Helping a volunteer-run PTO decide whether to keep an expensive, all-in-one platform or move toward a simpler tool ecosystem.
ROLE
UX Researcher
TIMELINE
August – December 2025
SKILLS
UX Research
Interviewing
BACKGROUND
A challenge: choosing a system people can maintain
The Bach Elementary PTO used Membership Toolkit to manage communication, fundraising, volunteer coordination, and parent engagement. But as the platform became more expensive, both parents and board members questioned whether it still fit their needs.
Parents felt overwhelmed by scattered communications and often avoided the platform altogether.
Board members found it tedious to maintain, especially in a volunteer organization where leadership changes every year. The PTO needed to decide whether to keep investing in an all-in-one system or move toward a more flexible, lower-cost setup.
I led research for a four-person team on a live community project
This project came through Michigan Open UX, a student club that pairs UX students with real organizations around Ann Arbor.
Our team of four students split ownership across the project. I led the parent focus group and the competitive analysis of alternative platforms, which became the backbone of our final recommendation. Interviewing board members, synthesizing themes across sessions, and writing the 21-page report were shared across the team. One of our masters students ran the project day to day, kept us in a feedback loop with UofM faculty, and coordinated check-ins with our stakeholder.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
We started by understanding how PTO work actually happened
How do parents and board members currently communicate, coordinate, fundraise, and complete PTO-related tasks?
What role does Membership Toolkit play in those workflows?
What needs, frustrations, or workarounds show up across different user groups?
What constraints should shape any future platform or workflow recommendation?
What type of system would best support the PTO’s day-to-day work and long-term sustainability?
PROCESS
Researching both the people and the platform
We audited Membership Toolkit first, before hearing anyone's experience with it, so we could separate what the platform actually did and cost from how frustrating it felt to use.
A stakeholder interview came next, since a PTO leader could tell us things no user would know, like what the district actually restricted and what alternatives the board had already tried and ruled out.
We ran focus groups before individual interviews, to see what frustrations were shared across people versus specific to one person's experience. Our interviews followed two threads: some came from the focus groups, when a participant's experience spoke to a specific PTO function or they held a role worth going deeper on. Others came from outside the focus groups entirely, since conversations kept pointing us toward someone else with an insight no one else in the room had.
People consulted
Conversation formats
Stakeholder groups
Parent focus group
Board focus group
Interviews
We also looked at other AAPS PTO websites and alternative platforms, so the comparison later in this case study reflects what other volunteer-run organizations actually use, not just what looks capable on a features page.
We synthesized everything using reflexive thematic analysis. A report built on how people said they wanted to work, instead of how they actually did, would've been useless to a board that turns over every year.
KEY INSIGHTS
1. All-in-one platform ≠ all-in-one workflow
Membership Toolkit covered many PTO functions on paper, but board members still relied on outside tools to complete key tasks. The platform’s breadth of functions did not translate into efficiency.
2. Information overload caused parents to disengage
Parents received updates across too many channels and struggled to know what mattered, what required action, and where to the find information later. This directly caused many to stop participating altogether.
3. The biggest usability risk was leadership turnover
Because PTO leadership changes yearly, tools needed to be easy to learn, document, and hand off. Complexity created long-term risk even when a platform had strong features.
4. Privacy constraints limited what any platform could solve
District policies and opt-in requirements affected directory access. This meant platform changes had to be paired with clearer workflows and communication practices.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
All-in-one vs. modular: comparing the tradeoffs
We compared two directions: staying with a consolidated PTO platform or moving toward a combined ecosystem of simpler tools.
Consolidated platforms like Membership Toolkit, Cheddar Up, and Wild Apricot offered more built-in functionality, but often introduced tradeoffs around cost, complexity, and maintenance.
The analysis showed that no single platform solved every problem. The strongest solution was the one that reduced friction for both parents and board members while remaining realistic for a volunteer-run organization.
Combined tool ecosystems offered more flexibility and better matched the PTO’s existing workflows, but required clearer ownership and documentation across tools.
OUR RECOMMENDATION
The combined platform ecosystem balanced parent and board member needs best
Suggested ecosystem:
Squarespace → Website
Smore → Newsletter
Zeffy → Fundraising
SignupGenius → Volunteers
Google Workspace → Operations
This worked for many reasons:
✔ Easier handoff for incoming board members
✔ More cost-effective
✔ More flexible across different PTO workflows
We also identified Cheddar Up as the strongest consolidated alternative, especially for fundraising and volunteer coordination, but noted that it would still require supplemental tools for communication and directories.
BEYOND THE PLATFORM
Switching platforms isn’t enough
One of our biggest findings was that switching tools alone would not solve the PTO’s deeper communication and maintenance challenges.
We also recommended:
Reducing redundant communications
Clarifying ownership of tools and workflows
Creating onboarding checklists for incoming board members
Documenting recurring tasks like newsletters, volunteer signups, reimbursements, and fundraising setup
This helped position the recommendation as a sustainable operating model, not just a software replacement.
OUTCOME
Bach PTO built the combined platform we recommended
Months after we delivered our report, Bach PTO's new site went live. Tools board members were already leaning on outside Membership Toolkit are official parts of the ecosystem, and the site adds a family-controlled directory and online donations and reimbursements, changes that map directly onto what parents and board members told us wasn't working. It also costs the PTO nothing to run, solving the cost concern that started this project.
See it live at bachpto.org ↗
The project also won Student Organization Project of the Year at the University of Michigan School of Information, selected out of more than 120 student organization projects.
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