"As THRIVE continues to grow, our partnership with Zoonou will ensure we have test resource and processes in place to maintain the level of quality our users have come to expect."
THRIVE, a learning experience platform (LXP), powers the digital learning of thousands of employees across hundreds of businesses every year. In a digital ecosystem ripe with alternatives, THRIVE understand that an outstanding, consumer-grade user experience is key to standing out from the crowd. “THRIVE has been designed with a focus on end-users, enabling them to share knowledge within their teams easily,” says THRIVE CTO Mark Ward. “It’s essential that we pick up and resolve any problems as soon as possible to ensure that our end users experience is a good one so that they want to continue using the platform.”
Founded in 2017, Mark and the team behind THRIVE approached Zoonou while the platform was still in development. Testing at this point was a casual process handled by the development team, but Mark and his team knew they needed to put a formal test process and additional resources in place if they were to launch THRIVE on schedule and with the confidence that production bugs were ironed out and clear quality assurance controls were embedded into its continuous development life-cycle.
THRIVE chose to outsource its testing to Zoonou because of the flexibility and scalability an external test partner offers. As the test velocity would initially be relatively low, then spike heavily towards launch – outsourcing the test process gave THRIVE an efficient and affordable way to manage their changing requirements. “Our implementation was highly ambitious from day one, and we knew that we had a lot to get done with a fairly small team,” says Mark. “When it came to QA (quality assurance) we needed the experience and resources of a large team without needing to recruit and build that team in-house. Zoonou had a wealth of experience and enabled us to set up a well rounded testing regime within days of their introduction to the team.”
THRIVE required a test partner that could fully integrate with its own development teams. Since partnering with Zoonou, THRIVE has not needed to invest in their own internal test team – Zoonou continues to manage the testing process and is involved in development sprint planning creating a seamless and productive relationship.
Zoonou’s testers work alongside our own technical team as closely as any of our other colleagues. We’ve benefited from the experience they’ve brought, and also their ability to consult with the wider team at Zoonou when complex work has come up. Zoonou’s input is now integral to our development effort and forms our starting point in each stand up every morning.” – Mark Ward, CTO – THRIVE
Learning experience platform. It’s in the name – experience. THRIVE is built with the end-user at its heart. “Our vision is to connect people to relevant learning quickly, that can be used to develop and advance their career,” says THRIVE Product Manager, Amanda. “To achieve this, the THRIVE platform needs to be simple to use and easy to access by as many people as possible.” Thrives partnership with Zoonou supports this by giving THRIVE access to Zoonou’s in-house specialist user experience teams, including digital accessibility experts. THRIVE also benefits from Zoonou’s extensive device library ensuring a seamless learning experience across devices, browsers and operating systems. “All of this specialist support gives assurance that the user experience is consistent and the LXP accessible whatever tech the end-user is using,” adds Amanda.
THRIVE launched less than 18 months ago and because it offers something more than the traditional eLearning platform – a constantly evolving and personal user experience, its user count is increasing at pace. As Mark says, “Zoonou have helped us to deliver new functionality for customers while also ensuring a high standard in our products. Because their testers integrate directly into our team, the testers have been able to aid us in supporting customers. The support team have particularly benefited from this expertise in being able to quickly diagnose and document issues ready for the developers to fix. As THRIVE continues to grow, our partnership with Zoonou will ensure we have test resource and processes in place to maintain the level of quality our users have come to expect.”
Head over to the THRIVE website to learn more about the learning experience platform.
"When it came to QA we needed the experience and resources of a large team without needing to recruit and build that team in-house. Zoonou had a wealth of experience and enabled us to set up a well rounded testing regime within days of their introduction to the team."