Product developers aren’t doing their jobs if they don’t take into account the needs of end-users. That means collecting intel through focus groups, pilot testing, and other means.
Getting input from one class of end-users in particular — students — can be especially beneficial. And hard to get right.
Digital Promise’s Center for Inclusive Innovation is seeking to bring students into research and development, in the belief that doing so will transform their engagement and outcomes — and lead to the creation of better classroom products.
EdWeek Market Brief recently spoke with Kimberly Smith, co-lead and chief inclusive innovation officer for the center, about the benefits for education companies in involving students in product design.
“Those that are most impacted by challenges and barriers in education must be at the research and design table,” Smith said.
Smith discusses the importance of intentionally bringing students into K-12 R&D and the breadth of strategies for doing that, and how companies can get beyond surface-level efforts to include students in the difficult work of testing and improving products.
For education companies looking to incorporate student voice into their product development process, where do they begin?
There’s a strong desire to have students at the table, but the process for doing that has to shift for students to feel welcome and valued and seen and heard in the process. There’s a couple of ways in which we bring students into the work, and it’s important to start with that mindset because adult mindset can sometimes preclude students from effectively and authentically engaging in the work.
Adults have to be in the right space to be open to students being leaders, and to their voice shaping the direction. Students are very attuned early on. They can tell being in the room with adults, whether or not their feedback and input is being truly valued, or whether it’s just nice to have. Students are often in environments where adults are the decision-makers, so they know what those environments feel like, so they’re looking for a different kind of environment in this work.
So what does a mindset shift look like for education companies?
It’s really critical for product developers to have a mindset going in that students are going to be leaders. They’re going to be decision-makers, and us as adults have to lean back and let students lean in, so that students can bring their full perspective into the work.
In what other ways would the process challenge product providers’ standard way of thinking?
The second thing is that the process itself has to shift to a non-traditional kind of product development.
Meaning what?
Typically, in terms of the feedback, the model is largely, “I’m going to show you something, you’re going to give me some feedback. I’m going to go away, I’ll come back with a change, I’ll show it to you again, and you’re going to give me feedback.”
With students, you need something much more fluid and mutually beneficial. So we help product developers develop structures that allow students to be there from the start to finish. And we have a set of principles that we teach product developers so that they understand how to engage students.
What kinds of principles work, in terms of engaging students?
Within the Center for Inclusive Innovation, when we focus on this idea of capacity-building, we have six core tenants. One of the core tenants is student voice and leadership. The four principles there include firstly understanding how to center students’ strengths, stories, and contributions. The second principle is redesigning the power dynamics, understanding how the role that power plays with adults and students, and being able to create new power structures with students.
Number three is creating what we call a student-friendly structure. This is related to students’ language and their modalities. Sometimes you have to meet late at night because that’s when students are available. So being able to create structures that go toward where students are and in ways that can engage them.
The last one is to validate students’ lived experience and making sure that you have an intentional space that is honoring and recognizing and acknowledging their lived experience and helping that shape the product.
So a lot of it sounds like creating a safe space for students to be transparent, right?
That’s right. It’s starting there from day one and creating the conditions that you know give them the trust and the belief and the confidence that their thoughts, their feelings, their perspectives are going to be respected.
What kind of impact does student involvement in the product development process have on effectiveness and engagement of a product?
By nature, you will hear ideas that an adult would never think of. We were working with a school district in Pennsylvania, and the focus was on mental health. The students decided to create a product for a teacher professional development that they would lead.
Students felt like teachers needed a PD that was led by students, where teachers could hear firsthand what students are navigating. We did this in partnership with a counselor, a specialist, and a social worker in mental health, and [the students] delivered it themselves, and it was a really powerful experience. When you bring students in, you’re going to have ideas and inspiration that we as adults would never think of.
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How do you measure what students are looking for in products and experiences?
We have five dimensions that we think about around the student experience — agency, access, achievement, belonging, and identity. If a solution recognizes and honors those five dimensions, we have research that you emerge with a more effective product that will be engaging to students.
When we talk about where we’re trying to land with product developers, we use those five dimensions and impress upon them how they need students at the table to ensure that the solution really lines up to that experience that students are looking for.
How do companies go about finding students to inform their work, when things like parental consent or school consent have to be considered?
This is probably one of the toughest areas in terms of engaging students because there’s all sorts of parameters around how you do that. It starts first with having a doorway, either through an organization or working directly with schools and districts, where you can engage students directly.
Working with an organization like Digital Promise, we have the League of Innovative Students. We’ve been doing this for three years with the school districts that are in our national League of Innovative Schools. Students from their districts apply and are accepted to be part of an annual group of students that engage in [research and development]. We typically have 40 to 50 students here that raise their hand and want to be part of research and development projects and shape R&D nationally.
What other challenges do education companies face when trying to incorporate student voice?
How do you recognize students? How do you compensate students? Every school district is different in terms of how they think about this.
Another challenge — in one school district, we were able to set up an internship right within their career and technical education class. It was a unique structure where five students worked an R&D internship over the summer. One obstacle was trying to set up a mechanism in which students can come in at various tiers.
How does that tiered system for student participation work?
So there’s maybe a low tier, where you invite students, and they want to give feedback virtually. Tier two, you might have an opportunity for students that want to engage in a focus group environment. Tier three is really where students can and want to be at the table.
I encourage project developers to really think about structuring different tiers for students to engage.
We believe that students have not only a voice, but they have a role in influencing and in decision-making.
What will ensure that student input really leads to meaningful design changes?
It’s having a process that allows students to shape various aspects of the product. For example, there are some students that just like to engage in the research side and just focus on the research. A lot of students want to build their own skill set, too, in their public speaking, around doing research, around engaging in design.
So trying to structure very clear ways in which students can engage, even if they don’t want to be a part of the whole arc of product development.
Do you see that students want to play different roles in advising, in shaping different tools and platforms?
We had some students that wanted to develop product personas, and they wanted to be involved in that process. There are students that want to test a product and for features and bugs and things of that nature.
I would just try to define as many kinds of opportunities in the product development cycle to engage students. And to think about the iteration cycles and how students can come in a rapid cycle format.
How do you ensure you’re reaching students from diverse backgrounds and experiences so that you’re getting a wide range of participation and representation?
We impress upon school districts when they are recommending students for the League of Innovative Students that we do want these cohorts to be diverse in geographies and experiences and across a number of dimensions.
We are really clear, and when we accept applications, we balance the cohort based on the diversity of the student body. We start with inviting folks in from 10th grade on up. It’s been really interesting to see the diversity of students that have come in on this work.
What other pitfalls do companies have to avoid?
The other thing that we’re also cognizant of is sometimes districts will pick the same students to engage in these types of initiatives. We’re really clear to the districts that we want the students that are not necessarily the ones who always raise their hand.
We’re fortunate to have a relationship with these districts. We know the superintendents, we know the folks that are in the cabinet level, and so we can impress upon them the types of students that we want to bring into this process.
To what extent are education companies incorporating student voice in their R&D?
I’m hearing more and more of it. In this generation, where students are influencers, students are connecting to each other in interesting ways. They’re setting up their own channels. They have their own identities outside of school.
More and more folks are recognizing the value of having students be involved and at the table because the research on the dissonance between the education experience and what students are looking for is really strong.
And you believe including the voice of students will help.
We say student voice and leadership for a reason because often people will want student voice, but that is not enough. We believe that students have not only a voice, but they have a role in influencing and in decision-making.
When you’re challenged to think about how a student can really contribute influence, lead, do research, help with design — that stretches adults in a good way — to think about how to create the space for students to be fully involved.
What other creative approaches can help companies tap into the experiences of students?
Rapid iteration is an interesting model because it allows for you to take three months or six months, and learn with a teacher integrated into instruction and have student feedback all happen in real time in the classroom.
We did a project with Leanlab Education and a literacy product for students kindergarten to 2nd grade and had an interesting experience where teachers would implement this AI. The teachers were learning and being part of the product development process, and so were the kids. They were providing feedback, and the kids would see the changes.
And what was the reaction from the students to that project?
They were just thrilled, the young ones, when they would write up a recommendation and then it would show up, and the product would change right in front of them. It was a really powerful way to bring this rapid cycle in and have people see, in real time, those changes.