Needed Education: Creating a digital platform for skill development
A behind-the-scenes outlook on how Needed Education was brought to life.
After winning a Red Dot Design Award for our work on the Needed E-Learning Platform with Needed Education, we spoke to the propelland project team to learn more about our partnership and how we helped Needed bring its new education platform to life. Discover how Needed is creating new learning opportunities across Latin America.
How did the work with Needed Education come about?
The relationship between propelland and Needed started long before the project. We originally entered a partnership with Needed because we saw the potential in Needed’s idea of digitizing education to provide new learning opportunities to C-level executives and their teams across Latin America. Through the partnership between Needed and propelland, we helped create lessons and gave classes on topics where we could lend our expertise, such as customer-centric design and strategic design, adding new value to Needed’s overall curriculum.
We were working very closely together. For some time, we even shared offices with Gustavo Barcia, CEO of Needed Education. That’s how the whole relationship between Needed and propelland started. Then when Needed saw an opportunity to expand its offerings by developing a comprehensive educational platform, they asked propelland for strategy, design, and engineering support in building the new digital platform.
What was the ultimate goal and vision for the Needed platform?
Needed already had a platform before we started working together. It was a limited platform that relied on multiple channels. Students would use one channel to get the course materials, but then they were also using Zoom for classes and Slack to message one another. It was very difficult to navigate, especially for the typical Needed user base of professionals who are not yet adept at using digital tools.
Needed’s goal was to centralize all of their information, tools, and resources through a full-service digital platform. This redesign was meant to make the user experience more intuitive and enjoyable for students and teachers, compelling them to spend more time on the platform. Students would be able to easily find their course schedule, attend classes, and set up one-on-one meetings through a single platform. Meanwhile, professors would be able to create lessons, upload content, and view student information using that same platform.
We also had to take Needed clients into consideration. HR departments of different companies hire Needed to administer educational programs to employees. Needed would have to provide those clients with access to insights on their employees’ attendance and progress. We were tasked with combining all these different capabilities into a unified digital platform for Needed.
What main design considerations did propelland take to help build the Needed platform?
We started with market research to understand the digital learning landscape. Needed already had a lot of research on their users, so our research focused more on trends, personal learning preferences, and different learning management system techniques. This informed our whole design strategy behind the platform, figuring out how all the different stakeholders would connect, what information would be available, and the overall look and feel of the platform.
People needed to be able to use it on different devices, so we built a design system compatible with mobile phones, tablets, and computers. We took that to the developer team and worked with them to design the entire platform. From there it went through validation with Needed users, which allowed us to test and refine the platform until it was ready for launch.
What were some of the challenges that the team encountered in the course of the project, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge for us was making the different stakeholders understand how we were going to be working, like the value of building an MVP (minimum viable product) followed by several iterations. It was difficult to convey the value of working in that way instead of tackling everything at once.
Another big challenge was working simultaneously with three different teams. Each one had its own responsibilities, but we were also working together on a daily basis. This required governance in how we collaborated together. We had to establish how communication was going to be led, who was going to be providing what information, and who determines when we move forward. At first, we struggled a lot. Once we took the time to understand how each team worked, we were able to fine-tune how we collaborated together. We got into this amazing rhythm of work that really propelled the project forward.
What excites you the most about the future of Needed and its impact on the Latin America business landscape?
The potential to reach new audiences opens up so many opportunities. It’s inspiring to think this platform will provide valuable education to people who didn’t have easy access to it before. Needed is also offering people classes outside their specific programs, and in emerging topics like the metaverse and AI, allowing them to extend their learning even further. The professors in Needed’s network are successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, and digital experts, all really big people in their respective industries. Connecting people across Latin America to these industry-leading teachers through high-quality educational content can boost careers, transform companies, and ultimately drive the evolution of the Latin American digital ecosystem. We’re proud to support Needed Education as it leads that change.
Special thanks to the propeller project team who helped bring this project to life:
Alejandro Malagón, Design & Operations Lead LATAM
Aisha Espino, Design Strategist & Interaction Designer
Sophie Franquebalme, UX/UI Designer
Nicolás Montero, Digital Product Design Intern
