Teacher first is a web platform designed to assist EF’s English language teachers in managing their classes and administrative tasks. Collaborating with a remote, cross-functional team based in Switzerland, I joined as the lead designer during their delivery phase to devise and implement new features for both the teaching and operations teams.
UX/UI design
Interaction design
User interviews
I initiated the project by conducting interviews with stakeholders to gather business and technical requirements to have a clear understanding of the product and business’s goals. I then delved through previous research involving the teachers and operations team. UX and UI designs were ideated, designed and delivered one to two sprints ahead of development phase. This timeline allowed for planning, design iterations and design handover with the engineers.
Operations team solutions
One of the recurrent pain-points for operation team were last-minute lesson re-assignments due to last minute lesson bookings by students and teacher illness.
I created an interface that provides the operations team with a clear view of available teachers, showcasing their areas of expertise and current schedules. This design simplifies the process of re-assigning lessons, especially for teachers within specific location quotas.
Operations team UI: Lesson reassignment in the next hour
Teacher solutions
My primary focus was feature development for EF’s teachers. While some teachers were full-time staff, the majority were freelancers in in EF’s global centres, from US, South Africa and to China. I worked on feature development to help streamline their jobs to be done, such as lesson preparation, calendar management and most importantly, invoicing.
Design process
To grasp EF's current invoicing system, I mapped out the user flows in order to understand the technical workflow of EF's current invoicing system and how discrepancies in payments were handled.
Hours worked are automatically aggregated via the Teacher First platform. Each teacher's payment details, kept in the Salesforce database, consider specifics like their assigned center and whether they're full-time or on a contract basis. This compiled data then awaits the respective teacher's invoice submission.
Teacher invoice submission userflow
Defining the problem
The invoicing submission and approval process posed many problems for as a freelance teacher and operations team.
Payment variations
Factors such as the type of lessons conducted and supplementary fees based on diverse lesson types (ie. Private versus group lessons, Business versus Conversational English, bilingual lessons) meant submitting an invoicing is not a straightforward process.
Challenging automatic invoice submissions
Not every teacher submits their invoices on time. While the Teacher First platform auto-consolidates worked hours, teachers have the ability to flag discrepancies in previously approved invoices.
Navigating Partial payments
The situation is further complicated by lesson partial payments, which might arise from reasons such as students arriving late or technical glitches.
The situation is further complicated by lesson partial payments, which might arise from reasons such as students arriving late or technical glitches.
Solutions
Invoicing Workflow Enhancement
The hours worked are automatically consolidated from the Teacher First platform. With data fetched from Salesforce's database such as the teacher's designated center and compensation structure were factored in create a pre-filled invoice of hours worked.
The hours worked are automatically consolidated from the Teacher First platform. With data fetched from Salesforce's database such as the teacher's designated center and compensation structure were factored in create a pre-filled invoice of hours worked.
Discrepancy Review Mechanism
Teachers could flag any payment discrepancies in the invoice with an explanation in the notes prior to submission. This raises a ticket in Freshdesk for the operations staff to review. This brought clarity and efficiency to the process, minimizing turnaround time for payment adjustments.
Teachers could flag any payment discrepancies in the invoice with an explanation in the notes prior to submission. This raises a ticket in Freshdesk for the operations staff to review. This brought clarity and efficiency to the process, minimizing turnaround time for payment adjustments.
Flexible Payment Structure
Recognizing the diverse nature of lesson types and supplementary fees, the system was revamped to accommodate and the unique payment structures associated with each. This ensured that teachers were compensated fairly for every lesson taught, whether it be a group lesson, a specialised bilingual session or Business English.
Teacher invoice discrepancy review
Results
• 3,000 Teachers and 100,000+ students were migrated from Axis to Teacher First
• Saved 200+ hours weekly with streamlining Operational processes
• Enhanced Teacher Experience with a 30% Increase in Teacher NPS Scores