Knopman Marks
Product Strategy / UX Design / Front-End Development / Back-End Development / Brand Strategy
Redesign and relaunch of a complex learning management system for financial training exams.
Knopman Marks needed a complete overhaul of their rapidly-aging tech stack. Our multi-year relationship delivered a better learning experience for students, a smarter Learning Management System (LMS) for admins, and a business operations platform that gave them space, agility, and peace of mind.
Knopman Marks trains over tens of thousands of finance professionals every year for the top 10 banks in the US. Most of these students are required to pass rigorous certification exams in order to work in their field or secure a promotion. It’s a high-stress environment for the students and the content they need to learn is extremely technical and dare we say…dry.
A giant product overhaul doesn’t have to be scary. We told Knopman Marks to dream big. And that’s exactly what they did. (We eventually named their backend platform after this dream, but that’s another story.) The upside of building something brand new? You can craft just what you need and nothing you don’t.

So we set out to create a custom Training Center that not only includes best-practice UX, ultra-clear content taxonomy, and thoughtful motivational touchpoints, but also weaves in the unique instructor voice and methodology the Knopman Marks (KM) team brings to the mix, effectively translating their highly-rated classroom experience into the digital world.

Initially, our primary goal was unification. They had multiple departments, offerings, and siloed products that needed to be managed under one central location. Our roadmap laid out a clear plan of attack to harmonize teams and save time.

Different users demanded different experiences. Our e-commerce update met their market-specific banking requirements. The training center highlighted their incredibly-effective teaching style. And their “dream” backend portal leveraged best-in-class third-party tools with custom workflows.

One of the greatest challenges in launching new experiences in this environment is that there is no off-season. Knopman marks students use the Training Center 365 days a year around the globe and any disruption in their studying can cause immediate stress.

In 2023 we launched the latest features of this Training Center: A brand new Practice Questions experience that allows students to create practice quizzes, track question count and progress, all while staying in the familiar KM Training Center.

A giant product overhaul doesn’t have to be scary. We told Knopman Marks to dream big. And that’s exactly what they did. (We eventually named their backend platform after this dream, but that’s another story.) The upside of building something brand new? You can craft just what you need and nothing you don’t.

KM students study year-round and boasted a stellar 92% overall pass rate on their final exams in 2022. They also reported a 93% average increase in their confidence level for taking their exams. This is doubly impressive because in 2022, KM trained over 31,000 students–a 27% increase from the previous year. 

This is one of the most meaningful client relationships we ever built and we’re extremely proud of the work we created for them and their students.

Knopman Marks