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Solutions
Company Stage
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Solutions
Company Stage
Rapid Prototyping
&
Mobile App
When McGraw Hill learned that students were searching TikTok for studying tools and getting misinformation, the iconic textbook publisher decided to ask a big question: Can we create a studying app for students today?
The Team
Product Manager
iOS Developer
iOS Developer
Product Designer
The results
4.8
1000+ App store ratings
28%
Growth in digital billings
30%
Higher retention over competitors
The scope
2
Missions
2+
Years
Active
Status
Prototyping
Mobile app
Improvements
the challenge
For 130 years, McGraw Hill has been the world's most trusted educational publisher, reaching over 20M students globally and generating over $1B in revenue. But in today’s market they needed to find a way to retain a younger audience with digital first experiences.
The vision for the McGraw Hill Sharpen app was to provide a feed of videos and swipeable study tools that mimicked the feel of TikTok with the gamified incentives of Duolingo. But first they needed a prototype to get the board’s approval.
Video streaming embed
Social learning tools
Progress tracking analytics
Adaptive learning algorithms
Micro-learning solutions
the a.team solution
It’s always a challenge for large enterprise companies to spin up a team of diverse builders in a short amount of time. “From the start, A.Team enabled us to prototype and iterate more efficiently. Then ultimately, at the product development stage, they gave us the agility to quickly scale up and down with the resources needed to get to market sooner,” said Justin Singh, Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer at McGraw Hill.
Agile product development
McGraw Hill needed to build fast. “As a team, we wanted a faster, more agile way to undergo product development.”
Workforce flexibility
A.Team offered the ability to scale the team up and down. “What we found with A.Team was their passion to help us grow and their passion to be flexible.”
Diverse Talent
The team included iOS and full-stack developers, product managers, and designers. “We were able to very quickly bring in A.Teamers with diverse backgrounds that enriched our product development.”
Justin Singh, CTO @ McGraw Hill
Jared Cocken, A.Teamer
building the team
McGraw Hill brought in A.Team to assemble a small three-person team to build a prototype to test with students and show their board. Based on highly positive initial feedback, McGraw Hill grew the team to eight product builders for the MVP, and then expanded again to an A.Team of 27 builders—spanning software architects, product managers, mobile developers, and growth marketers—blending with the internal team seamlessly. A.Team gave McGraw Hill access to a talent pool that a publishing company wouldn’t otherwise enjoy.
Product Manager & Designer
Jared C.
iOS Developer
Lyndsey S.
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Full-stack Developer
Nick H.
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Back-end Developer
Edwin I.
Android Developer
Scott S.
QA Engineer
Imran K.
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building the product
They built a platform that allowed the content team to create, preview and publish 95 courses so their learners could engage with accessible low-latency TikTok-style videos, flashcards and quizzes through a best-in-class mobile UI. Although it started as an MVP, Sharpen was built for high scale—that meant focusing resources on the app’s efficiency and back end for it to handle high traffic.
To get buy-in from the board, Singh delivered a rapid prototype that had been pre-tested with student users. “We told the board, ‘Imagine if you had that when you were in college.’ And then we showed what students were saying about the prototype. All of a sudden the board was like, ‘We get it.”
results
It worked. Sharpen was quickly adopted amongst thousands of students across the country, splashed across the front page of Forbes (Students Viewed This Type of TikTok 412 Million Times—And It's Not Porn), and led McGraw Hill's latest earnings report as it recorded a 28% growth in its digital billings. It now has over 1000+ ratings averaging 4.8 stars, and retention numbers 30% higher than their education app competitors.
With Sharpen, McGraw Hill has shown what true digital transformation looks like for enterprise companies—proving that anything is possible when you have the right team.
4.8
1000+ App store ratings
28%
Growth in digital billings
30%
Higher retention over competitors
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