The design sprint took place at the Stanford d.school on June 1-3, 2022.
Day 1 was about coming together and grounding ourselves in the state of the EdTech field. Sheryl Cababa from Substantial described Target Product Profiles (TPPs), a tool the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is using with the hope that it will elicit more equitable edtech products. TPPs involve laying out a set of criteria for what a “good” solution looks like (they are more often used in health than in education). Sheryl helped Gates develop education-related TPPs. Once they were launched, Gates and Substantial learned that designers didn’t have the tools and resources they needed to actually reach the TPP criteria.
That’s why the Gates Foundation is investing in this work—to help figure out what resources designers might need and how to create them.
After Sheryl gave a thorough introduction to TPPs, the EdTech Remix team asked Anissa Moeni to speak about her company, Goldstar Education, as it provides a unique framework for understanding effective EdTech products and companies.
Sheryl Cababa and Anissa Moeni
Anissa founded Goldstar after collaborating with other folks at University College London on an accelerator called Educate. Educate was about helping designers develop a research mindset so they could better create and test more effective products. In the process, Anissa distilled six “superpowers” that successful EdTech companies have. She also developed an assessment that can tell EdTech companies which superpowers they have and which they still need to develop.
After a short break, sam gave an introduction to EdTech Remix and how the project came together. Isabel gave a summary of the project “seasons” of work, and Ariam and Tunde described some insights from the team’s early research and interviews.
sam gives the crew an intro to EdTech Remix. The d.school was very busy, so we only had this small room—folks were great sports about making it work!
To end the day, folks had a community-building dinner in downtown Palo Alto.
The day began with some playtesting. A solid contingent of sprint participants were designers, so we tried out some of their products — scratch.org, Healthy Hip-Hop, TeachAids, Kolibri. Then, Healthy Hip-Hop Founder Roy Scott led us in a brain break with PJ Panda, a character from one of his product songs.
Next, designers talked about their work: the ways they think about equity and what they’ve learned over time.