Gamifying Practice - Designing scalable district competitions at Paper

Role: Senior Product Designer
Timeline: 2 months - 2022
Product Area: Paper Missions (Practice Platform)

Background

Paper set out to gamify its Practice experience to boost student engagement and encourage repeated use. A small pilot competition was manually facilitated using spreadsheets and email updates. It generated strong activity and teacher interest, revealing two opportunities:

1. Build a scalable system so all Paper districts could participate

2. Explore gamification through leaderboards and meta-game mechanics

To support this vision, we needed a centralized, automated leaderboard system that could surface progress stats frequently and clearly for both school and individual contributions. We also needed to lay the groundwork for future gamification enhancements.

Overview

• Design a real-time leaderboard system for district wide math competitions

• Users: Teachers, Site Admins, District Admins

• Business Goals:

  1. Drive student engagement and activity (target 10 million activities for school year)

  2. Reduce manual operations

  3. Support key company OKRs

• Company OKRs:

  1. Increase monthly habitual users (3 or more days per month)

  2. Reach 10 million student activities by the end of the school year

  3. Encourage students in grades 4 to 12 to use Paper as a default for learning support

Early Evidence: Small pilot, big signal

In late 2022, Paper ran a pilot competition with a handful of districts. Teachers received weekly update emails and leaderboard standings. The results showed promise:

• 11,373 activities were logged in the final two days

• Activity consistently spiked after leaderboard updates

• Teachers and Admins asked for more frequent and visible progress updates

Email Performance

• 45.5% read the initial update

• 60% read the midweek progress check-in (increase interest and engagement)

• Teachers asked for more frequent updates but he manual process of updating couldn’t scale

Research + Insights

To validate the opportunity and guide design:

Quantitative findings:

• Pilot data showed spikes in activity tied to leaderboard updates

• Districts showed interest in competition as a driver for engagement

Qualitative findings:

UX research activities

• User interviews with teachers and admins

• Competitive analysis of leaderboard systems from gaming and edtech

• Design synthesis around engagement, clarity, and scalability

Hypothesis

Process

I led design from exploration to implementation while balancing short-term delivery with long-term product vision.

• Reviewed gamification mechanics across mobile, console, and education tools

• Sketched and prototyped leaderboard models, including student, class, and hybrid approaches

• Validated design directions with CSMs, PMs, and educators

• Prioritized features that supported clear visibility, low comparison pressure, and scalable implementation

• Collaborated with engineering to define what could realistically ship in time for the next competition cycle

Early Concepts

Initial designs explored more game-like approaches to competition:

• Group Leaderboards where students worked toward shared class goals

• Meta-game systems with tiers, brackets, and streaks

• Indirect competition to avoid pressure from head-to-head rankings

• Teacher-led visibility for in-class motivation and collaboration

These designs aimed to make the learning experience more playful and habit forming. However, they required longer timelines to develop and test.

Design Pivot

As the launch date approached, we decided to pivot to a traditional leaderboard format for version one. This version prioritized clarity, automation, and educator access.

• Progress data was surfaced in real time/daily

• Teachers, site admins, and district admins could each view their respective scopes

• Light gamification was included, such as timers and ranking visuals

• This version minimized engineering complexity while meeting immediate district needs

This was a strategic MVP focused on value delivery. It allowed us to scale quickly while setting the stage for more gamified features in the future.

Teachers could see class-level and student-level progress

• Site Admins viewed school-level and class-level performance

• District Admins could monitor all participating schools and drill into student data

Key Features

• Real-time leaderboard

• Search and filters

• Timer countdown

• Persistent placement during competition

• Access to current and past competition data

Designs

Outcomes

Before Leaderboards (manual)

• 6,240 total student activities

• Limited to a small number of districts

• Manual updates meant fewer engagement spikes

Strategic Outcomes

Cross-Product Impact

• Live Help and Review Center saw small increases in usage

• Practice did not consistently drive traffic to other product areas

• Opportunity exists to link competition momentum with other features

Increased Habitual Use

• Students participated more frequently during competition windows

• Sustained activity spikes appeared throughout the school year

10 Million Activity Goal

• Leaderboards played a measurable role in helping Paper approach this milestone

Lessons Learned

• Teachers and Admins are key drivers of platform usage

• Not all students enjoy direct competition, so segmentation and personalization are important

• Visibility and frequency of updates are critical to user activation

Opportunities Ahead

• Introduce a student-facing leaderboard view with opt-in customization

• Add deeper meta-game features such as power-ups, streaks, and brackets

• Enable visual themes and classroom-level personalization

• Connect leaderboard participation to other Paper experiences more directly

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