Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) Project

Context & Challenges

Fragmented Standards

Multiple LTI versions (1.1, 1.3, and 2.0) created interoperability challenges, requiring careful planning to ensure compatibility and consistency across environments.

Partner Trust and Transparency

Preserving previously published configurations was critical; any disruption risked damaging provider relationships and eroding confidence in the platform.

Cross-Stakeholder Alignment

Success depended on coordinating product, engineering, marketing, and provider teams—each with different goals, timelines, and technical knowledge.

Time-Sensitive Launches

The project had to align with marketplace releases and product timelines, requiring structured planning to hit deadlines.

High Volume and Manual Processes

With +900 tools to onboard and validate, much of the work involved manual data entry, review, and hygiene to ensure accuracy and trust.

User Experience Complexity

Both providers and institutional end users needed intuitive workflows, despite the technical sophistication and variability of integration requirements.

Problem / Solution

Integrated learning tools were critical to increasing the stickiness of our platform. However, integration specifications varied across LTI standards (1.1, 1.3, and 2.0), creating complexity for both tool providers and end users. For providers, the challenge was ensuring tools could be easily added, updated, and maintained within the platform. For end users, the priority was having simple, reliable ways to implement those tools within their learning environments. Making the process seamless for both sides—providers publishing integrations and institutions deploying them—was essential to strengthening adoption and retention.

Discoverable

LTI tools were difficult to identify and often were poorly maintained for platform users. For providers of these tools they did not know where to find or communicate interoperability of their in-platform offerings.

Build new integration modal within the partner UI that was seeded with any known information and supported all configuration types. Upon deploying, tools were instantly published to public and in-platform entities where it can be discovered at multiple point on the customer journey.

Controllable

Providers lacked a system to manage which integrations were available, differentiate between free and paid offerings, and publish multiple configuration types with clear context for end users. This often resulted in one guiding users away from our platform to their company's site.

Within their configuration modal providers could publish multiple integrations for the first time in one source. We also added nesting to industry certifications and the ability to track aggregate usage of their tools.

Configurable

Platform end users had required flexibility in deploying integrations. Different integrations presented different configurations meaning users required all 1.1 and 1.3 LTI version options—Manual, JSON, XML.

Configuration details now were embedded inside the platform creating a 1-click implementation for end-users wanting to use the latest configured tools. End-users could also find tools in platform by usage tracking.

Discovery

User Interviews

Spoke with providers, customers, and internal teams to uncover pain points in discovery, publishing, and configuration.

Competitive Analysis

Audited other integration libraries to identify gaps in trust signals, workflows, and compatibility.

Ideation & Prioritization

Ran workshops to prioritize high-impact features like badging, filtering, and one-click deployment.

Prototyping & Testing

Built and tested prototypes with providers and admins, refining flows through validation.

∞

Established post-launch loops to measure adoption and guide iteration for continuous feedback.

Ideation & Development

The project demanded orchestration across multiple personas and user types, as well as alignment between disparate internal teams. To drive execution, I applied a blended project management approach: Agile with engineering to deliver iterative platform integrations, Kanban with contractors to manage tagging and bulk uploads, and Critical Path Methodology to scope dependencies and lock in launch dates. This framework allowed me to phase delivery, prioritize high-value milestones, and ensure cross-functional accountability under tight deadlines.

Through a structured yet flexible approach, I successfully navigated the complexity of technical standards adoption, coordinated provider and institutional requirements, and delivered a scalable marketplace experience aligned to target launch dates .