GMAT Resources – From Concept to Revenue

Built a structured GMAT resource from scratch — elevating user experience and unlocking a new revenue stream.

Team
1 PM (myself), 4 developers, 4 QAs and 2 designers including me

Timeline
8 Months
(discovery → design → launch → iterations)

My Role
Product Strategy, Market & User Research, UX/UI design, QA, GTM, Stakeholder Management

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📌Overview: Laying the Foundation for Smarter GMAT Prep

For students aiming to study abroad, the GMAT plays a crucial role in securing admission to top business schools. However, many aspirants struggle with fragmented prep methods, juggling multiple platforms without a structured plan or real-time performance insights.

To address this gap, we built GMAT Resources — a comprehensive, affordable, and user-centric prep platform. Designed from scratch, the solution delivers a structured learning path, performance tracking, and seamless practice, all while unlocking a brand-new revenue stream for the business. This became one of the first self-serve offerings to directly generate revenue outside of our consulting funnel.

🧩Problem Statement

Despite the growing demand for GMAT preparation, students face several key challenges:

  1. Lack of a Structured Study Plan: Without a clear roadmap, students struggle with what to study and when, leading to inefficient preparation.
  2. Limited Performance Insights: Students have no way to track their strengths and weaknesses in real time, making it difficult to improve strategically.
  3. High Costs of GMAT Prep: Many premium test prep resources cost $300+, making them inaccessible for a large segment of students.
  4. Scattered Study Resources: While multiple platforms offer different aspects of GMAT prep (lessons, practice tests, analytics), students often have to juggle between them, making learning less seamless.
  5. Low Engagement & High Dropout Rates: Many students lose motivation mid-way due to a lack of interactive and engaging study tools.

🔍 Research & Insights

To shape GMAT Resources into a competitive and student-first product, we conducted both market benchmarking and user research to validate real needs and gaps in the current ecosystem.

📊 Competitor Analysis

We benchmarked leading GMAT prep platforms — including Magoosh, Manhattan Prep, GMAT Club, and Official GMAT Prep — to evaluate pricing models, content structure, and engagement strategies.

These findings validated our direction to build a solution that is affordable, structured, and engaging — especially for first-time GMAT aspirants in cost-sensitive markets.

👥 User Research & Survey Findings

We conducted 1:1 interviews, onboarding feedback analysis, and surveys with prospective GMAT users to better understand their struggles.

Key Stats:

  • 📉 80% struggled to structure their prep without clear study plans

  • 💸 60% dropped off before sign-up due to lack of gated previews

  • 🧠 50% preferred interactive tools over passive reading content

Common pain points shared by GMAT aspirants: 

“I never know what to study next – there’s no structure to guide me. I keep switching topics randomly and it feels like I’m not making any real progress.”

“I’m using five different tools – one for lessons, one for practice, another for notes  and it’s exhausting. Nothing talks to each other, and I have no way to stay on track.”

“Even though I’ve been studying consistently, I have no clue if I’m actually improving. There’s no feedback, no analytics, nothing that shows me where I stand or what I need to fix.”

These insights became central to how we prioritized features like personalized study plans, gated trials, and an analytics dashboard.

💡Solution: GMAT Resources

To tackle these challenges, we built GMAT Resources, an all-in-one platform designed to make GMAT prep structured, insightful, and affordable.

  1. ✅ Study Plan: Personalized plans based on a student’s exam timeline and learning speed, ensuring they stay on track.
  2. ✅ In-depth Performance Analytics: A data-driven dashboard that provides clear insights into progress, weak areas, and recommended next steps.
  3. ✅ Practice Tests: Sectional and full-length mock tests with adaptive difficulty, mirroring the GMAT exam format to help students prepare effectively.
  4. ✅ Engagement-optimized UX: Gated previews of premium content to increase sign-ups and user retention.
  5. ✅ Affordable Pricing Model: Providing a structured and cost-effective alternative to expensive GMAT prep courses.

By combining structured learning, real-time insights, and an intuitive user experience, GMAT Resources helps students stay motivated, track their progress effectively, and maximize their chances of GMAT success.

👩‍💻 My Role & Responsibilities

As the sole Product Owner and Designer on this project, I led the GMAT Resources module from idea to launch — ensuring it met user needs, aligned with business goals, and provided a seamless learning experience.

🛠️ Product Strategy & Ownership

  • Defined the scope, objectives, and success metrics for the GMAT Resources module.
  • Conducted competitor benchmarking and gap analysis to validate product-market fit.
  • Prioritized features based on user feedback and business value (study plans, analytics, practice tools, etc.).

🎯 User Experience & Design

  • Designed the complete user flow – from dashboard to lesson navigation to practice modules.
  • Created low-fidelity wireframes and translated them into high-fidelity, dev-ready UI screens.
  • Integrated usability best practices for engagement, accessibility, and information clarity.

🧪 Execution & Iteration

  • Collaborated with developers, testers and business development team for phased rollouts.
  • Conducted internal walkthroughs, incorporated team feedback, and improved flows post-launch.
  • Introduced gated views, CTA placements, and micro-interactions to enhance onboarding and conversion.

📈 Impact Ownership

  • Mapped key user actions in Amplitude to uncover behavioral trends and drop-off points across the product.

  • Partnered with business development and marketing teams to align feature rollouts with lead-generation campaigns.

  • Translated user insights into measurable outcomes including increased engagement, higher retention, and conversion optimization.

  • Collaborated with the sales team to position GMAT Resources as a standalone, revenue-generating offering beyond the core consulting funnel.

  • Drove a feature-led monetization strategy that successfully turned the product into a consistent monthly revenue stream.

🔧 Execution: User-Centric Features That Solved Real Problems

Key Features Designed & Why They Were Needed

1. Dashboard with Smart Analytics

💡 Why?: Students lacked visibility into their own progress, strengths, and weak areas – leading to inefficient prep cycles.

✅ What We Did:

  • Designed an intuitive dashboard with section-wise & overall accuracy graphs.

  • Added percentile rank, time tracking, and average time per question.

  • Showed strong vs. weak areas with “Best” and “Least Performing” subjects.

  • Enabled sorting of test questions by time spent and attempt date.

  • Included review CTAs to revisit each question and its explanation.

2. Personalized Study Plans

💡 Why?: Students struggled to self-structure their prep across topics and timeframes.

✅ What We Did:

  • Developed AI-driven study plans tailored to user timeline (1, 2, 3-month tracks).

  • Synced progress tracking with study plan milestones.

  • Added Mark-as-Complete CTAs with sidebar sync for lesson tracking.

  • Showed upcoming lessons and overall progress on the dashboard.

  • Included downloadable study guides and assignments to support learning.

3. Interactive Video Lessons with Help Guides

💡 Why?: Passive text-based prep wasn’t engaging, leading to lower retention and completion rates.

✅ What We Did:

  • Added interactive video modules with “Mark Complete” tracking logic.

  • Gamified progress via completion status, tick-marks, and progress bars.

  • Introduced structured lesson navigation: Previous/Next lesson CTAs.

  • Embedded practice CTAs with each video to reinforce learning.

  • Controlled access via lesson-level gating for freemium vs. paid users.

4. Realistic GMAT Mock Tests & Sectional Practice

💡 Why?: Without adaptive mock tests or real-time feedback, students lacked exam readiness.

✅ What We Did:

  • Created a full mock test experience with adaptive difficulty and timing.

  • Added sectional tests with filters: difficulty, question type, and subjects.

  • Gated advanced-level questions for freemium users to drive upgrades.

  • Built test analytics summary: accuracy, timing, difficulty breakdown.

  • Added bookmarking, reporting, and review features for each question.

Sectional Test UI

Mock Test UI

5. AI-Powered Practice Bot Interface

💡 Why?: Students needed on-demand, topic-level GMAT questions with immediate feedback.

✅ What We Did:

  • Built a chat-style practice interface with smart logic for question delivery.

  • Integrated topic-based question selection for Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights.

  • Added “Ask AI Coach” for step-by-step concept explanations (limited per day).

  • Synced timer and attempt tracking with analytics dashboards.

  • Designed UI/UX for mobile + desktop with sticky CTAs, section switcher, and response history.

✅ Results & Impact

200% increase in retention

Compared to the old PDF-based system, structured plans and smart tracking kept users consistently engaged.

60% new user signups

A fresh audience converted through the standalone value of the GMAT module and its accessible pricing.

40% drop in study drop-offs

Addition of Study plan helped students stay on track and reduced mid-prep abandonment.

35% boost in conversion rates

Gated previews and UX-led trial flows encouraged more users to explore and commit to the platform.

2× increase in session duration

Interactive video lessons and embedded progress tools kept learners engaged longer per session.

50+ point GMAT score improvement

Users who took adaptive mocks showed measurable gains, mirroring real exam pressure and pacing.

💬 Qualitative Feedback

“The AI-powered study plan gave my prep real structure. I finally knew what to study each day, and it helped me stop overthinking and start focusing.”

“The dashboard really helped me understand where I was struggling. Being able to see weak areas visually made my studying much more strategic and focused.”

“The practice interface is clean and responsive, no clutter or lag. It actually lets me concentrate on solving questions instead of figuring out how the platform works.”

“What convinced me to sign up was being able to try a few lessons and questions. That sample experience showed real value before I paid.”

“The mock tests felt exactly like the real GMAT. The timing, difficulty, the analytics gave me the confidence to perform under pressure on test day.”

“The mix of videos, assignments, and analytics kept me engaged. I didn’t feel like I was just reading – it actually felt like progress.”

📌 Key Takeaways

  • Agile & User-Centric Design Wins: Rapid testing helped catch navigation issues early, leading to a more seamless user experience.
  • Trust-Driven UX Matters: Gated previews reduced friction and increased signups, proving that offering a sneak peek improves conversions.
  • EdTech Needs Flexibility: Users appreciated the ability to personalize their study plans, reinforcing the need for adaptable learning solutions.