Udemy
A tool for instructors to make coupons
Team:
Will Yuhas, Product Manager
Katie Bent, Product Marketing Manager
Alex Parker, Pricing Analyst
Role:
Product Designer - UX and interface design
Problem
“The Wild West of Free Coupons”
The coupon system allowed instructors to create infinite quantities of free coupons that would never expire. Our marketplace was shifting to demand-based pricing (i.e. more popular courses will be priced higher), but this system was jeopardized by the fact that any students could take any course for free.
We had also long seen a correlation between free coupon abuse and spam accounts, and it was unclear how much revenue we were missing as well.
The old coupon tool featured an inline creation tool and a simple table
VISION
Give instructors control, but create guardrails to prevent abuse
Success meant creating a system that allowed instructors to maintain creativity in creating coupons, while maximizing their profit. Our team experimented with different models, and got the most positive feedback around creating predefined coupons that instructors could choose from. Our initial approach would limit time, duration, and quantity.
Core Design Principles
Build for flexibility
Marketing wants to be able to test more coupon types in the future. Build a UI system that reduces dependencies.
Err on the side of
over-communicating
The system is new and every detail matters. Emphasize education to this new system.
Add verification steps
Instructors can’t edit a coupon once it has been created. Give them opportunities to double check their work
Navigating a New System
.
Navigating a New System
Our coupon sets had subtle differences, so we wanted to make sure they were obvious to instructors. We created a lightweight wizard that walked instructors through each step, emphasizing differences between options. Also, because they cannot edit coupons once they are live, we also added additional checks to prevent errors.
Instructors are limited to making 3 coupons per month. We partnered with content strategy to explore more branded microcopy
Marketing wanted to experiment with different coupon types, so we kept a flexible card design to reduce one-off designs
Because coupons were now time-sensitive, we implemented scheduling so that instructors could prepare ahead of time
Creating More Organization
Instructors often had to dig through the table to find the right coupons that were active and could be shared. Since each month would only have a small number of active coupons, we pulled them into their own table, with the appropriate CTAs. Instructors can still explore their coupon history in a separate table.
Launched Nov.2019
The new coupon system was rolled out to instructors in November 2019, supported by a massive effort from our product marketing and support teams.
Post launch, more instructors started creating paid coupons, and fewer are creating free coupons. Previously, discount coupons accounted for ~30% of all coupons, but has increased to 55%.