Playpod: Curriculum-Aligned Podcasting Ecosystem from 0-1

Discovery & Research

I led end-to-end learner and stakeholder research across K–12 and higher education contexts (surveys, educator interviews, and focus groups with school administrators and parents).

Key findings that directly shaped product and learning design decisions:

• Educators needed clarity and confidence more than customization or advanced features. Overwhelming them with options during onboarding would replicate the same problem they had with existing tools.

• Multi-device access was non-negotiable. Most educators engaged with professional development in fragmented windows (between classes, during lunch, on their phones). A desktop-only experience would fail before it launched.

• Assessment integration was the critical differentiator. Teachers didn't just want students to make podcasts, they needed a way to connect the activity to curriculum standards and evaluate it. Without that, the tool was a hobby, not a classroom resource.

• Delay advanced features until engagement metrics validated readiness

These findings led directly to a strategic decision: delay advanced production features until engagement metrics validated readiness, and invest first in the pedagogical framework and onboarding experience.

Strategy

Instead of building a standalone tool, I designed Playpod as a connected learning ecosystem with three integrated layers:

1. Product layer: A classroom-safe podcasting web app with built-in privacy and accessibility constraints

2. Learning layer: A pedagogical onboarding course focused on integrating podcasting into curriculum, not just tool usage

3. Trust layer: An AI safety and moderation system to remove institutional adoption barriers

This structure ensured adoption was not dependent on training alone or product features alone, but on a complete system designed around educator behavior.

Action Mapping

The design process began with action mapping, identifying the specific behaviors educators needed to perform in the classroom, not the information they needed to receive. This distinction is critical: most EdTech onboarding fails because it teaches the tool, not the practice. However, each layer of the learning ecosystem needed its own success metrics and goals. For this reasons, different Action Maps were developed to make sure progress and milestones would be accordingly placed to each layer 

The mapping revealed three priority behavioral outcomes: launching a classroom podcasting project with confidence, integrating podcasting into existing curriculum structures, and evaluating student work against learning objectives. Every module in the course was traced back to one of these outcomes. Content that didn't directly support a behavior was removed or moved to optional resources.

Storyboard

A text-based storyboard served as the structural blueprint, capturing content, interactions, media notes, and feedback mechanisms before any development began. As the storyboard developed, I added multimedia links, scenario branches, and visual design notes.

A key storyboard decision: where in the course the learner would encounter challenge versus support. Cognitive load was managed deliberately — dense conceptual content was followed by scenarios and practice, never stacked consecutively.

Visual Design

After research and testing, I decided on cartoon-style visuals and characters, which were appropriate for both educators, and the student-facing product, which needed to feel school-friendly and approachable. But the eLearning course was targeted exclusively at adults.

Early user testing of visual concepts revealed a clear preference for learning "mentors characters". I responded by introducing a cartoon mentor characters to guide learners through the course, while retaining brand-consistent color and typography. The mentors created a sense of guided, personal learning in what could otherwise feel like an isolated self-paced experience, it also allowed users to see themselves in the process, as the mentors looked like they were either school learners or teachers.

The visual design followed the full Playpod brand system I had designed, colors, fonts, iconography, and component guidelines, ensuring coherence across the web app, the eLearning course, and supporting materials.

Development of the eLearning Course

The course was built in Articulate Rise 360, a deliberate choice over Storyline for this specific context. The course had substantial content across multiple modules, and Rise's responsive, mobile-first architecture was the right match for learners accessing it across devices on fragmented schedules. Storyline's greater customization wasn't needed here; what was needed was a clean, intuitive experience that didn't add friction on top of an already demanding learning task.

Engagement strategies embedded throughout:

• Bite-sized sections with clear progress indicators

• Scenario-based interactions requiring application, not just recall

• Gamified feedback loops with visual rewards at module completion

• Peer forum integration for sharing course outputs and building cross-school connections

Job Aid

A downloadable job aid was designed as a standalone classroom resource, available once learners completed the course. It contained step-by-step podcasting process guides, checklists, worksheets, and reference cards formatted for printing and classroom use.

The design decision here was deliberate: support materials that live outside the platform reduce dependency on it. An educator who can manage the process with a printed checklist is more confident, more autonomous, and more likely to sustain the practice. The goal was always capability, not platform reliance.

Results

• 25% increase in engagement during pilots

• Product-market fit validated across K–12 and higher education

• 2× international startup competition wins

• Full-tuition Babson College scholarship

• Media recognition in Spanish national press

Key Takeaways

• Adoption is a system problem, not a feature problem.

• Behavioral design drives engagement more than functionality.

• Ecosystems outperform standalone tools in education markets.

• Trust and safety are product infrastructure, not add-ons.