Best in Class

Organization: Common Sense Media
Role: Content strategy, editorial direction, and product management
Period: 2021–2023

Overview and Problem

Our user research and data analytics found that post-pandemic, teachers were more time-strapped than ever, and our primary search-and-browse experience no longer met their needs. Since 90% of our traffic came from search engines and sessions were short, I prototyped a new content type that would give these educators a faster, more effective way to find vetted tools.

Process and Solution

Common Sense functioned as a non-profit with a startup mentality, and we often had limited engineering and design resources. With this in mind, I started testing the concept as a series of blog articles that presented a handful of actionable recommendations in our approachable editorial voice. The idea was to give at-a-glance recommendations and some alternatives for educators. Users could get all they needed from the page or dig deeper into our more substantive content types. Every session would include a CTA for the newsletter. I collaborated with a UX researcher to conduct user interviews, run A/B tests, and dig into Google Analytics. The articles tested well both in the interviews and in the user data, including high satisfaction on a pop-up survey.

I used this data to shop the concept to executive leadership. After the project was greenlit, I joined a small team as the key content stakeholder, and we used a design studio process to iterate on the initial prototype. My role involved:

Creating the editorial processes and style guides that guided the curation process
Working with our copywriter to develop reusable template copy
Leading my editorial team to develop and write all the “Best in Class” curations
Informing the page’s final design, which included slimming down the prototype, automating content generation, and adding a new at-a-glance comparison table

Archived comparison table for classroom news sources, showing grades, price, privacy, platforms, pros, cons, and a bottom-line summary. — The at-a-glance comparison table. Open the image for a closer look.

Archived recommendation blocks for interactive whiteboards, with tool summaries, screenshots, grade ranges, prices, privacy ratings, and links to detailed reviews. — Recommendation blocks and supporting editorial copy. Open the image to view the full screenshot.

Archived How We Rate and About Our Review Process sections, explaining the criteria for engagement, pedagogy, and support. — How We Rate and About Our Review Process.

Results and Impact

The initial blog post prototype immediately validated our hypothesis with high user engagement. The final, dedicated content type built on that success:

The new, automated design significantly reduced page creation time for my team
Surprisingly, these pages satisfied the user need for at-a-glance info while increasing time on page over the site average and dramatically reducing bounce rate from search engines
Several of the Best-in-Class pages entered the pantheon of top-trafficked pages on the site

Check out some of the Best in Class curations

These pages have since been retired due to organizational shifts from edtech reviews to AI safety. The links below open archived versions.