Before you build something for a group of people, it helps to ask them what they actually need. That sounds obvious. In practice, much software, especially in sectors like education, is built from assumptions, and the people who use it every day are asked last, if at all.
ScoilFlow is a school management system we are building for Irish post-primary schools. It is still in development, and we are being deliberate about how we shape it.
The questions a school asks every day
Underneath the forms and reports, daily school life comes down to a handful of questions:
- Who is not in today?
- Who needs a conversation?
- Which projects are behind?
- Are we on track for the board?
- What do we need to decide for next year?
Good software should help answer those quickly, and show each person only what they are allowed to see. Whether we are doing that well is not something we can judge from the outside.
Why we research first
It avoids building for the loudest voice. Every organisation has someone who feels strongly about one feature. Research shows how widely a need is shared, so priorities rest on evidence.
It exposes what is missing. People rarely volunteer the thing they have stopped noticing: the workaround, the spreadsheet on the side, the task that eats Friday afternoon.
It is cheaper than rework. A wrong assumption costs very little to fix at the research stage and a great deal after it has been built. (The same logic is why we recommend a discovery phase on any software project.)
Surveys and conversations
We use both. A survey reaches many people and shows patterns. Conversations go deeper and explain the reasons behind them. Good questions are specific and about behaviour ("what did you do last time this went wrong?") rather than about opinions ("would you like a dashboard?"), because people are better at describing what they do than predicting what they would want.
What we do with the answers
We read every response. The findings decide where ScoilFlow goes next, and where it should stay simple. Some of the most valuable outcomes are things we decide not to build.
How to take part
If you work in a school, you can take the research survey. It tells us what works in the systems you use today, what is missing, and what would make the most difference in your school. If you would rather talk, get in touch.