Learn Overview

Problem

Admins lacked a scalable workflow to assign and track secure-code learning across large teams.

Outcome

Enabled enterprise teams to assign and track secure-code learning at scale, accelerating paid adoption and contributing to a Silver Award at the 2025 Anthem Awards for Responsible Technology.
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Key Insight & Framing

Through early exploration and stakeholder discussions, it became clear that AppSec primarily needed two things:
‍• a fast way to create assignments, and
‍• clear visibility into learner progress.

Rather than redesigning the entire system, we focused on delivering these core workflows first.

From pattern to Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)

From customer research, we identified three consistent user needs:
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• Scale assignments — support hundreds of developers with low maintenance
• Track progress clearly — dashboards, completion states, and nudges
• Support compliance evidence — reliable reporting for audits

To better understand how AppSec currently manage assignments and where friction occurs, I broke the problem down into core jobs-to-be-done and mapped the end-to-end assignment journey.

Figure 1: AppSec Persona JTBD

OOUX Exploration

Before designing Assignments, Snyk Learn already included lessons, learning paths, and certificates.

To ensure the Assignments module integrated cleanly into an existing ecosystem of objects (Lessons, Learning Paths, Certificates), I mapped the object relationships to reduce ambiguity across design and engineering.

Figure 2: Snyk Learn's Object Glossary

Figure 3: Object relationships map

Figure 4: Objects, metadata, core content and CTA map, focusing on ASSIGNMENT

Assignment journey — Task Flow & Scope Exploration

After defining the objects, metadata, core content, and CTAs, I mapped the end-to-end assignment journey to understand the full scope of the feature.
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This revealed that Assignments was not a single interaction, but a system spanning multiple tasks:
• View assignment progress
• Create assignments
• Edit assignments
• Delete assignments
• Send reminders

Figure 5: Assignment Journey — Task flow highlights system breadth

I shared this task flow with product and engineering early. Since this was a new enterprise workflow, we intentionally avoided building the full lifecycle upfront. Instead, we aligned on delivering the minimum set of tasks needed to validate value with internal teams and early customers.
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‍V1 focus
‍View assignment progress → Monitor assignment completion
Create assignments → Roll out learning at scale

We intentionally deferred editing, deletion, and reminders so we could focus on delivering validated core value quickly.

This decision reduced system complexity, accelerated delivery, and ensured we could validate the core enterprise use case before expanding.

Early exploration focused on mapping the assignment journey and identifying where clarity and efficiency could be improved. These explorations helped validate the V1 scope and informed how key actions should be structured in the UI.

Figure 6: V1 Assignment flow — scoped create + progress experience

After reviewing this flow with engineering, product, and content, the team flagged that including AssignmentID and learning paths would introduce unnecessary system complexity and slow initial delivery.

While these elements could be valuable long-term, they were not essential to validating the core enterprise use case: assigning learning at scale and tracking completion with confidence.

As a result, we deliberately simplified the V1 model to focus on:
‍• Creating assignments by selecting lessons and due dates
‍• Viewing assignment progress and completion status

This decision reduced cognitive and technical overhead, accelerated V1 delivery, and created a clear, intentional path for future expansion once real usage data was available.

View Assignment Progress & Create Assignment — V1 Key UI Screens

In the V1 experience, AppSec can log in, select an assignment from a dropdown menu, and quickly create assignments. Assignment progress is displayed in a clear, structured table, with the option to export progress data as a CSV for further analysis and reporting.

The screens below illustrate the core admin workflows we prioritized in V1.

Figure 7: V1 key UI screens — focused on admin workflows and export

Design Decisions

‍• Status tags for risk clarity
‍• Filters for targeted views
‍• CSV export for compliance workflows
‍• Confirmation summary for confidence

Figure 8:  V1 Assignment experience

Once V1 validated the core workflow, we expanded the system to support editing, deleting, and sending reminders, allowing AppSec to adapt assignments as plans, timelines, and team needs evolved.