practice by design delivers one framework every Wednesday that transforms school communication complexity into workable systems. No theory dumps. No 47-step processes. Just the specific move that solves the problem you're facing right now—whether it's an inbox explosion, a confused community, or information living in twelve different places.
Short read, measurable impact.
Edition 16: FEBRUARY 11, 2026
BEYOND THE ORG CHART series: Closing the Visibility Gap to Manage Family Anxiety
When a parent asks for help and hears nothing for a week, they don't just wait—they enter a "Black Box" where they begin to invent narratives of abandonment.
Even if your team is working incredibly hard behind the scenes, that effort remains invisible (and undervalued) unless you bridge the Silent Gap.
In part 4 of the Beyond the Org Chart series, we explore how to use automated milestones and "The Friday Pulse" to protect your staff’s time and manage the anxiety-to-escalation pipeline before it turns into a crisis.
Edition 15: FEBRUARY 4, 2026
BEYOND THE ORG CHART series: Use Pathmaps to Make School Systems More Intuitive
Why do teachers pay for their own supplies? It’s rarely a lack of process—it’s a lack of navigation.
This week, we compare school bureaucracy to Toronto’s underground maze, arguing that "system fatigue" is a design flaw, not a staff failure.
Instead of buried manuals, schools need Pathmaps: simple, intuitive guides that transform complex administrative hurdles into clear, one-page paths.
Edition 14: JANUARY 28, 2026
BEYOND THE ORG CHART series: The Teacher Who Stopped Asking for Help
When a teacher spends $73 out-of-pocket just to avoid your school’s bureaucracy, you aren't just losing money—you’re losing their engagement.
This week, we look at the "Invisible Tax" on teacher energy and how to use Journey Mapping to see exactly where your systems are pushing talent away.
Edition 14: JANUARY 28, 2026
Edition 14: JANUARY 28, 2026
BEYOND THE ORG CHART series: The Teacher Who Stopped Asking for Help
When a teacher spends $73 out-of-pocket just to avoid your school’s bureaucracy, you aren't just losing money—you’re losing their engagement.
This week, we look at the "Invisible Tax" on teacher energy and how to use Journey Mapping to see exactly where your systems are pushing talent away.
When a teacher spends $73 out-of-pocket just to avoid your school’s bureaucracy, you aren't just losing money—you’re losing their engagement.
This week, we look at the "Invisible Tax" on teacher energy and how to use Journey Mapping to see exactly where your systems are pushing talent away.
Edition 13: JANUARY 21, 2026
BEYOND THE ORG CHART series: The Invisible Triage Tax Killing Your Teachers' Capacity
Parents email everyone because they don't know who handles what. Your teachers stop what they're doing to triage, forward, and coordinate responses—burning hours on work that has nothing to do with teaching. That's the invisible triage tax, and it's quietly draining your staff's capacity every single day.
This week we're using service blueprinting to redesign how parent questions get routed. Instead of landing in the wrong inbox and bouncing through three people, parents reach the right expert from the start.
Parents email everyone because they don't know who handles what. Your teachers stop what they're doing to triage, forward, and coordinate responses—burning hours on work that has nothing to do with teaching. That's the invisible triage tax, and it's quietly draining your staff's capacity every single day.
This week we're using service blueprinting to redesign how parent questions get routed. Instead of landing in the wrong inbox and bouncing through three people, parents reach the right expert from the start.
Edition 12: JANUARY 14, 2026
Your Community Thinks You Have Too Many Leaders
Your community doesn't understand your organizational structure. Parents think middle leaders are wasteful. New teachers navigate by trial and error. Vendors can't find decision-makers.
You can spend the next four months defending your structure, or you can spend 60 minutes redesigning how you communicate it.
This edition gives you a 10-minute AI audit to diagnose where clarity breaks down, announces The Clarity Sprint, plus a new 5-part series with frameworks you can implement immediately.
Your community doesn't understand your organizational structure. Parents think middle leaders are wasteful. New teachers navigate by trial and error. Vendors can't find decision-makers.
You can spend the next four months defending your structure, or you can spend 60 minutes redesigning how you communicate it.
This edition gives you a 10-minute AI audit to diagnose where clarity breaks down, announces The Clarity Sprint, plus a new 5-part series with frameworks you can implement immediately.
Edition 11: DECEMBER 10, 2025
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series:
The Communication Network You Can't See
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series (finale): The Communication Network You Can't See
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series (finale): The Communication Network You Can't See
Even perfect emails fail if they travel through broken networks.
Your org chart shows who reports to whom. But real schools operate on conversations—unofficial channels, missing handoffs, contradictory pathways.
This final post of the series reveals how to map the invisible communication networks nobody designed—and how to fix them.
Even perfect emails fail if they travel through broken networks.
Your org chart shows who reports to whom. But real schools operate on conversations—unofficial channels, missing handoffs, contradictory pathways.
This final post of the series reveals how to map the invisible communication networks nobody designed—and how to fix them.
Edition 10: DECEMBER 3, 2025
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series:
Plain Language: Writing So Everyone Can Understand
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series: Plain Language: Writing So Everyone Can Understand
You write what feels like a perfectly clear message. Yet parents reply asking what to do, students submit incomplete work, and colleagues admit confusion.
Plain language isn't the opposite of intelligence—it's the expression of empathy, and when combined with visual hierarchy, it turns complexity into clarity everyone can act on.
You write what feels like a perfectly clear message. Yet parents reply asking what to do, students submit incomplete work, and colleagues admit confusion.
Plain language isn't the opposite of intelligence—it's the expression of empathy, and when combined with visual hierarchy, it turns complexity into clarity everyone can act on.
Edition 09: NOVEMBER 26, 2025
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series:
Context Matters — Why Your Perfect Message Fails on Phones
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series: Context Matters — Why Your Perfect Message Fails on Phones
We create communications on big screens in quiet offices, but parents read them on phones in parking lots with kids fighting in the backseat. Between 50-60% of emails open on mobile devices first, yet most school communications are designed for desktop.
This week, learn the mobile-first method that reduces confusion and cuts follow-up questions in half.
We create communications on big screens in quiet offices, but parents read them on phones in parking lots with kids fighting in the backseat. Between 50-60% of emails open on mobile devices first, yet most school communications are designed for desktop.
This week, learn the mobile-first method that reduces confusion and cuts follow-up questions in half.
Edition 08: NOVEMBER 19, 2025
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series:
Visual Hierarchy — Making Priority Obvious at a Glance
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series: Visual Hierarchy — Making Priority Obvious at a Glance
Transform your school communications with visual hierarchy—the design principle that makes priority obvious at a glance.
This practical guide reveals the three-zone system that helps parents, teachers, and students instantly find what matters in your messages. Learn to avoid the five hierarchy traps that make communications unreadable and apply the simple equation (Impact = Size × Contrast × Isolation) that makes every message clear.
Transform your school communications with visual hierarchy—the design principle that makes priority obvious at a glance.
This practical guide reveals the three-zone system that helps parents, teachers, and students instantly find what matters in your messages. Learn to avoid the five hierarchy traps that make communications unreadable and apply the simple equation (Impact = Size × Contrast × Isolation) that makes every message clear.
Edition 07: NOVEMBER 12, 2025
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series:
Design Principles for School Communication
DESIGN FOR CLARITY series: Design Principles for School Communication
Your teachers are reading your emails—they're just not finding what they need. When every line looks equally important, nothing stands out.
This week, discover the five design principles that transform confusing communication into clarity: proximity, hierarchy, repetition, contrast, and white space. Plus, learn journey mapping—a powerful technique for diagnosing exactly where your communication breaks down.
Your teachers are reading your emails—they're just not finding what they need. When every line looks equally important, nothing stands out.
This week, discover the five design principles that transform confusing communication into clarity: proximity, hierarchy, repetition, contrast, and white space. Plus, learn journey mapping—a powerful technique for diagnosing exactly where your communication breaks down.
Edition 06: NOVEMBER 5, 2025
Stop Telling AI What to Do. Start Showing It How to Feel.
Most school leaders use AI like a vending machine: press button, get forgettable output.
In this edition, I show you five principles that transform how AI responds to your prompts.
Because the difference between "make this better" and prompting like a designer is the difference between spending 2 hours rewriting and 10 minutes refining.
Most school leaders use AI like a vending machine: press button, get forgettable output.
In this edition, I show you five principles that transform how AI responds to your prompts.
Because the difference between "make this better" and prompting like a designer is the difference between spending 2 hours rewriting and 10 minutes refining.
Edition 05: October 29, 2025
Stop Building New Systems! Name the Ones You Already Have
Every time someone says "we always do it this way," that's an undocumented system living in someone's head, drifting without anyone noticing, waiting to disappear when they leave.
In this edition, I'm showing you how to spot the invisible systems hiding in plain sight, and what to do about them before institutional knowledge walks out the door.
Every time someone says "we always do it this way," that's an undocumented system living in someone's head, drifting without anyone noticing, waiting to disappear when they leave.
In this edition, I'm showing you how to spot the invisible systems hiding in plain sight, and what to do about them before institutional knowledge walks out the door.
Edition 05: October 29, 2025
Stop Building New Systems! Name the Ones You Already Have
Every time someone says "we always do it this way," that's an undocumented system living in someone's head, drifting without anyone noticing, waiting to disappear when they leave.
In this edition, I'm showing you how to spot the invisible systems hiding in plain sight, and what to do about them before institutional knowledge walks out the door.
Edition 04: October 22, 2025
How to Make School Systems Stick (When Everything Drifts Back)
You've fixed your school's communication system before. Three weeks later, it stops working. Not because the system failed—because nobody owned keeping it working. This is organizational drift, and it happens to every improvement without clear ownership.
The Ownership Checklist solves this in four questions and ten minutes. One explicit owner. Bounded responsibilities. The difference between systems that last three weeks versus three years. Access below the free framework that keeps your fixes fixed—so you stop re-solving the same problems every semester.
You've fixed your school's communication system before. Three weeks later, it stops working. Not because the system failed—because nobody owned keeping it working. This is organizational drift, and it happens to every improvement without clear ownership.
The Ownership Checklist solves this in four questions and ten minutes. One explicit owner. Bounded responsibilities. The difference between systems that last three weeks versus three years. Access below the free framework that keeps your fixes fixed—so you stop re-solving the same problems every semester.
Edition 03: October 15, 2025
Why Teachers Can't Find What You Already Sent (And How to Fix It)
When you send information by email, you're creating a temporary delivery mechanism that disappears into digital archives.
The real problem isn't that people don't read your messages—it's that they can't find what they need when they need it again.
This week's post introduces a three-question framework that transforms how you communicate anything from policy updates to event details, reducing those "where did you send that?" emails by designing for findability instead of just delivery.
When you send information by email, you're creating a temporary delivery mechanism that disappears into digital archives.
The real problem isn't that people don't read your messages—it's that they can't find what they need when they need it again.
This week's post introduces a three-question framework that transforms how you communicate anything from policy updates to event details, reducing those "where did you send that?" emails by designing for findability instead of just delivery.
Edition 02: October 8, 2025
The Real Reason Your School Emails Don't Get Read
Most communication breakdowns aren't about whether people care. They're about cognitive diversity.
Your comprehensive weekly update serves some teachers perfectly while overwhelming others. Your brief reminders work for some parents and leave others feeling disconnected.
The 5Cs Framework helps you design for this reality.
Most communication breakdowns aren't about whether people care. They're about cognitive diversity.
Your comprehensive weekly update serves some teachers perfectly while overwhelming others. Your brief reminders work for some parents and leave others feeling disconnected.
The 5Cs Framework helps you design for this reality.
Process Mapping for Schools: Find Where Communication Breaks Down
Edition 01: October 1, 2025.
Most school communication problems aren't about effort, but invisible breakdowns in the system. This toolkit makes the invisible visible. Once you map the actual flow of information (not the ideal flow you think exists), solutions become obvious.
This is service design thinking, stripped down for busy school leaders.
Edition 01: October 1, 2025
Process Mapping for Schools: Find Where Communication Breaks Down
Most school communication problems aren't about effort, but invisible breakdowns in the system. This toolkit makes the invisible visible. Once you map the actual flow of information (not the ideal flow you think exists), solutions become obvious.
This is service design thinking, stripped down for busy school leaders.
Most school communication problems aren't about effort, but invisible breakdowns in the system. This toolkit makes the invisible visible. Once you map the actual flow of information (not the ideal flow you think exists), solutions become obvious.
This is service design thinking, stripped down for busy school leaders.
Edition 15: FEBRUARY 4, 2026
BEYOND THE ORG CHART series: Use Pathmaps to Make School Systems More Intuitive
Why do teachers pay for their own supplies? It’s rarely a lack of process—it’s a lack of navigation.
This week, we compare school bureaucracy to Toronto’s underground maze, arguing that "system fatigue" is a design flaw, not a staff failure.
Instead of buried manuals, schools need Pathmaps: simple, intuitive guides that transform complex administrative hurdles into clear, one-page paths.
Edition 16: FEBRUARY 11, 2026
BEYOND THE ORG CHART series: Closing the Visibility Gap to Manage Family Anxiety
When a parent asks for help and hears nothing for a week, they don't just wait—they enter a "Black Box" where they begin to invent narratives of abandonment.
Even if your team is working incredibly hard behind the scenes, that effort remains invisible (and undervalued) unless you bridge the Silent Gap.
In part 4 of the Beyond the Org Chart series, we explore how to use automated milestones and "The Friday Pulse" to protect your staff’s time and manage the anxiety-to-escalation pipeline before it turns into a crisis.
Questions about how to use any of the toolkits? (Or want to talk about bringing practice by design workshops to your school?)
Questions about how to use any of the toolkits? (Or want to talk about bringing practice by design workshops to your school?)