Packback's Product Design Principles

We wrote these principles at Packback to guide product, design and engineering decisions. They shaped Packback Deep Dives (now: Packback Writing) and Writing Lab, and they still shape how we think about product at Color/Math. They're reproduced here lightly edited for reading.

Why principles

Design is always a series of trade-offs. Adding a feature may add functionality, but it also removes some simplicity. Adding a setting that gives instructors more structure trades away some of students' choice and flexibility.

We will naturally hear more feature requests from the instructors who use Packback than from the students who use it, so we need a strong internal method for keeping our purpose, fueling students' curiosity, autonomy and mastery, as our north star. We serve our students by making Packback the most motivating, inspiring platform we can. We serve our professors by serving our students.

Packback's mission is to empower every student to be fearlessly curious and find their unique voice. To align our product, design and engineering work to that purpose, we employ the following principles.

We employ a bias toward student inquiry

• Bias toward students' questions, rather than instructor prompts. This is our most important behavior change, and every other differentiating part of the platform relies on it. The goal isn't to replicate a discussion board. It's to create a community of inquiry, where students learn by asking questions, moderate their own class community and own their learning.
• Bias toward student choice of what to ask, rather than limiting their curiosity. As long as it relates to the class, avoid strict topic requirements. We don't learn in a straight line: new material sparks ideas about what we learned before, and in other classes.
• Bias toward student choice of what to respond to. If a student is still curious about last week's thread, that curiosity shouldn't end because the class has moved on.

We employ a bias toward student autonomy

• Use the minimum extrinsic motivation needed to get students to show up consistently. Use extrinsic motivators for the action, and intrinsic motivators for the outcome. Limit punitive motivators ("you will lose points if…") to what's needed to meet a deadline or protect the community, then lean on formative, guiding feedback and a clear explanation of the why.
• Bias toward student choice of when to post. Fewer deadlines and restrictions to remember. Ask: does this restriction have a strong pedagogical basis in a world where we trust students?
• Bias toward student choice of how to post. If the requirement is 100% effort, anything short of it is failure. Set minimum guidelines, not requirements: enforce the floor, and let students choose their own ceiling.
• Bias toward moderation in the most limited way that keeps a community healthy. When in doubt, leave the post up, and never edge into subjective censorship.

We employ a bias toward supporting mastery

• Pull feedback as far forward in the process as possible, so students can succeed before they submit. Every student reaching full credit through clear, responsive, formative feedback is the ideal end state. Lead with formative feedback over evaluative feedback, especially anywhere a grade could be affected.
• Bias toward chances to keep trying until mastery. Students will miss the mark, and that doesn't mean malicious intent. Give feedback, offer the chance to revise, and leave the choice to the student.
• Leave the choice to revise with the student. Many adaptive technologies gate a student's progress until they meet the requirements. That limits choice and creates incentives to cheat and disengage. We could do it; we choose not to.

We employ a bias toward the curiosity in every student

• Bias toward accessibility for every student: not just web accessibility for students with disabilities or who use assistive technology, but cost accessibility too. Packback is required software for a grade, which gives us a different power relationship with our users than a typical company has with its customers. That power comes with the responsibility to offer ways to reduce or eliminate costs for students who need support.
• Bias toward helping every student reach their next level of growth. Packback naturally resonates with students who are already excited to learn. Students who are struggling are harder to spot, and we build features that motivate every student to keep progressing toward their best work.

We employ a bias toward technology as an assistant to great instruction, not a replacement

• Defer to human beings: moderators over flags, instructor selections over recommendations, instructor overrides over AI grades.
• Match the specificity of AI feedback to its consequences. If it has a bearing on a grade, it needs to be simpler, more explainable and more accurate.

We employ a bias toward what differentiates us

• We're a premium product with an outcome goal, not a commodity. We take a strong stance that won't be right for everyone, and because of that, we can support a specific pedagogy that leads to defined goals.
• Widen the differentiation gap rather than replicate table-stakes features. Build the things that make us unique. Buy the things that don't, or push them off until they begin to limit our growth.