The spark
- Noavar already had strong exam-prep books and long-form videos, but learners still faced the same pain: "What should I study next, and am I on track?"
- The content was valuable, yet it lived in scattered formats (chapters, playlists, PDFs) with no backend layer to translate it into a measurable, time-bound plan.
- The real blocker wasn’t motivation—it was the lack of a system that could connect goals, constraints, and progress into something actionable without manual coaching.
What we needed (without leaking anything sensitive)
- A backend-first foundation that could turn content into structured roadmaps—without hardcoding every path per exam or relying on ad-hoc spreadsheets.
- A model flexible enough to represent learners, goals, deadlines, available study hours, topics, resources, prerequisites, and progress.
- A reliable way to keep plans updated as reality changes (missed days, changing availability, shifting priorities), using repeatable scheduling logic and background processing.
Architecture & data model (my contribution)
- I originated the SmartStudy concept and proposed a backend architecture focused on clean domain modeling rather than UI-first assumptions.
- I designed the core entities and relationships to form a content graph (topics ⇄ resources ⇄ learner progress), so the roadmap could be generated instead of manually curated.
- I outlined RESTful API endpoints to support key flows: roadmap generation, daily/weekly study slices, progress updates, recalculation triggers, and analytics-friendly tracking.
- I defined how background jobs would keep roadmaps consistent over time (rebuild schedules, enforce deadlines, and refresh derived metrics) while keeping the API responsive.
LearnHub: the public prototype that made it real
- To avoid "just another slide deck," I built LearnHub in my free time as an open-source proof-of-concept—using non-company materials (summaries from resources I personally studied).
- The goal wasn’t to ship LearnHub internally, but to demonstrate the SmartStudy flow in a tangible way: content → structure → plan → progress → recalculation.
- That prototype became a practical conversation tool in internal discussions: stakeholders could see the mechanics and trade-offs, not just hear promises.
Team collaboration (no lone-hero narrative)
- I presented the architecture and the prototype to the team, gathered feedback from different perspectives (product, engineering, delivery constraints), and iterated on the plan.
- Together, we shaped an implementation roadmap and guidelines that the team could execute incrementally—starting small, proving value, and then expanding coverage.
- The outcome was a shared direction: my role was to help the team move faster with clearer architecture, clearer boundaries, and less ambiguity.
Outcome
- The combination of a concrete backend design and a real, public prototype helped Noavar evaluate the idea quickly and confidently raise SmartStudy’s priority.
- The development team started implementation based on the proposed architecture, with clearer data boundaries and less risk of rework.
- LearnHub remained public and reusable for me outside the company (cover letters, volunteering), while SmartStudy moved forward as a product initiative internally—without exposing any confidential content.
