A platform for the people who teach the curriculum

The Royal Conservatory of Music is one of the largest and most respected music education institutions in the world, providing excellence in curriculum design, assessment, performance training, teacher certification, and arts-based social programs.

Teachers represent one of RCM's two core audiences but were currently under served in terms of online resources that support their teaching. To address these gaps, RCM planned to build a revamped Teacher Portal. I was brought in not just for my design and strategy experience, but because the project required someone who could coordinate across departments — and I had existing relationships throughout the organization.

The Teacher Portal would be the foundation of RCM's teacher engagement strategy, focused on professional development, community, and facilitation of teacher-student interaction. As the lead on this project, I oversaw every facet of its creation from start to finish.

As a greenfield project, research was necessary to identify and define stakeholder groups, their needs, and ways in which RCM could offer help, along with a business model that would allow RCM to achieve its internal objectives. Research activities I led included surveys, user interviews, and stakeholder interviews.

I was solely responsible for the UX design process, which consisted of segmentation strategy, needs analysis, personas, journey maps, and a complete slate of wireframe diagrams. I continued to manage this work once an agency partner was secured, responding to new learning, challenges, and scope changes while maintaining the integrity of the original vision. A separate Find a Teacher tool was also developed, giving prospective students and families a way to connect with RCM-certified teachers.

I oversaw research, strategy, user experience, design, and engineering for RCM Teacher Portal.

The portal launched and is still running today, having become a flagship platform for RCM's teacher engagement strategy. The initial reception was positive, and the foundation has held.