Partner Portal

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Context & Challenges

Instructure’s partner ecosystem was fragmented across several disconnected listings, leaving providers with redundant workflows and institutions with outdated or inconsistent information. Cross-product synchronization was manual and error-prone, and there was no authoritative source for managing integrations. Beyond these operational challenges, there was a broader strategic need: the absence of a unified system limited Instructure’s ability to cultivate stronger partner relationships and build a scalable partnerships program.

Problem & Solution

Problem

Partners were forced to manage assets across multiple disconnected systems, leading to redundant work, outdated listings, and poor discoverability for institutions. This fragmentation reduced trust in partner data and limited Instructure’s ability to scale partner engagement or generate new revenue opportunities.

I led the creation of a centralized Partner Portal to unify asset management and synchronization across products. Beyond solving operational inefficiencies, the portal laid the foundation for a new partnerships program, enabling stronger relationships with providers, scalable cross-product integration, and new revenue-generating features.

Solution

Discovery & Process

Discovery began with extensive interviews and workflow mapping across both providers and internal stakeholders. Providers consistently reported frustration with redundant listings, inconsistent data, and limited visibility for their tools. Internally, product and marketing teams confirmed that fragmented systems slowed onboarding and made it difficult to coordinate across the ecosystem.

To consolidate insights, I developed partner personas—ranging from integration-focused vendors to evidence-driven providers—so requirements could be prioritized against real-world needs. These discovery efforts revealed that solving for usability and synchronization was not only critical to partner trust, but also opened the door for a formal partnerships program, where providers could better showcase, differentiate, and monetize their offerings.

This dual focus—removing friction while preparing for a more strategic partnership model—guided the scoping of requirements and phased planning that followed.

As a provider, I want to configure api info for all new users to implement. As a provider, I want to control assets across all Instrucure products to increase adoption. As a provider, I need to be able to quickly add or change admins, when personnel changes occur.

Ideation & Development

Following discovery, the Partner Portal was scoped into four phases to manage complexity while ensuring impact. Early workshops with providers and internal teams shaped priorities such as profile completion, evidence publishing, and integration management. Development ran in parallel with market analysis and continued user research, ensuring every build decision addressed both immediate needs and long-term partner strategy.

Execution advanced in four iterations:

Phase 1: Unified asset management and synchronization across five interconnected products.
Phase 2: Introduced partner-facing features including evidence containers, monetization options, and integration tools. Added functionality for partners to receive direct requests and share assets with their end users through the portal.
Phase 3: Developed and launched a new login experience to route users from sunset products which codified the rebrand of the partnerships program, including, but not limited to; migrating users, and updating entire email and notification suite.
Phase 4: Added third-party UI tagging feature to track and report feature adoption, friction, attrition, and preferred paths. Creation of in-app guidance, and an overhaul of support documentation.

By launch, the Partner Portal had evolved beyond an operational hub—it became a cornerstone for Instructure’s partnerships strategy and a platform to scale a new business vertical.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

Impact

Delivered under tight timelines and significant complexity, the Partner Portal unified five disconnected systems into a single hub for third-party providers. Within five months, monthly active users grew by 65% and total accounts by 75%, surpassing OKRs and validating the massive lift behind the initiative. Eight newly developed features quickly became the most-used in the application, and the launch served as the cornerstone for Instructure’s new partnerships business vertical—transforming fragmented operations into a scalable growth channel.

MAA

Monthly Active Accounts increased to 75% within 5 months.

MAU

Monthly Active Users increased to 65% within 5 months.

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For Instructure, the Partner Portal streamlined operations by consolidating five disconnected systems into a single platform, reducing internal overhead, improving data accuracy, and establishing the foundation for a scalable partnerships business. It also created a new revenue vertical, aligning the company’s ecosystem strategy with monetization opportunities.