How we transformed a losing feature into a key revenue driver
Timeline
6-7 months
Team
Product Managers (2)
Product Designer (1)
Developers (5)
QA (2)
My Role
Product Designer
Product Manager
Overview
In early 2023, we found ourselves facing an uncomfortable truth: our Course feature, once a functional staple, was crumbling under new demand. As acquisition spiked, so did support tickets, bug reports, and frustration. Sales teams backed off. Creators churned. Instead of quick fixes, we took a bold, structured approach—auditing usability, benchmarking competitors, and rebuilding the experience in phases. Every sprint, every release brought us closer to restoring faith.
What follows is a deep dive into how we transformed our LMS from a liability to one of our most trusted, high-performing offerings.
The Wake-Up Call: A Broken System at the Worst Possible Time
It was early 2023, and we were celebrating a record-high wave of new instructors and coaches joining our platform. We had spent months refining our acquisition strategy, and it was finally paying off. But then, the cracks started showing.
Within days:
Bug reports surged by 150% 📊
Support tickets exploded, filled with usability complaints 🛠️
Sales teams stopped pitching the feature, saying it hurt conversions 📉
It was like watching a dam break. The course feature, which had functioned well for small-scale users, was completely collapsing under the weight of demand.
The reality hit us hard: We weren’t just missing some polish—we were behind industry standards. Creators found it clunky, and sales couldn’t confidently sell it anymore.
We had two choices: Patch it up and risk losing credibility or completely transform the course feature into a product creators could trust.
Breaking Down the Problem
We needed to fully dissect why our feature was failing before jumping to fixes. Key findings revealed:
We conducted an in-depth analysis of 8 direct and indirect competitors and found we were missing essential capabilities like:
Course progress tracking
Custom branding
Seamless student navigation
Our Strategy: The Journey to a Scalable Course Feature
We didn’t just want to fix the problem—we wanted to rebuild the course feature with the future in mind.
STEP 1
Turning Pain Points into Actionable Fixes
- We made our internal team use the feature as real creators for a week, logging all usability pain points.
- Every issue was categorized using an Impact vs. Effort Prioritization Matrix.
- A dedicated 3-4 member engineering team was assigned to execute rapid fixes.
Within just two weeks, we had fixed the worst usability issues resulting in a drop in support tickets.
STEP 2
Competitive Benchmarking & Feature Prioritization
We had to go beyond just fixing bugs—we needed to bring our feature up to industry standards.
Features were prioritized using an ROI-driven prioritization framework:
- Will this improve GMV?
- Does it enhance creator retention?
- Will sales teams be able to push this feature?
This wasn’t just about fixing things—it was about rebuilding trust with our sales team. Armed with competitor insights and a roadmap, sales reps started feeling confident pitching the feature again.
STEP 3
Structured Feature Roadmap for a Long-Term Fix
We implemented changes in phases, ensuring each update delivered tangible improvements.
With the rollout of P1 updates, we saw a massive shift in adoption and satisfaction. Creators finally felt like they had control over their courses.
Impact & Results
Key Takeaways & What’s Next
✅ Internal usability testing is crucial—dogfooding uncovered blind spots.
✅ Strategic prioritization drives impact—fixing usability first rebuilt trust.
✅ The right features = Higher GMV—prioritizing creator needs paid off.
Final Thoughts
This wasn’t just a feature revamp—it was a transformation of trust, usability, and revenue impact. What started as a broken system turned into one of Exly’s most profitable SKUs.
Thanks for reading!