What changed after our first month of building Courselord
September 27, 2026
Tunde Okafor
We launched the first version of Courselord with a long list of features and a short list of things we had actually tested with real students. A month later, the list has changed shape. Here is what we learned, including the parts that were not flattering.
The first thing we got wrong was the menu. We had built it around the features we were proud of, which meant it grew into a wide panel of options with no obvious first step. New users clicked around, found the lessons eventually, and told us later that the site felt bigger than it was. We rewrote it around what a learner is trying to do, not what we had shipped. Fewer choices, clearer labels, one obvious way in.
The second was lesson length. We wrote what felt like substantial lessons, then watched people stop halfway through. The lessons were not too hard. They were too long. We split most of them and moved the practice to the end of each piece. Completion went up almost immediately, and the students who did finish reported remembering more, not less.
The third was the empty-state problem. When you sign up and have no progress, several pages show blank lists with polite messages. Blank lists are not motivating. We replaced them with a small, specific next step: one lesson, one exercise, one quiz. It is the difference between a dashboard that says "nothing here yet" and one that says "start with this."
We also cut things. There were pages we had built because a competitor had them, not because a learner needed them. They looked fine in a screenshot and did nothing in practice. Removing them made the product easier to explain, and easier to maintain. It was the most useful work of the month and the least visible.
On the content side, we stopped writing lessons that tried to cover a whole topic. Instead, each lesson introduces one idea and ends with something the learner can do. That sounds like a small editorial change. It changed the way the whole site feels.
We are also being more careful about the words we use. "Personalised learning path" sounds impressive and means almost nothing to a student deciding what to do on a Tuesday evening. "Pick up where you stopped" means something. We are rewriting the marketing copy to match the product, rather than the other way around.
There are still rough edges. The community is quiet, some subjects have more depth than others, and the mobile experience is better than it was but not finished. We would rather say that plainly than imply everything is complete.
The plan for the next month is not a long list. Finish the subjects that are thin, improve the first ten minutes of a new account, and keep watching where people stop. Most of what we need to know is in that last one. We just have to keep looking.
The first thing we got wrong was the menu. We had built it around the features we were proud of, which meant it grew into a wide panel of options with no obvious first step. New users clicked around, found the lessons eventually, and told us later that the site felt bigger than it was. We rewrote it around what a learner is trying to do, not what we had shipped. Fewer choices, clearer labels, one obvious way in.
The second was lesson length. We wrote what felt like substantial lessons, then watched people stop halfway through. The lessons were not too hard. They were too long. We split most of them and moved the practice to the end of each piece. Completion went up almost immediately, and the students who did finish reported remembering more, not less.
The third was the empty-state problem. When you sign up and have no progress, several pages show blank lists with polite messages. Blank lists are not motivating. We replaced them with a small, specific next step: one lesson, one exercise, one quiz. It is the difference between a dashboard that says "nothing here yet" and one that says "start with this."
We also cut things. There were pages we had built because a competitor had them, not because a learner needed them. They looked fine in a screenshot and did nothing in practice. Removing them made the product easier to explain, and easier to maintain. It was the most useful work of the month and the least visible.
On the content side, we stopped writing lessons that tried to cover a whole topic. Instead, each lesson introduces one idea and ends with something the learner can do. That sounds like a small editorial change. It changed the way the whole site feels.
We are also being more careful about the words we use. "Personalised learning path" sounds impressive and means almost nothing to a student deciding what to do on a Tuesday evening. "Pick up where you stopped" means something. We are rewriting the marketing copy to match the product, rather than the other way around.
There are still rough edges. The community is quiet, some subjects have more depth than others, and the mobile experience is better than it was but not finished. We would rather say that plainly than imply everything is complete.
The plan for the next month is not a long list. Finish the subjects that are thin, improve the first ten minutes of a new account, and keep watching where people stop. Most of what we need to know is in that last one. We just have to keep looking.