Case Study: McGraw Hill achieves 1M+ downloads and 28% digital billing growth with A.Team’s Sharpen — the “TikTok for textbooks”

How A.Team and McGraw Hill built the “TikTok for textbooks” with 1M+ downloads

McGraw Hill, the 130-year-old educational publisher, faced a growing problem: students were turning to TikTok and YouTube for study help and getting unreliable information. To modernize its offerings and win back learners with a mobile-first experience called Sharpen, McGraw Hill engaged A.Team to rapidly prototype and validate a TikTok-style study app when traditional consultants had failed to deliver.

A.Team provided a scaled fractional team (from 3 to 27 builders) to design and build the Sharpen app — including video streaming, social learning tools, progress analytics, and adaptive micro-learning — and launched 95 gamified courses. The result: Sharpen went viral with 1M+ downloads, 1.8k+ ratings averaging 4.8 stars, retention about 30% higher than competing education apps, and helped drive a 28% increase in McGraw Hill’s digital billings.

McGraw Hill

Justin Singh

Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer