Great Minds

CaseDigital Transformation

Year2019 to 2023

My RoleSenior Product Designer

ToolsFigma, FigJam

Overview

Great Minds builds some of the most respected K-12 curricula in the US, including Eureka Math and Wit & Wisdom. Over three years, I helped turn that curriculum into a digital product: first In Sync and Equip, a pandemic-era pivot, then Habitat, the platform built to carry it forward.

The Vision

Transform Great Minds curriculum into a cohesive digital experience for teachers and students.

To shape that vision, we conducted research with teachers and curriculum specialists, studying how they planned and delivered instruction, and which habits the product needed to support.

Natalie RiveraK-8 Teacher, 24 years, Education

User Profile Summary

Natalie is a first-year teacher using Great Minds curriculum. She manages multiple grade levels daily and needs flexible pacing tools to adapt lessons to her students' varying skill levels.

Core Goals

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Pace curriculum flexiblyMap modules and lessons across the school year at her own rhythm.
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Track student progressMonitor different skill levels and customize lessons to each student's needs.

Key Pain Points

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Curriculum overwhelmToo much content with a steep learning curve and no clear starting point.
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Rigid pacing constraintsWants to customize the plan but feels pressure to follow it exactly as written.

Teachers InterviewedFrom different districts

I often carry around big binders to plan my classes and keep my students' information organized. That's something I'd love to see improved.

Teacher's Planning Journey

Plans the yearMaps modules and lessons before the first day of class.

Reviews the dataChecks exit tickets before deciding what to adjust.Still tracked by hand in binders.

Adjusts the lessonCustomizes pacing and content based on what she sees.Means rebuilding content from scratch.

After the research the plan was to design a beta version, but then...

March 2020

The Roadmap Changed Overnight

The pandemic forced classrooms online. We paused the project and shifted our full attention to Great Minds In Sync, a remote learning platform designed and launched in just three months. To accelerate development, we built on the existing curriculum architecture.

Impact

Best blended flipped learning appEdvocate Awards on 2021

Adopted by school districts across the U.S.California, Texas & Florida

Back to Habitat

Once schools stabilized post-2021, the team resumed work on Habitat, the platform originally envisioned before the pandemic, now informed by rapid remote-learning deployments.

Designing for teachers

Recreating lesson planning digitally.

Before Habitat, planning a lesson meant printing pages from several books and piecing them together by hand. Now teachers move through each stage of a lesson, from overview to fluency to exit ticket, and add their own notes right on the material.

Turning data into decisions

Reports that surface real insights.

Every score is color coded by proficiency, from not yet proficient to highly proficient, so a teacher can scan a whole class at a glance. Habitat also surfaces its own insights, like the most missed item or which student needs support, without anyone having to dig for them.

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