How to Redesign a Digital Product Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Users)
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That’s exactly where we found ourselves with one of our clients, a Romanian EdTech platform serving 650 schools and over 100,000 users. Teachers were spending way too much time on onboarding, students were getting lost, and the experience was far from what it should’ve been.
When we got on board with the project, we pitched them the process I’m about to share with you. I even threw in a money-back guarantee if it didn’t work. But it did. In fact, it worked so well that we ended up running more workshops and projects together.
Here’s how we turned a frustrating digital experience into something that actually works.
The Part Where We Face the Facts
The first step in any redesign is getting real about what’s going on. You can’t fix what you don’t fully understand, and jumping straight to solutions without exploring the problem is like trying to shoot in the dark.
That’s why we always start by sitting down with the people who know the product best –founders, product managers, etc. This part is about getting into the details. We look at the core features, the goals of the product, and the challenges the business is facing.
Sometimes, the problem isn’t just with the product itself—it’s the market, user expectations, or how it stacks up against competitors. Speaking of which, it’s not enough to know what your product does on its own. You need to understand how it fits into the broader landscape.
When working on the EdTech platform, we looked at where it stood against both local and international players. By the time we mapped out positioning and competitive analysis, the gaps were clear.
At this point, you should have a full picture—what’s working, what’s not, and where the real potential lies.
Know Your Users, Know Your Product
You can’t design for people if you don’t know who they are. Get to know your users inside and out. You’ve got to map out their journey, see where they get stuck, and understand how they interact with your product from start to finish.
Start by building user personas. These shouldn’t be sketches of “the average user” (obviously). They need to be detailed, representing specific groups with distinct needs, pain points, and goals.
With the EdTech platform, teachers were the primary users, so we focused heavily on understanding their workflow. But students, administrators, and even parents played a role, too, so we couldn’t ignore them.
Once you’ve nailed that down, map out their journey. Break down every step users take—from the first interaction to completing tasks within the product. For our client, onboarding was a huge headache for teachers, so we zeroed in on that.
And don’t just focus on where things go wrong. Pay attention to their emotional journey—are they frustrated? Confused? Where do they get stuck? Once you know this, you stop guessing and start designing for real people with real needs.
Sketching, Prototyping, and a Little Trial by Fire
Now comes the fun part—prototyping. But before jumping into that, we did our homework by researching how competitors solved similar problems. Looking at other solutions can spark fresh ideas and give you a sense of what works and what doesn’t.
Once we got some insights, we started turning them into tangible solutions. Don’t overthink it, tho. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress. Start small, get feedback, iterate.
We’re big fans of keeping it simple in the beginning—pen and paper sketches, boxes, arrows, Post-it notes, you name it. Once we had the concept, we created a clickable prototype for testing.
Testing the prototype is where the real learning happens. You can think you’ve solved the problem, but until you put it in front of real users, you won’t know for sure.
With the EdTech platform, we went straight to the teachers. Their feedback showed us where we were on the right track and where we needed to make adjustments.
Also, a rule of thumb: prototyping isn’t a one-and-done process. It’s a cycle of creating, testing, learning, and refining. Keep your focus on the user experience, and make sure each iteration gets you closer to a solution that works for them.
Designing What People Will Actually Use
With a validated prototype in hand, you can move on to the final design phase. Going beyond the colors, cool graphics, and whatnot, you’ve got to make sure the experience feels organic, or you’ll end up with users cursing your design in frustration.
This is where attention to detail becomes non-negotiable. Every interaction, button placement, and layout tweak can make a huge difference in the overall user experience.
For us, one of the biggest changes we made was reorganizing the sidebar and adding clear, step-by-step guidance to help teachers set up their classrooms, add students, and get everything running smoothly. The goal was to make the experience effortless so they could focus on teaching, not figuring out the software.
We also built a complete design system—typography, colors, icons, and all the other components—so that the developers had everything they needed to build the product without constant back-and-forth.
Key Takeaways (Or What We’d Do Again)
If there’s one thing I can conclude on (and something most of us can agree on), is that redesigning a product isn’t about surface-level changes. You have to understand the root of the problems and work together to solve them.
This process takes time, collaboration, and, yes, a bit of patience. You can’t just throw a new feature in and hope for the best. You need to understand the problem from all angles before jumping into solutions.
Collaboration is key here. Bringing everyone—developers, product managers, users—into the process early on made a huge difference. Real feedback from people with real problems saved us from costly mistakes.
In the end, it’s not about making something look pretty (though that helps)—it’s about making it work. And trust me, when your product works, people notice. That’s the real win.
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