The Challenge
The Acton School of Business runs a curriculum that asks a genuinely hard question: what should you do next? Their courses guide people through psychological assessments, journaling, field trips, and conversations with accountability partners, all in service of helping them figure out where they’ll actually thrive. The material is rigorous and personal, and it had been confined to classroom settings.
The challenge was translating that experience into a digital product that didn’t flatten it. A simple course portal wouldn’t cut it. The platform had to feel inviting and human, it needed to support real social interactions between participants, it had to work equally well on mobile and desktop, and it had to let the Acton team manage content without filing engineering tickets. All of that on a six-month MVP timeline.
There was also a technical dimension: progress needed to sync in real time across devices, so a user could start a session on their phone and pick up on their laptop without losing their place. That kind of continuity matters a lot when the content is personal and emotionally engaging.
Our Approach
SpaceDev built three things in parallel: a React Native mobile app for iOS and Android, a React website, and a NestJS backend connected to PostgreSQL. The backend handled authentication, user progress, real-time sync, and the social features. The mobile app and website shared the same backend, so cross-device continuity was built into the architecture from day one rather than bolted on later.
For content management, we integrated Contentful so the Acton team could update course material, add sessions, and adjust the structure without touching code. This was important for a curriculum that’s meant to evolve over time based on how participants respond.
The social layer was one of the more interesting engineering problems. Course participants needed to find and connect with accountability partners, check in with each other weekly, and maintain those relationships throughout the six-week program. We built this as a lightweight social network embedded within the platform: not a full social media feature set, but enough to make the human connection part of the product experience.
Results
The platform launched with 26 remote, interactive sessions structured across six weeks. Each week involves four to six hours of coursework tailored to users’ traits and personalities. Psychological tests, introspective journaling, and field trips give participants actionable insight into their own strengths and the industries, roles, and communities where they’re likely to thrive.
The collaboration with Acton Academy grew into a four-year engagement. The platform has continued to evolve, expanding its reach and allowing the life-changing Acton curriculum to find a global audience that would never have had access to it in a classroom setting.
Tech Stack
The mobile app was built in React Native targeting iOS and Android. The web frontend used React. The backend was built on NestJS with PostgreSQL as the primary database. Contentful handled content management and dynamic course delivery. The team consisted of two senior full-stack developers, a project manager, and a QA engineer.
