Toddle Connect
Rebuilding communication inside a global school platform
The context.
Toddle is a global learning and school management platform used by IB schools worldwide.
It brings together teachers, students, school administrators, and families in one system.
Everything from lesson planning and grading to report cards happens inside Toddle.
But one critical layer was underpowered: communication. Messaging wasn’t designed for the complexity of real school ecosystems.
The problem.
After conducting research across multiple schools, we uncovered deeper patterns behind the problem. Schools don’t operate in isolation. Teachers coordinate with other teachers. Admins broadcast updates. Parents receive inputs from multiple stakeholders. Students sit at the center of it all. But inside Toddle:
No family-wide messaging.
Teachers couldn’t message students directly.
They couldn’t message other staff members.
There were no group conversations.
Messaging was accessible only from the homepage.
So every conversation required context switching. Important coordination moved to email. Parents received fragmented updates. Students were often excluded.
The system didn’t reflect how schools actually communicate.
My role.
Over four months, I led the end-to-end redesign of messaging as both Product Designer and Product Owner. I owned:
Strategy and north star definition
Research across 80+ schools
PRD and roadmap planning
Interaction and system design
This was not a UI upgrade. It was a structural rebuild.
What we changed.
We reimagined messaging as a system layer integrated across the platform.
Conversations across all roles.
Teachers can now message students, parents, admin staff and other teachers. Chats can evolve into group channels without starting over.
Channels rooted in school structure.
We introduced three types of channels:
Class Channels: Auto-created for every class with live roster sync.
Family Channels: Auto-syncing channels connecting teachers with all guardians of a student.
Custom Channels: Flexible groups for committees, projects, or events.
Channels update automatically when class rosters or family relationships change. No manual maintenance.
Messaging from anywhere.
Earlier, starting a conversation meant leaving your work, navigating back to the homepage, and breaking focus.
We removed that friction.
Messaging became accessible across the platform, conversations could start directly from user profiles and teachers could communicate without interrupting their workflow.
Communication now fits into the work, instead of pulling users away from it.
Built-in accountability.
School communication carries responsibility. But earlier, conversations were hard to track, roles were unclear, and important messages could disappear.
We redesigned messaging to remove that ambiguity.
Clear role boundaries defined who could access and modify conversations.
Threads kept discussions organised instead of scattered.
Messages became searchable and traceable.
Conversations were archived, not deleted, preserving accountability.
Language barriers were reduced through inline translation.
Communication became dependable, not just convenient.
What changed after launch?
Messaging shifted from being a weak module to becoming a product differentiator.
Metric
Staff using messaging weekly
Avg. time to first message sent
Before
39%
2 days
-
-
After
78%
35 mins
82%
1,300+
Change
2x increase
92% faster
New usage pattern
Organic adoption
Why this project matters?
In a school system, communication isn’t a feature. It’s infrastructure.
By aligning messaging with real-world school dynamics, we reduced coordination friction, improved product stickiness, and strengthened Toddle’s competitive position.