Project Goals
Abstract’s innovative version control software for designers required users to adopt new mental models and workflows, creating significant onboarding friction. The reliance on 1:1 training calls with designers was unsustainable as the user base grew, leading to inconsistent education quality, high adoption barriers, and customer churn due to lack of understanding. A scalable, standardized user education solution was needed to improve user onboarding, reduce reliance on manual training, and enhance overall product adoption.
Problem
Solution
Result
The curriculum of 37 videos across 7 topics replaced designer-led 1:1 training as the primary way users learned Abstract, scaling education to a base of over 15,000 users. It returned 20+ hours per week to the design team (time previously spent on live training calls) and reduced support ticket volume on the topics it covered.
I treated this as a curriculum design problem, not a video production task. After completing a course in curriculum design, I structured the content around how users actually adopt Abstract: 7 topics ordered by workflow, each broken into short videos a user could reach for at their moment of need rather than a linear course they had to sit through from beginning to end. Production ran on a lightweight pipeline, scripts drafted and reviewed in shared Google docs, slides built in Adobe XD, and videos recorded and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, which let me as a solo designer ship 37 videos without a video team.
Process & Execution
- User research: Survey sent to all users immediately after a training session.
- Learn curricula design: I took a course on how to design and teach curricula for technical topics.
- Project management: OKR project plan to redesign our teaching as a true curricula.
- Content planning: Lead cross-functional workshops to outline the content needed.
- Write and refine scripts: I wrote, copy-edited, and refined nearly 40 video scripts.
- Create visual assets: Slides, graphics, icons, illustrations, and animations.
- Record, post-process, and publish: I used QuickTime, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe XD, and Adobe Audition to record and edit the video and audio for all of the videos before publishing to YouTube.
Research & Analytics
I used qualitative and quantitative research to inform my plan to redesign our teaching materials into a full curricula. At the time, our method of teaching was to meet each new design team with a 1-hour video call to introduce the main workflow of Abstract, followed a few weeks later by a 1-2 hour video call with a set of topics into which customers could choose to dig deeper. Our research consisted of:
- A simple survey sent to each team after a video call that asked them to rate their trainer on a scale from 1-10 and allowed feedback in an open-ended text box.
- Observing and documenting each team's questions and the concepts they struggled with in order to detect patterns and common difficulties.
- Analyzing support tickets to determine which aspects of the product had the highest number of questions.
Core Principles
Clear and concise
- Avoid jargon and explain all new terms
- Avoid overly wordy phrases and fuzzy phrases that could be interpreted differently
- Every sentence should add value
Focus on jobs to be done
- Each video should help users understand how to accomplish their task, rather than focusing on what the feature can do
- The user should feel empowered to do their work
Quickly consumable
- Videos should be 5-10 minutes long to allow for quick consumption and realization of value
- Whenever possible, each video should be able to stand alone
- Recap what has been covered to cement learnings
Tailored for designers
- Use familiar references designers will understand
- Focus on tasks and priorities that designers care about
- Create a guided process that brings designers along from their current workflow to the Abstract workflow
I watched the videos right away and they have definitely helped our team! They are short, to the point and you can quickly find individual answers. Great! — Abstract Customer
