Getting Sharky with Blackbaud’s K–12 Advisors
Published
Have you ever caught an episode of Shark Tank? Yes, THAT Shark Tank. Discover what Shark Tank means to Blackbaud's K–12 Advisory Board!
The concept is simple and yet powerful: Provide a forum where a single voice can present an idea and “The Sharks” consider value, benefit, and even feasibility. If they “buy in,” they give the idea a platform for it to thrive.
My group, Blackbaud’s K–12 Advisory Board, always sets aside time at our annual retreat for our own little version of Shark Tank. (If you didn’t catch my post about this year’s retreat and the impact this gathering has on Blackbaud, be sure to check it out .)
The Shark Tank session has become an instant highlight for the week. Last year, Vicky Wong of University School was a runner-up. When I spoke with her, she reminisced “It was impressive that my idea was also implemented by the engineers. And released in under a week!”
Readers, take note: Blackbaud is listening!
For our retreat, “The Sharks” are Blackbaud’s team of Product Managers (PMs). Contestant time is short. 7 minutes: 4 to present and 3 on the hot seat for a probing Q&A.
With nerves in check and PowerPoints in hand, Advisors line up to take their plunge.
Seated in the rear, Blackbaud’s Sharks each hold a matrix scoring sheet. Their criteria:
I had a front row seat this year—dare I say the Captain's Chair? —with 12 of our 18 advisors lined up to pitch ideas. Join me for this “fly on the wall” perspective of how things went. And boy did it get Sharky...
Kimo Zachariah from Punahou School traveled the furthest to the Charleston, SC, retreat and packed some ideas along with his luggage. His plan: flood the zone.
“I wanted to super-size things, get my miles worth.”
Punahou is one of the largest independent schools in the U.S., and Kimo knows that even the smaller pain points in the software are magnified for his 4500+ person campus.
The typically calm Hawaiian took to the podium with determination, punching through slide after slide. One, two, three ideas. When all had settled, he had provided eight!
His theme? Automation and how it could lead to massive time savings. A few clicks here and there add up.
As the judges scrambled to redraw their scoring sheet, Kimo looked up with puppy dog eyes for a response. The Sharks circled with interest, asking about some of the finer details of assigning Student Checklists.
“At the end they thanked me but politely reminded me to keep it to one idea next time.” With a sly look in his eye, his simple response: “Mahalo.”
John Yen from Polytechnic School took a different approach, which we anticipated given his creative nature. With a calm and pointed demeanor, John presented a theme of constant revision, re-evaluation, and re-working of the software. “We need to find ways to leverage Artificial Intelligence and other technologies.” It was a big picture approach that brought fresh air to the room.
Initially he focused on the teacher's experience and how mundane subjects—like assignments and attendance-taking—need re-envisioning to streamline and meet modern school needs. That was a build-up to modernizing the authentication process, and eventually a remake of the entire user interface (UI).
John casts his dreams wide from the ship’s deck.
He later shared, “This year’s Shark Tank was overflowing with ideas from colleagues. I recognize that Blackbaud can only commit to so much, so I cherish the opportunity to groupthink a vision for a product that has such meaningful impact on so many in education.”
His presentation forced the Sharks to think macro—notes filled the margins of their scoring matrix—just as intended.
Last at the podium, representing Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Julie Katz concealed her rookie nerves as one the board’s newest members. Her idea was simple: Reorganize a commonly used menu in the School Website product and then add the ability to create subfolders to keep it tidy.
With software development, it is often impossible to predict how a feature will stand up after years of use. For the section of the product referred to as “Miscellaneous Files,” a standard list of the uploaded files just doesn’t cut it after years of contributions. Julie’s vision: Add some features like subfolders and maybe a better way to tag and sort. How about a Search box?
It was a reminder that fresh eyes in this group provide us all with better vision.
Afterwards, she quietly shared with me “It felt really good to be a voice for change. Blackbaud does listen, and the board can be that voice for all the K–12 schools.”
Amazing.
With presentations over, attention pivoted to the scorer's table where Blackbaud’s Paul Finch officially had his hands full. As the Senior Manager of Product Management, he was tasked with scoring the waterfall of ideas while containing the eager intensity of the swirling PM Sharks.
With scoring sheets and laptops in hand, the shiver of sharks quietly sequestered themselves to a smaller conference room. Time was short. The task at hand: Select a winner and then commit to implementing the idea into Blackbaud's K–12 Solutions.
Clearly this is no small effort.
Later, I pressed Paul to share what it was really like behind closed doors. He put it this way: “We love the passion and creativity. At the same time, it’s humbling when someone calls our baby ‘ugly.’ Like rivalries at the dinner table, our chaotic arguments and strong opinions lead us to the eventual winner. It’s my absolute favorite moment of the whole week.”
The year’s eventual victor, Paul Tidmore from Parish Episcopal School, had pitched a simple but powerful idea: Build in better controls for teachers as they go through the complex process of setting up their gradebooks. Gentle guardrails. “Each trimester I proactively audit all the school’s gradebooks. I confirm they were all set up; calculations total 100%; and that they are consistent across all the sections of the same course.” This work has decreased calls to support while making sure advisors, students, and parents have access to accurate grade details.
What if the Gradebook setup process could be updated so that it would self-correct? Every school could have a Paul on staff. Virtual Paul. Paul-o-Matic. Okay, I am still working on a name...
Simple and effective. When implemented, the update will touch tens of thousands of gradebooks—impressive results for a 7-minute swim with The Sharks.
Oceanic metaphors and game show references aside, one thing is clear:
In the end, we are all winners.
Blackbaud gets to tap the sometimes-overlooked creativity of its customers while the users of the product get a chance to contribute to the “Essential Software for the People Who Change the World.“
How perfect is that?
Austin Ewachiw
Director of Technology
Calvert Hall College High School
Executive Director, Blackbaud K–12 Advisory Board
Connect with me on LinkedIn
PS. Heading to the ATLIS Annual Conference in Atlanta later this month? Track me down. I'd love to hear your ideas. I happen to know some Sharks and where they'll be circling. It might make some waves!
My group, Blackbaud’s K–12 Advisory Board, always sets aside time at our annual retreat for our own little version of Shark Tank. (If you didn’t catch my post about this year’s retreat and the impact this gathering has on Blackbaud, be sure to check it out .)
The Shark Tank session has become an instant highlight for the week. Last year, Vicky Wong of University School was a runner-up. When I spoke with her, she reminisced “It was impressive that my idea was also implemented by the engineers. And released in under a week!”
Readers, take note: Blackbaud is listening!
For our retreat, “The Sharks” are Blackbaud’s team of Product Managers (PMs). Contestant time is short. 7 minutes: 4 to present and 3 on the hot seat for a probing Q&A.
With nerves in check and PowerPoints in hand, Advisors line up to take their plunge.
Seated in the rear, Blackbaud’s Sharks each hold a matrix scoring sheet. Their criteria:
- Feasibility—Can Blackbaud accomplish this?
- Usefulness —Is the idea one that will benefit a broad base?
- Value—What are the costs, both in time and money, and a customer's willingness to pay for it?
I had a front row seat this year—dare I say the Captain's Chair? —with 12 of our 18 advisors lined up to pitch ideas. Join me for this “fly on the wall” perspective of how things went. And boy did it get Sharky...
Kimo Zachariah from Punahou School traveled the furthest to the Charleston, SC, retreat and packed some ideas along with his luggage. His plan: flood the zone.
“I wanted to super-size things, get my miles worth.”
Punahou is one of the largest independent schools in the U.S., and Kimo knows that even the smaller pain points in the software are magnified for his 4500+ person campus.
The typically calm Hawaiian took to the podium with determination, punching through slide after slide. One, two, three ideas. When all had settled, he had provided eight!
His theme? Automation and how it could lead to massive time savings. A few clicks here and there add up.
As the judges scrambled to redraw their scoring sheet, Kimo looked up with puppy dog eyes for a response. The Sharks circled with interest, asking about some of the finer details of assigning Student Checklists.
“At the end they thanked me but politely reminded me to keep it to one idea next time.” With a sly look in his eye, his simple response: “Mahalo.”
John Yen from Polytechnic School took a different approach, which we anticipated given his creative nature. With a calm and pointed demeanor, John presented a theme of constant revision, re-evaluation, and re-working of the software. “We need to find ways to leverage Artificial Intelligence and other technologies.” It was a big picture approach that brought fresh air to the room.
Initially he focused on the teacher's experience and how mundane subjects—like assignments and attendance-taking—need re-envisioning to streamline and meet modern school needs. That was a build-up to modernizing the authentication process, and eventually a remake of the entire user interface (UI).
John casts his dreams wide from the ship’s deck.
He later shared, “This year’s Shark Tank was overflowing with ideas from colleagues. I recognize that Blackbaud can only commit to so much, so I cherish the opportunity to groupthink a vision for a product that has such meaningful impact on so many in education.”
His presentation forced the Sharks to think macro—notes filled the margins of their scoring matrix—just as intended.
Last at the podium, representing Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Julie Katz concealed her rookie nerves as one the board’s newest members. Her idea was simple: Reorganize a commonly used menu in the School Website product and then add the ability to create subfolders to keep it tidy.
With software development, it is often impossible to predict how a feature will stand up after years of use. For the section of the product referred to as “Miscellaneous Files,” a standard list of the uploaded files just doesn’t cut it after years of contributions. Julie’s vision: Add some features like subfolders and maybe a better way to tag and sort. How about a Search box?
It was a reminder that fresh eyes in this group provide us all with better vision.
Afterwards, she quietly shared with me “It felt really good to be a voice for change. Blackbaud does listen, and the board can be that voice for all the K–12 schools.”
Amazing.
With presentations over, attention pivoted to the scorer's table where Blackbaud’s Paul Finch officially had his hands full. As the Senior Manager of Product Management, he was tasked with scoring the waterfall of ideas while containing the eager intensity of the swirling PM Sharks.
With scoring sheets and laptops in hand, the shiver of sharks quietly sequestered themselves to a smaller conference room. Time was short. The task at hand: Select a winner and then commit to implementing the idea into Blackbaud's K–12 Solutions.
Clearly this is no small effort.
Later, I pressed Paul to share what it was really like behind closed doors. He put it this way: “We love the passion and creativity. At the same time, it’s humbling when someone calls our baby ‘ugly.’ Like rivalries at the dinner table, our chaotic arguments and strong opinions lead us to the eventual winner. It’s my absolute favorite moment of the whole week.”
The year’s eventual victor, Paul Tidmore from Parish Episcopal School, had pitched a simple but powerful idea: Build in better controls for teachers as they go through the complex process of setting up their gradebooks. Gentle guardrails. “Each trimester I proactively audit all the school’s gradebooks. I confirm they were all set up; calculations total 100%; and that they are consistent across all the sections of the same course.” This work has decreased calls to support while making sure advisors, students, and parents have access to accurate grade details.
What if the Gradebook setup process could be updated so that it would self-correct? Every school could have a Paul on staff. Virtual Paul. Paul-o-Matic. Okay, I am still working on a name...
Simple and effective. When implemented, the update will touch tens of thousands of gradebooks—impressive results for a 7-minute swim with The Sharks.
Oceanic metaphors and game show references aside, one thing is clear:
In the end, we are all winners.
Blackbaud gets to tap the sometimes-overlooked creativity of its customers while the users of the product get a chance to contribute to the “Essential Software for the People Who Change the World.“
How perfect is that?
Austin Ewachiw
Director of Technology
Calvert Hall College High School
Executive Director, Blackbaud K–12 Advisory Board
Connect with me on LinkedIn
PS. Heading to the ATLIS Annual Conference in Atlanta later this month? Track me down. I'd love to hear your ideas. I happen to know some Sharks and where they'll be circling. It might make some waves!
News Blackbaud K-12 Solutions™ Blog
04/15/2025 3:00pm EDT
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