An EdTech startup identified a fundamental inefficiency in private tutoring: agencies were adding friction, cost, and opacity to a process that should be simple. Net Solutions built two interactive mobile app prototypes to validate the concept and demonstrate the product vision to early stakeholders.
Private tutoring agencies were creating unnecessary complexity and cost between parents seeking quality tutors and educators seeking fair, timely payment.
Parents had no transparent way to evaluate tutors by expertise, ratings, or availability before committing to a booking. The agency model controlled information flow and limited informed decision-making.
Tutors were paid inconsistently and slowly due to agency intermediation in the payment process. Removing the middleman required a direct, app-integrated payment solution.
There was no structured way for parents, students, and tutors to communicate directly before or during an engagement. The agency acted as an unnecessary gatekeeper throughout.
Before investing in full development, the startup needed to validate core user flows with potential users. Interactive prototypes were the right tool to test the concept quickly and cheaply.
Net Solutions applied a prototype-first methodology using lean UX principles. User personas were developed for both tutor and student archetypes, journeys were mapped, and interactive wireframes were produced for both app sides before any production development was considered.
Net Solutions delivered interactive mobile app prototypes for both sides of the tutoring marketplace.
The prototype allowed parents to discover and filter tutors by rating, subject expertise, and availability. The full booking and communication flow was visualized and testable with real users.
Tutors could manage their profile, set availability, and view a simulated payment and scheduling flow. The experience validated the product from the supply side of the marketplace.
Complete user journey documentation was produced covering the tutor-student engagement lifecycle end to end. This gave the development roadmap a validated, evidence-based foundation.
The interactive prototypes demonstrated the viability of a direct, agency-free tutoring marketplace to early stakeholders. The startup entered investor conversations with a tested product narrative.
The prototypes gave the startup a solid foundation for investor conversations and product planning.
Interactive prototypes demonstrated the concept clearly and compellingly to early-stage stakeholders. The startup entered funding discussions with a tangible, tested product story.
Early identification of friction points in the user journey prevented those issues from being built into the product. Development resources could be focused on validated features from the start.
The validated design foundation meant the development team could build with confidence rather than reworking assumptions. The prototype investment saved significant time and cost in the build phase.
Net Solutions understood that the most valuable first step for an early-stage startup is not code. It is a validated design. Their lean UX methodology gave this client exactly what they needed to move forward with confidence. Before you build, validate. Let us help you design and test your product concept before committing to development.
The most expensive mistake in product development is building the wrong thing at full scale. Net Solutions’ Product Prototyping practice gives you validated, investor-ready concepts, built with real user feedback, before your development budget is committed. If you’re at the stage of ‘we have an idea, we need to know if it works,’ this is where to start.
Ask Sol anything about digital products, AI, engineering, or growth, and get answers drawn from years of Net Solutions thinking and experience.