Grepp
From Korea to Silicon Valley: UX Strategy & Design for new market
Overview
Grepp is a South Korean tech company with a dominant presence in its home market, offering a suite of services for the software engineering ecosystem: developer skill assessment, education, and career matching. As Grepp set its sights on the US market, they needed more than a translated website — they needed a product experience built for a new audience, a new culture, and a new level of competition.
Their first US product, BeyondCampus, is a cohort-based learning platform designed to help software engineers advance their careers through interactive, community-driven coding education. WANDR was brought in to design the UX and marketing website from the ground up — fast.
The Challenges
Grepp had a proven product in Korea — but launching in the US meant starting from scratch in one of the world's most competitive EdTech markets, with a skeptical technical audience, no local brand recognition, and a tight timeline.
1. Entering a Crowded US Market with No Brand Identity
Grepp had proven product-market fit in Korea, but the US EdTech market is saturated and unforgiving. Competing against players like Udemy, Coursera, Codecademy, and Maven — all with established audiences and massive budgets — meant BeyondCampus had to immediately communicate a clear, compelling reason to believe. The Korean brand assets were delayed and ultimately didn't translate to the US market, so WANDR stepped in to take partial ownership of branding alongside the UX work.
2. A Highly Specific, Skeptical Audience
The target users — software engineers, CS students, and junior developers — are unusually discerning. They evaluate products fast, expect polished UI, and will leave a site in seconds if the value proposition isn't crystal clear. A generic EdTech website would not work. The design had to speak their language.
3. Tight Timeline, Minimal Runway
Grepp had already attempted to recruit a design team in the US without success. When they came to WANDR, the clock was ticking. They needed a world-class UX delivered quickly, and they needed an agency that could operate at their pace without sacrificing quality.
Wandr Solutions
Phase 1 — Discovery & Strategy
Before a single wireframe was drawn, WANDR ran a comprehensive discovery process. Through collaborative workshops, we mapped out:
- The mission and value proposition of BeyondCampusCustomer segments — learners (students, junior devs, career switchers) and instructors
- User goals, motivators, and stoppersBusiness certainties vs. assumptions still to be validated
- A competitive landscape review covering Maven, Udemy, Codecademy, Skillshare, and TeachFloor
Phase 2 — UX Design
WANDR designed the four core pages of the BeyondCampus marketing website using a milestone-based pipeline. After each major deliverable, we hosted workshops with the Grepp team to present, gather feedback, and iterate immediately. This kept the project moving at speed without losing alignment.
Key design decisions included:
- A hero section built to communicate the value proposition above the fold
- Feature-to-benefit translation throughout (think: iPod's '1000 songs in your pocket' approach — not listing specs, but selling outcomes)
- Handwritten-style accents and coding-culture visual references to build immediate credibility with a developer audience
- Image-led aesthetics with inclusive representation, reflecting learnings from user testing
- A course description page designed with maximum information density — the highest-rated page in user testing
Phase 3 — User Testing & Research Synthesis
WANDR conducted user testing sessions with four participants representing BeyondCampus's primary audience: junior developers and CS students. Sessions were conducted via Zoom using Figma prototypes, structured as guided conversations rather than task flows.
Key findings that shaped the final design:
- Co-programming > Community: Users responded more strongly to the promise of hands-on collaborative coding than to 'community' as a concept — which felt expected. We shifted the messaging accordingly.
- Trust through transparency: Users wanted a robust About Us page with founder story, team photos, and clear mission. The page needed to inspire trust in both learners and prospective instructors.
- Hero video is essential: Users said a product video would be the fastest way for them to understand what BeyondCampus offers — critical for a new entrant with no brand recognition.
- Inclusion signals credibility: Representation in photography and team pages was flagged as important by multiple participants.
- Less copy, more scan-ability: Users don't read — they scan. WANDR reduced copy and simplified subheadings based on this insight.
Phase 4 — Branding
When Grepp's Korean brand assets couldn't be delivered on schedule by their internal team, WANDR stepped in to support the branding phase. BeyondCampus needed its own identity — one built for an American audience with different expectations, aesthetics, and competitive context. WANDR stepped in to develop a distinct US brand direction from scratch, ensuring BeyondCampus could stand on its own rather than feeling like a translated version of a Korean product. This gave the client a cohesive, market-appropriate visual identity ready for launch.
IMPACT & RESULTS
- Delivered 1 week ahead of schedule, despite tight deadlines
- Designs scored 4.5/5 average among target users in testing
- Client extended engagement after successful project
- Competitive positioning: Final design stands out in a crowded market with UI patterns and language that feels native to the coding community
Conclusion
WANDR helped Grepp do something genuinely hard: enter a new country, speak to a new audience, and launch a credible digital product — fast. BeyondCampus now has a website and UX foundation that can compete with the best in the EdTech space, built on research, tested with real users, and delivered on a startup timeline.
This engagement is a strong example of what WANDR does best: strategic UX, fast execution, collaborative process, and the flexibility to show up however a client needs — whether that's research, design, or branding.
They have a lot of experience in strategically and systematically doing design work.”
vectrix
