Case Study: Education
Whetstone Education
School leaders spend nearly 10% of their time each week managing the mountain of paperwork that comes from teacher observations and feedback. Whetstone Education sought to change that, but its initial solution didn’t deliver as planned, so they brought in a team from Revelry.
Idea
Improve an existing platform created to make classroom observation and feedback easier
Challenge
Pivot from a product expansion project to the design and development of an entirely new platform
Services
Product management, front-end design and development, back-end engineering, technology advisory services, and product team development
the IDEA
Audit the User Experience to Improve an Existing Product
Whetstone Education wanted to create a way to minimize the amount of time school leaders spend on classroom observation and feedback paperwork. It had a platform to streamline observation notes, feedback, goal setting, and growth analysis, but users struggled to find what they needed and effectively share their work. Whetstone Education’s CEO brought in Revelry to conduct a User Experience Audit to pinpoint and prioritize needs and opportunities, so that product improvements could be made.
the Challenge
Interim Technology Leadership and a New Platform
Initially, Whetstone Education leadership planned to implement Revelry’s User Experience Audit suggestions by building upon its existing code base; however, it quickly realized it needed to start from scratch and build a completely new platform to deliver desired features and functionality. The scope of the work needed was complex and called for Revelry to effectively operate as the company’s CTO throughout the project. Revelry also provided support in the areas of product management, front-end design and development, and back-end engineering.
“Revelry acted as an advisor on all technical issues, and helped us hire our own set of engineers. Really, it was them and me building the whole product. I brought the vision of what it would look like, and Revelry handled all the technical components, from the UI/UX (user interface / user experience) design to the process flows and information architecture,” said Whetstone Education CEO Eric Lavin.
The results
A New, Client-Ready Platform in 3 Months
Whetstone Education’s new platform was launched three months after the project start. It went live with 10 existing clients / schools using it and had 40 total schools registered 6 months later (with expectations of tripling its users within the next 6 months).
In addition, to position Whetstone’s product for sustained success, Revelry helped the company build its own permanent product organization.
“They’re all great guys [at Revelry], and very talented. They know how to work within a defined scope and tight budget, which isn’t always the case when it comes to developers. It’s been extremely valuable having them as our dedicated technology partner.”
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