Our first season of work began with interviewing over 60 folks, including funders, designers, researchers, educators, district folks, network leaders, and more. We began with folks in our existing personal networks, and continued outward with additional recommendations.

We set up 30-60 minute conversations. We had the below list of questions prepared. First, we would briefly explain our project: We’re at the Stanford d.school K12 Lab, and we’re running this “EdTech Remix” project about making EdTech design more equitable. Before we begin ideating, we want to get a really solid understanding of the existing landscape from experts like you who work in the field. Then, we asked interviewees what they thought was most important for us to know.

We summarized what we learned from these interviews (as well as from our desk research) into 8 major insights.

For Funders:

How do they make funding decisions?

• How do you make decisions about who to fund?
• In what ways do you think your criteria or actions impact designers?
• How do you define success, or What’s a home run for you?
• How do you find people who pitch to you (or do they find you)?
• What kinds of communication do you look for?
• What builds trust between you and a potential designer?
• What are “turn-offs” for you?
• What product do you wish you had invested in at the ground level?
• What product did you invest in that you think hit all the typical criteria throughout the process?
• What product surprised you with its success?
  • Possible leverage points?
• Have there been shifts to your criteria for decision-making over time? What caused those shifts?
• Do other funders’ actions influence you? How do they think about equity?
• In what ways (if any) do you think about equity when you make funding decisions?
• Who are your investees? How many are black or brown-led?
  • Why do you think that is?
• Do you face challenges surrounding funding or recruiting more diverse designers or equity-centered products?