How a school chooses software

Students often assume that schools buy software the way they choose an app: someone sees it, likes it and installs it. The reality has more steps, and understanding them explains why good products sometimes never arrive.

First, somebody has to feel the problem. A head of department notices that half the class is inactive, or that marking takes six hours a week. Without a felt problem, nothing moves, however impressive the demonstration.

Second, the product must survive a trust check. Who sees the data? Where is it stored? What happens if a parent objects? A school cannot accept a vague answer, because the school, not the supplier, will answer the parent.

Third comes money, and money in a school is slow. Even a small sum may require a form, a signature and a line in next year's budget. This is why free products spread faster than cheap ones: free avoids the entire process.

Fourth, somebody must own the daily work. Every system that depends on one enthusiastic teacher dies when that teacher changes school. The product that survives is the one a substitute can run from a printed page.

FitForm was designed around these four steps rather than around features. It is free, it keeps video on the device, it runs in a browser with nothing to install, and its instructions fit on one wall poster. None of that is clever engineering. It is simply an attempt to answer the questions a school actually asks.