Scaling K-12 Web Systems
I am part of a fast-moving team of 7 designers at ParentSquare. Together, we build hundreds of custom school websites every year. Our busiest time is from April to July during the "Back to School" rush. We have to work very fast while making sure every site looks neat and organized. To handle this heavy workload, I took on a leadership role. I focused on making our tech tools faster, keeping brand styles consistent for different schools, and leading projects centered around our users.
Managing Busy Pipelines: Leading our team through our most crowded work seasons without falling behind.
Smart Use of AI: Using my training in AI image creation and prompt engineering to build high-quality web graphics faster.
Company-Wide Teamwork: Partnering with different departments to help everyone better understand and design for our users.
Role: Senior Website & Brand Systems Designer
Project Type: Website Design
Year: 2025 - Present
Core Skills: Component Library Architecture, Creative Automation, Prompt Engineering, Generative AI (Image Creation), Post-Launch Brand Governance, Persona Development, Cross-Functional Leadership
Task & Action
Every school website we create has its own unique branding rules, fonts, and layout challenges. My main job is to solve these visual problems quickly. I deliver beautiful, easy-to-use layouts that match each school's identity. To keep our team on track, I take the lead on finishing tasks and changing our workflow so we always beat our tight deadlines. I also use my training in AI prompt engineering to bring smart AI tools into our process. This helps us brainstorm layouts and make custom images that match our exact design standards.
I also noticed that schools often accidentally messed up their site designs after we handed the projects over to them. To fix this, I made a custom library of locked-down Canva templates. Now, schools can easily make their own graphics without ruining the clean look we built for them. Additionally, checking website colors one by one to meet public accessibility rules was taking too long. I coded a custom app that checks a whole batch of colors for contrast all at once. Finally, I am working with a cross-company team to create user personas. This ongoing project will help all departments build a better, more helpful experience for our customers.
Canva Template LibraryWCAG Contrast Checker
Website Designs
Project Results
By combining smart AI tools with our new automated color checker, we completely transformed how much work our team can handle. Using AI prompts to quickly generate image ideas helped us cut down our design turnaround times. At the same time, my custom color-checking app cut our quality review times by 10%. This allowed our small team of 7 to easily finish hundreds of complex website designs without falling behind. Best of all, 100% of our sites met official web accessibility rules at launch, and our Canva templates have kept hundreds of school websites looking great long after handoff.
This fast job means you have to be excellent at managing your own time. You need to balance your own heavy workload while also helping lead other teams. Working independently and using smart AI helpers lets us design very quickly every day. However, our team wins biggest when we work together. We love to share our designs, review our website layouts as a group, and celebrate each other's visual breakthroughs during team critique sessions.