Education: Creating Efficiency for School Leaders

The Idea: Audit the user experience to improve an existing product

Whetstone 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’s CEO brought in Revelry to conduct a User Experience Audit to pinpoint and prioritize needs and opportunities.

The Challenge: Interim technology leadership and a complete platform rebuild

Initially, Whetstone’s leadership planned to implement Revelry’s User Experience Audit suggestions by building upon its existing code base; however, it quickly realized that it needed to start from scratch and build a completely new platform if it wanted to deliver desiredß 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 Delivery: A Client Ready, New Product 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.

“They’re all great [at Revelry], and very talented. They know how to work within a defined scope and tight budget. It’s been extremely valuable having them as our dedicated technology partner.”