How to modernize systems and grow business? Legacy Garage 1

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Welcome to Legacy Garage by Merixstudio.

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In this series, we present different ways of dealing with the most common

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challenges of software modernization.

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I'm Jagoda, Senior UX Designer at Merixstudio.

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And I'm Dawid, Software Architect at Merixstudio.

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In this episode, we are going to show you how to adjust your

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digital product to changing market needs.

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And don't worry, it won't be just a theory.

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The basis for this video is our ad tech experience,

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and we will explain everything using an elearning platform as an example.

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So what's the case?

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The product is an elearning platform dedicated to around

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three hundred thousand registered schools with almost

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fifteen million active users.

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It's created by company that's been one of the EdTech market

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leaders for around eight years.

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The main functionalities are about creating and solving

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tasks, conducting group classes,

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measuring progress and presenting statistics for each

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tasks, group and the whole school.

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The company understands the need for implementing new

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technologies as their systems start becoming more and more outdated.

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On the other hand,

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they also seize the opportunity for business growth.

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Education is changing and nowadays it's not limited only

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to schools and universities.

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To keep up with the market space and not stay behind the competition,

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the company needs to scale up and open itself for new customers.

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But of course, there are lots of challenges associated with this process.

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What's not working as it should be?

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Let's look under the hood and find out.

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To identify the main challenges, find solution,

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and prepare a modernization road map,

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we need to follow a few steps of the predevelopment process.

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Firstly, we focus on the project discovery stage.

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What we usually do to make the process of diving into existing

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products domains easier is overall product analysis.

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That means, for example, conducting some sort of audit,

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which is a review of the current interface and general

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user experience and comparing it with industry standards.

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We also try to use as much knowledge as we can from people

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that interact with the tool the most by conducting in-depth

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interviews with users or for example customer success

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representatives that mostly are aware of challenges that

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user meet the most.

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This step helps us point out the main business design and

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technical challenges.

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Let's start with the business part.

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The main business challenge is to determine the new brand identity.

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As you already know,

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the elear elearning platform is no longer meant only for

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schools and universities.

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The modernization goal is to reach new clients from from

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different industries like corporate customers or federal agencies.

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So the company needs to create and implement one consistent

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brand for communicating all new functionalities.

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What's important in introducing a new brand identity is keeping

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in mind the current product audience.

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Some of the changed interface components crucial for the

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current product like dashboards or payment and transaction

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screens are prepared in multiple versions each modified

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gradually to make sure rebranding will not impact

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existing users mental models and habits.

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Another challenge is to set direction for the product development.

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Of course, we need to have in mind the current users needs.

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We are adding new functionalities,

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but schools are still an important part of the product strategy.

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On the other hand,

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we also have to set the path for achieving the long term

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goal, expanding the audience.

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On the technical side,

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the biggest challenge was separating the elearning

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content from the learning management system.

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The application was created when there was no primary

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elearning interoperability standard on the market.

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Therefore, it contains many different capabilities,

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like the content management system, authoring tool,

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activity assessment, learning record store, schools,

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classes and student management, analytics and reporting in one

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platform created around one type of learning content.

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Unfortunately, this approach does not allow the solution to adapt new

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elearning content without extensive development efforts.

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The second significant challenge is the poor

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performance of the learning record store and analytic tools

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that jeopardizes learning performance metrics.

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Without proper feedback about gaps in skills or knowledge,

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student doesn't have much chance to improve themselves.

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Okay. So we've identified the main challenges of the project.

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Now let's focus on how to bring ideas into life.

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What are solutions for modernizing this legacy e learning system?

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There are a few key actions we need to take in order to set

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the modernization roadmap.

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From the UX perspective,

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we conduct the usability audit of the learning platform.

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The aim is to understand the product better and indicate

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the areas for improvement.

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We also prepare a deep ad tech market analysis to better

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understand the industry trends.

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At this step, we also conduct an extensive competition

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analysis which takes a form of a report gathering insights

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from the edtech industry which says direct and indirect

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competence functional benchmarking.

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The primary goal of this kind of report is to diverge the

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vision of future product shape and ideate about

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the potential long term product development milestones.

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After completing these steps,

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we can move on to planning the future vision.

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Here we focus on creating the wireframes that are an outcome

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of the creative workshop sessions.

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During these sessions,

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armed with feasibility audit outcomes and the potential

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features and services researched during the trend

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analysis, we are able to converge ideas and shape them

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into more precise interface and UX recommendations.

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The goal is to visualize the functional solutions which we

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point out during the current state analysis.

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The technical solution to paints that the platform had

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had was simple and complex at the same time.

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We needed to define proper boundaries in the system and do

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a few strokes with the plasma cutter.

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We also had to separate these newly created components and

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apply the best solution for a particular purpose.

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To understand how much effort will be required,

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we conduct a detailed technology consisting of source

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code, database, infrastructure, and architecture review.

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Then armed with that knowledge,

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we can define new architecture including industry standards

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and robust components.

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For the LMS part, we add LTI and xAPI standards

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to allow interoperability with different elearning content.

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In addition, we extract the learning record store to a separate service to

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enable easier integration with performance and reporting tools.

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This focus on the standard and responsibility separation gives

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us a free hand for solutions used to create and publish a

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learning content.

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Content creators will not be forced to use only one

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authoring tool, and by using third party solutions,

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we can reduce maintenance on our side.

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However, this doesn't block us from creating our own learning

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content management system for unique content.

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Every part of the application can evolve independently.

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Okay.

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So that's how we find faults and prepare a detailed repair plan.

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By following the steps of the predevelopment process,

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we can be sure modernization will run smoothly.

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Hope you liked it.

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If so, you'll find more Legacy Garage episodes on our YouTube channel.

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If you want to broaden your knowledge about software

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modernization, check out the link below.