Learn Overview

Snyk Learn enables AppSec teams to assign secure coding lessons and track learner progress at scale.

‍
This project focused on improving how assignments are created and monitored for enterprise teams managing training across large groups of engineers.

‍My role: I led end-to-end product design for the Assignments experience, partnering closely with product and engineering to define scope, explore solutions, and deliver a focused V1 release.

‍Scope of this case study: the Manage Assignments experience.
‍

  1. 🧒 Role

    Product Designer

  2. πŸ™Œ Collaborator

    Product Manager, Developers, Content Β Managers, Product Designers, Product Marketing Managers, Brand Designers

  3. πŸ—“οΈ Date

    2021-2024

Problem

Snyk Learn offered high-quality, bite-sized lessons, but AppSec teams had to share content through LMS platforms, email, or Slack.

These workarounds didn’t scale and made it difficult to:
β€’ Distribute relevant lessons to the right teams
β€’
Track completion and progress
β€’ Generate evidence for audits and compliance

As a result, AppSec teams faced high effort and low visibility, with no reliable way to prove learning impact.β†’ This gap between strong content and operational control led us to design the Assignments experience.

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

To understand how AppSec teams currently manage learning assignments β€” and where friction occurs β€” I translated the problem into core Jobs-to-be-Done and mapped the end-to-end assignment journey.

This helped us:
β€’ Focus on the highest-value opportunities
β€’ Surface unmet needs and workflow inefficiencies
β€’ Prioritize where Assignments could deliver the most impact

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 β€” 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.
‍
This revealed that Assignments was not a single interaction, but a system spanning multiple tasks:
β€’ View assignment progress
β€’ Create assignments
β€’ Edit assignments
β€’ Delete assignments
β€’ Send reminders

Figure 5: Assignment Journey β€” 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.
‍
‍V1 focus
β€’ Create assignments β†’ Roll out learning at scale
β€’ View assignment progress
β†’ Monitor assignment completion


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.

View Assignment Progress & Create Assignment Flow (Early Exploration)

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 β€” 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 β€” 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 β€” 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: Β 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.

Outcome & Impact

‍
Prior to this work, admins relied on manual workarounds with limited visibility into learning progress.

The new Assignments experience enabled AppSec teams to distribute training at scale, monitor completion in a structured view, and export audit-ready reports for compliance workflows. This shifted Snyk Learn from primarily content delivery toward a more operational enterprise tool.

As the product’s first monetization initiative, I led the end-to-end design of assignment and reporting capabilities that allowed AppSec teams to operationalize learning. Following launch, the product saw significant growth in paid adoption and revenue contribution within the first six months.

Figure 9: Assignment final design