Marker Learning
Write-As-You-Go Reporting
Enabling school psychologists to start writing before all the pieces arrive
Role:
Lead UX Designer
Team:
Product Manager,
Engineers,
Machine Learning,
School Psychologists
Duration:
2 months
OVERVIEW
Write-as-You-Go is a workflow redesign that enabled school psychologists to start writing reports before all their documents were collected — removing the biggest barrier to getting started. It drove a 15% increase in weekly active users from Alpha to Beta, and validated that fitting existing workflows was the key to adoption.
WHAT’S MARKER?
Special education reporting made faster, clearer, and more compliant
Marker helps school psychologists conduct faster, more accurate Learning Disability evaluations. Only 5% of students with a learning disability actually receive a diagnosis. Marker exists to close that gap.
But faster evaluations don't start with better tools. They start with a workflow that fits how psychologists actually work — and the original product didn't.
PROBLEM
The product required all documents upfront. Documents never arrive all at once.
School psychologists work under legally-mandated deadlines, constantly chasing documents from parents, teachers, and administrators, a process that can take weeks.
But Marker's original workflow required all documents to be uploaded before writing could begin. If a new document arrived mid-process, there was only one option: delete everything and start over.
The product just wasn't built for how psychologists actually worked.
SOLUTION
A flexible workflow that met psychologists where they were.
ITERATIONS
Shipping was the beginning, not the end.
Enhancing the case table
Beta feedback revealed psychologists couldn't easily organize or prioritize their growing caseloads. We added sorting, filters, and key columns based on direct user feedback.
A minimal table with no filters, no status visibility, and no way to prioritize work.
Sortable columns, active filters, and Report Status badges gave psychologists real control over their caseload.
Improving discoverability
New students weren't highlighted as caseloads grew — easy to miss. A simple highlight state solved it and set the stage for incremental feature releases built on top of the case table.
Evolving the Student Page
Psychologists naturally kept checklists and notes as they evaluated students — so we explored adding both directly into the page, meeting them where their existing workflow already lived.
RESULTS
A 15% lift in weekly active users validated the bet on workflow flexibility.
Write-as-You-Go launched to positive beta feedback and drove a 15% increase in weekly active users from Alpha to Beta — from 35% to 50%.
Psychologists could finally work the way they always had. The product came to them, not the other way around.
REFLECTION
The hardest part wasn't the design. It was identifying the right problem to solve.
Leadership wanted new features. The data said the workflow was broken. Advocating for the right problem — even when it was harder to build and required cross-squad alignment — was what made the difference.
Fitting an existing workflow is harder than designing a new one. But it's the only way to drive real adoption.
