Increase in activation rate for teachers
Teacher Tagging
Many users behaved like teachers but weren’t tagged correctly. Accurate tagging was key for unlocking upsell motions and teacher-focused features.
During onboarding, many teachers mistakenly selected the wrong role. While this didn’t affect their initial experience, it blocked access to teacher tools like class imports and reporting. Correct tagging also enabled us to target schools better and show the right paywalls. To fix this, we designed a different flows: for users with high confidence, roles were auto-updated with a simple acknowledgement and opt-out option; for others, we asked for confirmation before applying the change.
Resurrection
Problem
Users behave like teachers but are not tagged as teachers or linked to a school
Hypothesis
Asking users to confirm their role will correctly tag them as teachers
Approach
Prompt users to confirm their role at the next login
Metrics
Number of new teachers tagged
Learnings
Users were teachers but chose wrong roles, showing need for onboarding changes
Opt out from the role
Users with a very strong signal were informed about their 'upgrade' and allowed to continue easily
Opt in to the role
User with mixed signal were given a nudge to confirm their role and were informed about the benefits of becoming a teacher.
Impact
25K+
accounts converted to Teacher accounts
6K
increase in the YAT
3
Final Words
This was my first experience as a growth designer—a role that brought new challenges and pushed me to expand my skills. Over four months, our key metrics trended upward, and we carried these learnings across other teams to shape future initiatives.
Learning the ropes
Diving into growth meant designing with hypotheses and closely tracking experiment results. Watching Hotjar recordings each morning became a routine, offering direct insights into user behavior.
Planning the v2
While early experiments worked, we missed an opportunity to consolidate learnings into a more seamless product experience. Rough edges remained, highlighting the need for stronger iteration and polish in the next phase.
Learnings from the project
Although just for a few months, working as a growth designer definitely helped me 'grow' too as a designer and expand my skillset.
Speed matters
The quicker we ship things, the faster we can learn.However, quality couldn't take a hit. I mastered the critical balance of a good experiment with a good design.
Incremental wins
I had to realise that these experiments would always give me crazy results. Wins could be small enough to suggest that we are moving in the
right direction.
Experimentation
The ability to take every hunch and turn it into an experiment to see how well we know our user and their needs.
