Mei Tan: EdTech Entrepreneur

Rice University alumna Mei Tan (CS ’17) found her sweet spot in educational technology —ed tech— platforms. She worked as a full stack developer on an ed tech product that fascinated her and she began volunteering as a high school Computer Science teacher, which revealed ed tech systems from the consumer’s perspective.

“As both a consumer and developer of ed tech systems, I kept seeing a disconnect across the industry,” said Tan. “There are so many new tools, but are technologists creating what learners and educators really need? How should a district strategize about feasibly and effectively deploying these tools? How would a teacher know which tools would produce the best outcome for a specific lesson or module, or help improve their overall effectiveness in the classroom?

“When I looked at where I might make the most difference, it seemed like interdisciplinary research in academia was a good bet. I joined the Stanford University Graduate School of Education with the idea of connecting academic innovation, school districts, and the powerful economic machine that is ed tech.”

Less than six months into her graduate program, Tan launched a startup, Pioneer, to address one of the disconnects: career exploration for teen-age learners.

More highlights from Tan's story:

Launching Pioneer now is possible only because of Tan’s previous and simultaneous experiences. The opportunity arose precisely because she had worked as a developer in a large technology company, had taught computer science to high school students, and was enrolled in a graduate program with a startup accelerator.

“But it was my failed startups that really gave me the expertise I needed to be a successful ed tech founder,” said Tan. “I had plenty of pitches and prototypes that fizzled. I made all sorts of programs that didn't work and I even accidentally left an Azure machine running.

“For each of the ideas that didn’t make it, I had acquired a new set of skills and familiarity with a wide array of tools. I had taken tons of classes, read countless articles, and learned UI/UX design, illustration, and video production. I learned how to develop from a blank page, setting up new databases and handling authentication - things I never had to do from scratch when I worked inside an established product.”

In each of her roles — individual contributor, senior software engineer, teacher, grad student, and co-founder — Tan has needed to communicate projects and deadlines to a wide variety of audiences. Surprisingly, her approach is the same.

“In a technology company, the more senior your rank, the more your job becomes about communicating and teaching. It was actually my favorite part of my Microsoft job, teaching the new developers and interns about our codebase and projects,” said Tan.

“Think first about your audience and what they want to get out of the interaction. In a work setting, the audience usually needs clarity to make a decision. Your boss, your colleagues, the product people - they need your data and evidence to be delivered as concisely and quickly as possible.

“In a high school classroom, the students need your data and your explanation to satisfy their curiosity or to solve a problem. They may seek analytical feedback to help determine why their code isn’t working, or they need personal affirmation because they are wondering, ‘Am I any good at this?’

“In each of these situations, I learned to be efficient and concise with my words. Everyone is short on time and attention, so my best communication occurs when I put a lot of effort up front to determine what is most important to convey.”

Read the full story on the Rice University Computer Science website: https://bit.ly/3MLkMPM