GUILD EDUCATION
November - December 2025
TIMELINE
Product Design Lead
ROLE
Kailani Webb
Alex Rottman
Ryan DuRoss
TEAM
FigJam, Figma Design, Adobe Illustrator.
TOOLS
CONTEXT
Frontline Workers
In a world where educational access continues to favor those with existing opportunity, frontline workers are often left in roles without clear pathways for advancement, or growth.
Guild works to bridge that gap (with 100% of learners already reporting skills that support advancement). Yet, in order to actually drive impact, it is critical to tangibly get Guild programming into the hands and hearts of frontline workers — requiring a deeper understanding of the people they serve.
THE PROMPT
To help guide us through our research, we asked
01 EMPATHY
Conversations with Young Sales Associates
We talked to a total of 10 associates, and 1 manager across 3 different corporations, including IKEA, The Home Depot, and The Container Store.
Findings
Biggest friction hits in Finding courses → Evaluating fit → Composing the schedule because degree requirements, course insights, and each cart never share one view—every what-if becomes extra work.
02 INTERPRET
Key Insight
We asked the 5 Whys for each of our findings, discovering the underlying throughline. We synthesized this finding into a succinct insight statement.
The Cycle We Need to Break.
To better understand a young associates situation, we created a framework to visualize the cycle associates are currently stuck in.
Needs
To better understand a young associates situation, we created a framework to visualize the cycle associates are currently stuck in.
03 DIRECTIONS
Design Principles
These focused needs led us to our Design principles. Understanding our context need first we want to create direction to a solution that would help
Solutions Framework.
We created this solutions framework to give structure and direction to a problem that, for most associates, feels invisible and untrackable. By organizing the associate experience into NOTICE → PROVE → TRANSLATE, we built a system that mirrors the natural arc of their on-the-floor journey.
Not only does this framework ensure every solution we design directly supports that progression, turning everyday work into concrete actionable paths, but so does it put Guild as the through line of the entire cycle. Guild must help associates NOTICE that their on-the-floor insight carries weight, provides structured ways to PROVE their capability through real challenges, and enable them to TRANSLATE everyday experiences into validated skills and upward mobility, and exit this cycle.
04 SOLUTION
The schedule playground
A safe, side-by-side sandbox where students can test different course combinations, compare schedules instantly, and make confident decisions, without juggling multiple carts or losing work.
So, so, so many tabs for one schedule
Biggest friction hits in Finding courses → Evaluating fit → Composing the schedule because degree requirements, course insights, and each cart never share one view—every what-if becomes extra work.
REFLECTIONS
The schedule playground
A safe, side-by-side sandbox where students can test different course combinations, compare schedules instantly, and make confident decisions, without juggling multiple carts or losing work.