Most EdTech startups build their product, take it to schools, and wait for feedback. We do the opposite: we go to schools, listen for weeks or months, and only then do we start building. It’s not the fastest way. It’s the way that produces tools that are actually used.

Listen first, code later

Genuine co-design starts with an uncomfortable premise for any product team: we don’t know what users need better than they do. Teachers have contextual knowledge about their classrooms, their students, and their challenges that no product manager can acquire by reading academic articles or doing 30-minute interviews.

Our process starts with ethnographic observation: 2 to 4 weeks in the classroom, without predefined discovery agendas, observing and taking notes. Then come structured interviews, problem-mapping workshops, and paper prototypes that teachers can manipulate and discard without feeling judged.

The Mentu co-design process

  1. Phase 1 - Immersion (4-8 weeks): ethnographic classroom observation without a predefined agenda.
  2. Phase 2 - Problem mapping (2-3 weeks): workshops with teachers to identify and prioritize real frictions.
  3. Phase 3 - Joint ideation (2-4 weeks): design sessions where teachers and the technical team create solutions together.
  4. Phase 4 - Iterative prototyping (6-12 weeks): rapid cycles of testing and adjustment with the same teachers.
  5. Phase 5 - Controlled pilot (12-24 weeks): limited deployment with Level 1 and 2 MEL evaluation.

What changes when you co-design for real

Co-design workshop with teachers

When teachers co-design a tool, their relationship with it changes fundamentally. It is not a system that was imposed on them; it is something they helped create. That ownership produces significantly higher adoption and sustained use rates. In our co-designed projects, use at 6 months is consistently 2-3 times higher than in conventional implementations.

The reciprocity principle: In each co-design project, participating teachers receive training in design thinking, tools to continue innovating, and, where context allows, formal recognition for their contribution. Co-design must benefit both sides.