Parag Jha
me-and-dev.app

Me&Dev

300 people were ready to pay before the platform existed. So I skipped Figma.

A cohort-based backend engineering course with no product behind it. First cohort sold out. ~200 returning users across four months.

Live · in use
Me&Dev landing page on a laptop and phone: "Learn to ship. With humans who care."
Role
Product designer and front-end lead, self-initiated with the founder
Dates
2025, ongoing
Team
2 (me + founder-instructor)
Scope
IA, visual system, landing page, portal, course player, live-session handling
Tools
Figma (late), Framer, HTML/CSS, Claude Code
Status
Live. Redesign delivered as a coded prototype, pre-deploy.
Live at
learn.aakashdev.in
01 · The problem

A sold-out cohort, and no platform to teach it on.

Aakash had already sold out a cohort of a backend engineering course before the platform existed. The choice was: spend three weeks in Figma making it pretty, or ship a working MVP in 48 hours and let the first cohort teach us what actually mattered. I chose the second.

The first version was basic. It worked. What we learned from real students told us where to spend design time in the next round. The redesign restructured the IA around how learners actually moved through material, not how instructors thought about it.

02 · Constraints and decisions

Five calls that shaped the product.

  1. Skipped hi-fi mocks for v1.

    Wrote directly to HTML and shipped.

    Rejected:a 3-week design sprint that would have delayed the sold-out cohort.

  2. Warm coral-orange (#D85A30) on dark-first surfaces.

    Backend engineers aren't hostile to warmth; corporate LMS clones are what they hate.

    Rejected:a neutral, "professional edtech" palette.

  3. Geist typography.

    Wanted a modern-technical read without leaning on Inter, which is everywhere.

  4. Sequential chapter locking with live-session windows.

    Learners can't skip forward; live sessions unlock in a time band. This constrains freedom but matches how the founder actually teaches.

  5. Landing page built to convert one specific persona.

    The working backend engineer who's paid for cohort courses before and is skeptical. Copy leans into specifics and instructor credibility rather than testimonial-driven puffery.

03 · The work
Me&Dev learner dashboard: active courses, average completion, hours learned, day streak, continue watching, next deadline
Learner dashboard. Leads with momentum: continue-watching and the next deadline sit where a returning learner looks first.
Me&Dev courses view: enrolled course bundles with duration, cohort size, and video count
Courses view. Each card carries what drives the decision to start, and one way in.
04 · Outcome

Where it stands.

~200active regular users across the four months post-launch
  • First cohort sold out; second cohort filled
  • Redesign delivered as coded prototype, currently pre-deploy
05 · Reflection

The v1-then-redesign order was right. If I'd started with the redesign, we'd have shipped a beautiful product for the wrong learner flow.

Next time I'd instrument v1 more aggressively so the redesign brief writes itself from usage data.