Shipped · v3

Snipe

A reward-based learning ecosystem.

Three Snipe app screens: Home with streak, coins and topics; Learn with study resources; and Analytics with daily study time and test accuracy
Role
Led the product and design division
Team
A team of tech enthusiasts from IIT
Responsibilities
User research, product and UI/UX design, A/B testing

About

The problem

Studying for competitive exams drains students until they lose interest.

I joined a team of tech enthusiasts from IIT and led the product and design division from Bangalore.

We interviewed students from classes 7–12 across India, as well as IIT and medical college students, to understand their needs and pain points. Secondary research on government data about Indian students gave us a collective perspective.

Insights

Students wanted to earn while learning.

  1. 01

    Hustle culture in students

    The culture of relentless productivity, driven by peers and social media. Students wanted to earn while learning.

  2. 02

    Gamification

    A gamified approach brings back the interest that exam preparation drains.

  3. 03

    Reward-based learning

    A “learning through earning” approach keeps students motivated: effort earns coins and rewards they can see.

The product

One app for study, community and rewards.

Course materials, assignments, a community with teachers and peers, online assessments and grade tracking in one place, with a reward-based, gamified system on top.

Introducing Snipe: a montage of app screens including Home, Learn, Leaderboard, study plans and Analytics

Reward-based learning

Effort earns rewards students can see.

  1. Streak. Days of study in a row, on the first screen.
  2. Coins. Effort earns coins students can see.
  3. Topics. Progress counted in topics covered.

After building and re-iterating with the development team, we organised A/B testing across versions to build on user feedback.

Impact

We reached 50,000+ students.

Feedback from students was highly positive: the app was praised for its unique interface and smooth experience. This drove strong revenue from users and brought in new investors.

App downloads
50,000+
Students reached all over India.
Months of work
7–8
Aug 2022 – Mar 2023.
The release that crossed 50,000+
v3
After A/B testing across versions.

What students said

Reviews from Google Play.

  • Roy Ghosh, 5 stars, 08/05/23: “Just a marvelous app. What a design of UI! Literally, this is the only one app that will bring interest in science. I would like to recommend all of the students please try it once. Because we should give chance everyone. This is a genuine review.”
  • Anushka Roy, 5 stars, 18/04/23: “This app gives a smooth experience to the user. Excellent UI and user friendly. Most importantly the rewards are amazing and studies seem easier with it. Very much satisfied with the app!!!”
  • Kapil Kumar, 5 stars, 24/08/22: “This is the best app for making study interesting. I am using the app and I found it really effective in my preparation and also you can get rewards that’s the coolest feature here I like the most.”
  • Nishi, 5 stars, 18/04/23: “A great app for getting rewarded for studying. The UI interface is quite good and intuitive… and the developer team is quite consistent with updates and that’s what I like the most about this app.”

What the team said

From the people I worked with.

“Keerthana owns every single task that she performs. She has a good understanding of product development (design) both in terms of user empathy and user experience. Personally, I have also learnt a lot of stuff from her!”
Sridipto Ghosh, Founder & CEO, Snipe
“Keerthana consistently demonstrated a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of our users’ needs. She played a pivotal role in designing and launching several successful products which received high praise from our users and industry experts alike.”
Sirsho Chakraborty, Co-founder & CTO, Snipe
“Keerthana is simply amazing with her design skills, the way she is able to ideate and prepare the mockups for an application from scratch is awesome!”
Parth Gupta, Vice President, E-Cell IIT BHU

Takeaways

What leading this taught me.

  1. 01

    The leading opportunity

    Leading this early in my career made me a designer who can take initiative, own a task and manage it with grace.

  2. 02

    Cross-functional collaboration

    Working across the team gave me a holistic view, so I could consider and design for every edge case.

  3. 03

    Feedback and iteration

    Feedback helped me constantly evolve. Keep iterating, because there’s always room for improvement.

Contact

Let's work together to create something amazing. I'm always excited to discuss new opportunities and innovative projects.

Get in Touch View Resume