In September 2021, Dynos was an early-stage company in India building a digital companion for textbooks. The team had already changed course, moving from a tech-first platform to print books paired with a digital version, after the pandemic shifted its market. On September 30, the team wrote to Dr. Kripa Sundar. It had about 60 titles to convert into Dynos format, new people to hire for the job, and a launch ahead. The team said the hires would “need some guidelines as they do this page by page.”
What does a good page look like?
The team’s question was simple to say: How do we tell new hires what a good Dynos page looks like? The answer had to hold across about 60 titles and every new hire who touched them. The team asked while the page-by-page work was still ahead.
Rules and examples in 11 days
As lead decision partner, Dr. Sundar turned research on how students learn using multimedia into a guide new hires could follow. The guide set rules for pacing interactive tasks, using images that teach, and leaving out interesting details that do not help students learn. It also separated advice for younger and older students. Each new section starts on its own page, so teachers can arrange pages for their own lessons. A second section matched each Dynos tool to a use, such as a slider for estimation questions. Dr. Sundar delivered the guide 11 days after that first note, on October 11. The speed mattered: waiting months was not possible for a team converting pages now, and rules that came late would have meant redoing pages stretching tight resources.
Rules to follow, calls to make
The Dynos team used the guide to build its digital book. Its new hires had clear, evidence-based rules and examples to work from, and the team made its own calls where a title needed something different. Pramod Vadrevu, the founder, reported that the guide sped up onboarding.
What came after the book
As of October 2026, the digital book sells as an add-on to physical books. Dyno has developed Scholar AI, extending their digitization of textbooks to better serve schools and provide them choice of curriculum providers. Dynos is in talks with multiple publishers, onboarding their content using the same design principles. Dr.Sundar remains in the loop as Dynos adjusts their strategy and products, now expanding their impact and serving growing markets.
Your Takeaway
What would a new hire need to know to build your product well? Is it written down, and does research sit behind it? When evidence is built into how a team designs and operates, it stops being a checkbox. Rules that arrive in days can shape the work while it is still happening.