Frog Street

I defined the product ecosystem the whole platform still runs on: a teacher-facing application and a separate content-and-admin backend. That split structured every build decision that followed: where content lives, how it's authored and published, what teachers see, and how districts are provisioned.

A real part of that lift was translation. It meant first understanding the print curriculum — how it's structured, and how teachers actually use it — then adapting it into something that works digital-first rather than a scanned copy of the page, while staying congruent with the print products still in classrooms. Print and digital had to read as one curriculum.

I designed the platform's core surfaces and the flows that connect them: login, invite, and account creation; SSO and self-service district rostering; the teacher hub and dashboard; program selection; the Resource Center with its search, filter, and bookmarking systems; and onboarding for both teachers and district admins. This is the spine of the product, the path a teacher takes from logging in to running their day.

I built Frog Street's first design system — tokens, components, patterns — and documented it for the team. Its WCAG-compliant color system was engineered for parity with Frog Street's print materials, bridging the digital product with the company's print heritage. The system has since been expanded twice.

Frog Street's flagship new capability is a formative-assessment experience for early-childhood educators. I owned its design from kickoff mapping through dev handoff: capturing an observation in the moment, the reporting that turns those observations into a readable picture of progress, and the admin configuration behind it. The developmental framework and standards these reports express belong to the curriculum team; the product that lets a teacher capture an observation one-handed and read a class's progress before a checkpoint closes is mine.

In usability testing, educators consistently described observation capture as fast and easy to use in the middle of a busy classroom.

Accessibility was in the work from year one and became a dedicated compliance track, a WCAG/508 epic covering color and contrast, keyboard focus, screen-reader support, alt text, and WAVE remediation. I compiled the platform's accessibility posture into a procurement-ready questionnaire.

I established the platform's research practice: the first structured test plan, teacher interviews, a moderated-testing program, analytics instrumentation, and on-site user testing, routing findings straight back into the report designs. The company later grew a dedicated research function that carried the program forward, which is exactly what a founding practice is for.

The practice produced product decisions, not decks, and kept producing after the handoff. Usability testing showed teachers using the Planner to actively shape their week, not just view it; that insight shipped as a set of Planner enhancements. Later wireframe testing with infant, toddler, and preschool educators drove a more streamlined observation-capture flow.

On the digital side, I procured, onboarded, and directed a contract designer. On the print side, I sourced a staffing partner and helped hire a print designer who went on to contribute to Frog Street's new infant product, a hire that had real impact on the print product line.