The Dyslexia Resource

How we helped an educational institution turn their in-person training program into an immersive digital experience.

The Schenck School is recognized as one of the top schools in the United States for students with Dyslexia. They also provide one of the best training programs for teachers who work with dyslexic students. When COVID hit in 2019, the school quickly pivoted to bring their immersive training program online and continue to grow with new audiences. Three Five Two helped the school define a business model for their virtual training program and create the technology and content needed to generate sustainable growth.

"Three Five Two opened our eyes to what we really needed. A developer would just get us to point A, but Three Five Two would get us through the entire alphabet.”
-Josh Clark, Head of School

The Challenge

Launching this product successfully would require more than just implementing a Learning Management System (LMS) solution, a challenge in itself. The Schenck School needed a business strategy for making the program financially viable, and a lean, agile approach to bringing the product to market successfully.

team brainstorming the app design

Our Approach

We started with two Design Sprints that defined the problem from a user’s perspective. Together, the team refined their strategy into what would lead to a strong product vision and customer journey. We evaluated features from outside the category and used prototypes to gather valuable feedback from the school's target customers to inform the product design. With a validated concept, the school was able to move forward with a plan confidently.

Next, a cross-functional team of product, design, content and technology experts created the digital platform and content for the training program. We quickly validated the first iteration of the product experience with customers and designed a roadmap for subsequent iterations. We tested each one with customers in rapid sprints and worked with the school's program directors to transform their in-person courses into an engaging and immersive digital experience.

In less than four months, the school's first online training platform launched with a very positive response from both customers and strategic partners. To ensure the school was set up for success with their new platform, we coached the school’s team of educators to manage their new platform from day one into the future as it scales.

The Breakthrough

Expert teachers are not product designers and vice versa. The way these teams succeeded was by trusting each other and really listening to the end user. Prioritizing the users’ experience and focusing on changing dyslexic students’ lives made the process ego-free. Combining world-class teaching expertise with a proven product development process made the product a huge success - even on a compressed timeline. 

Services & Capabilities

  • Market Research
  • Product Design
  • Business Model Strategy
  • Prototyping & User Research
  • Agile Product Development
  • Content Strategy
  • Product Training & Handoff

The Results

“As soon as we hit live, we had hundreds of teachers enroll. Within three months, we recovered our entire investment, and are now having discussions we would have never had before. Even this morning, we had a major school contact us. We spent more on the process, and a lot less on the product, than we expected. That was a great ROI on this. We built something that our competitors spent millions on, for far less. Now, we are positioned to grow a service line and our impact, in a way that we wouldn’t have ever considered possible.”

- Josh Clark, Head of School

Want to learn more about how we can help your organization with a similar challenge?

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