Stairway Arena

Hey folks! Today, I'm taking a little trip down memory lane.

A few years back, I was working at Stairway Learning. One of the core problems we were trying to solve was to build our retention numbers. We had some great conversion but we needed students coming back over a longer period of time.

How could we make learning more engaging for high school students?

We talked to over 30 students to get the lowdown on what really bugs them about studying STEM (especially during COVID). Students felt isolated and alone and didn't have the means to benchmark their knowledge against their peers.

The result? The birth of Stairway Arena.

Picture this — students challenging each other in subjects like Maths, Physics, and Biology, climbing up the leaderboard, all aligned with GCSE, AQA, and other UK education standards.

During testing the excitement for Stairway Arena was palpable, making it one of my favourite projects.

Unfortunately, the technical constraints for this idea made it incredibly difficult to implement. (Think matchmaking in video games) and it ended up in the backlog, and not long after that Stairway was acquired.

Ever worked on something that didn’t see the light of day, but you still loved it? I'd love to hear about those hidden gems in your portfolio!