Elevate K-12: Transforming Remote Teaching Through Design Leadership

The United States has a teaching shortage. At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, 21% of teaching positions were unfilled. Elevate K-12 provides remote teaching solutions for schools to address this problem. I joined Elevate as their first head of design with a mission to build a design practice and deliver compelling solutions to affect students' academic outcomes in rural and urban communities nationwide.

I hired a team of fantastic product designers. Together, we built Elevate's first design system and infused it into their Online Classroom, Teacher Marketplace, and School & District Portal, a zero-to-one effort that provided transparency and improved workflow for school and district leaders.

In one year, we significantly raised the bar for craft and usability, introduced agile sprints, optimized internal collaboration, streamlined delivery, and infused user-centered design into the company's culture.

The Challenge

When I joined Elevate, the design environment was highly immature. The organization had only one designer, whose role was limited to executing leadership’s often subjective and directive-based requests—such as “use more colors” or “make it pop.” Design was seen as purely ornamental rather than a strategic and customer-centered discipline.

My challenge was twofold: first, to build and scale a team, establish user-centered design processes, and create a comprehensive design system; and second, to shift the organizational culture to recognize design as a critical driver of business value. By introducing scalable systems, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and consistently delivering thoughtful, impactful designs, I redefined design’s role at Elevate—from a tactical service to a key partner in solving customer problems and delivering delightful, compelling experiences.

Building a Design Practice

One of the first things I did was create a maturity project plan that addressed the following areas:

Making wise hiring decisions

I built a high-functioning, full-stack design team by hiring humble, collaborative individuals who were deeply committed to craft and user-centered design. I fostered a safe, supportive environment that encouraged open, constructive feedback, making it easy for team members to grow and thrive together. As a result, the team excelled in delivering impactful, user-centered solutions and found genuine joy in working alongside one another.

Leading the creation of a scalable design system

I led the creation of a scalable design system at Elevate K-12, establishing a cohesive, accessible framework that streamlined product development and enhanced user experience. By standardizing design components and collaborating closely with engineering, we accelerated feature release times while ensuring consistent, high-quality interactions across platforms. This system is a foundation that enables Elevate K-12 to deliver a unified and intuitive virtual learning experience. Learn more about our design system: Building the Design System from the Ground Up at Elevate K-12

Redefining design processes for efficiency and impact

I established a structured yet flexible design process grounded in user-centered design, allowing each designer to optimize their approach within their specific pod. Our Process included stages such as discovery, design definition, internal and cross-functional reviews, user feedback, and design QA, all meticulously tracked in Asana. With weeklong sprints that began with planning and ended with cross-functional demos, we balanced collaborative workshops and async feedback to ensure deep alignment. This approach improved our velocity, quality, and sequencing, keeping us in sync with cross-functional partners to deliver maximum value to our customers.

Embedding User-Centered Research into the design workflow

We embedded scrappy, customer-focused research into our design process, ensuring that direct user insights informed every project. Leveraging a network of teachers as subject matter experts, we engaged in frequent async chats and surveys. We frequently performed usability testing with teachers and school and district leaders. We took an ethnographic approach seriously, traveling nationwide to observe classrooms firsthand and even sitting in teachers’ homes as they taught. This immersive research gave us a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities for teachers, students, and classroom coaches and significantly informed our roadmap planning and design strategy

Championing Inclusive Design and Accessibility Standards

Accessibility became a cornerstone of our design practice. Through a comprehensive audit of our designs and stakeholder surveys, we uncovered significant classroom challenges that required a fundamental shift in our approach. I spearheaded the creation of a cross-functional task force to address these issues head-on, fostering collaboration across teams to drive meaningful change.

I partnered with marketing to adopt more accessible brand colors, ensuring inclusivity across all touchpoints. To embed accessibility into our processes, we developed a design system rooted in accessibility principles and integrated tools like a Figma checklist to uphold rigorous usability standards at every design stage.

This holistic approach elevated the quality of our solutions and made them more inclusive and responsive to real-world needs, setting a new standard for accessibility within our organization.

Creating an optimized design culture

I transformed the design culture by fostering collaboration within our team and championing design principles across the company. Through cross-functional workshops, open feedback sessions, and regular design demos, we made design accessible and integral to the broader organization. We guided teams to engage with customers in unbiased, meaningful ways, fostering a deeper understanding of user needs.

By introducing rapid prototyping and testing ideas with users early in the process, we aligned with customer needs before development, enabling cost-effective course corrections and delivering more impactful solutions. This approach streamlined workflows, reduced rework, and increased product success rates.

Demonstrating the tangible impact of these efforts on product quality and customer satisfaction, we elevated design from a tactical function to a strategic driver of organizational success.

We delivered

At Elevate K-12, our team focused on three core products that powered the virtual learning ecosystem, each tailored to meet users' needs.

The Classroom offering served as the heart of live teaching, connecting students, teachers, and classroom coaches in real time to deliver engaging, curriculum-aligned instruction. With features like video feeds, interactive curriculum tools, and seamless student engagement options, this product enabled a rich, collaborative learning experience.

The Teacher Marketplace provided teachers with a dynamic platform to explore available classes, select teaching assignments, and manage their schedules with full autonomy. This streamlined experience empowered teachers to align their work with their preferences and goals, strengthening their relationship with Elevate.

The School and District Portal offered school leaders robust tools to manage their partnerships with Elevate K-12. With budget oversight, class selection, and performance analytics capabilities, it delivered actionable insights to enhance teacher and student outcomes.