A Day in the Life of a Director of Technology

Willy Kjellstrom

Learning Experience Designer

Date
January 13, 2026

Ensuring Continuous Operations to Essential Systems

Juliette usually arrived to work before others, but there were quite a few folks already there. This probably had something to do with an overnight vulnerability message from the systems administrator: their student records system needed an urgent patch. She checked the department’s messaging platform and discovered the patch was successful, but people outside the district office couldn't access the system.

With state testing only days away, Juliette knew she had to assemble her team to find a fast fix. She scheduled a quick sync with system and network administrators to get an update and plan an alternative course of action.

Key Insight: Technical disruptions require swift action and clear coordination across departments. Understanding how IT teams, system admins, and directors of technology coordinate with building principals to maintain critical operations is essential. Clarity guides clients in designing support materials that facilitate seamless integration and minimize instructional disruption.

Sharing Timely Updates and Information

With a plan in place, Juliette needed to inform principals, testing coordinators, and the State of the new process. She had to not only notify them about the change but also help find a solution so that testing could continue as planned. She called her Instructional Technology Coach in hopes of getting help with a solution. The coach agreed to put together a custom tutorial for the affected groups.

Key insight: Helping school districts use new products or leverage features is a core component of effective implementation. Make sure you have a thorough collection of documentation for not just the end-user, but also district administrators supporting your solution. We help make sure your onboarding materials, admin dashboards, and support resources are digestible and understandable.

Enhancing Productivity and Efficiency with Emerging Tools

After a long morning, Juliette opened her inbox to find 40 unread emails. She settled into her chair and opened the generative AI tool she shepherded through the district’s technology evaluation process only a month ago. She quickly reviewed a few QuickStart guides before putting her head down to draft the message about the affected system and review her mountain of messages.

Key Insight: Juliette’s use of AI to quickly draft a succinct email to convey the most important information is a real-world example of how district leaders are turning to emerging technologies to help manage everything competing for their attention. We help clients develop meaningful and effective solutions that help education leaders get the most from tools—like generative AI—without adding to their workload.

Leading With Pedagogical Approaches

Juliette and her AI assistant were able to clear most of her morning messages with time to spare before the strategic planning meeting began. She turned her attention to a request from the Superintendent in one of the emails: Please provide an update about the learning management system (LMS) rollout when we meet.

Juliette pulled up the administrative dashboard and saw some troubling numbers: Adoption and usage was high in secondary and elementary schools, but only a handful of middle school educators had started using the LMS. When she reviewed the feedback from the launch workshops, Juliette learned that many of the middle schools were avoiding the new platform because it didn’t offer as many interactives that were so popular in the old system.

Key Insight: Effective use of technology in schools isn’t just about making sure everyone knows how to use it properly; it’s also about making sure educators, instructional coaches, and administrators also know the best ways to ensure measurable results. Clarity helps clients facilitate adoption and improve engagement using resources and pedagogical approaches so that all schools can make the most out of their edtech investments.

Making Informed, Research-Based Decisions

As cabinet members filed out left at the end of the strategic planning meeting, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction tapped Juliette on the shoulder and asked if they could walk and talk.

“I really appreciated how you figured out the LMS issue and found a way to address the problem. I was hoping you could help me do the same. As you know, we’re really close to purchasing a new elementary math curriculum. There’s a lot of technology in the curriculum, and I’m unsure if it’s accessible for all our learners. I also have concerns about student data privacy and its compliance with our policy regulations. Can you help me?”

Key insight: A Director of Technology often signs off on major purchases that use technology before they go to the district cabinet and school board for formal approval. Clarity works with clients to produce research-aligned content, product comparison tools, and guidance frameworks that help districts make informed decisions.

As the day wound down, Juliette returned to her computer to see what she had missed while dealing with issues and meetings. At the top of her email queue was a message that she’d been waiting for all day: Access to the student record system had been restored. She thanked the team for their hard work before it was time to go home.

Helping Edtech Companies Understand the Realities of K–12 Technology Leadership

We hope this vignette helps illustrate the realities of school leaders like Juliette. You can read more examples from our education marketing personas. As a team that includes former classroom educators, we understand the responsibilities and challenges that K-12 education leaders face on a daily basis. It’s one of the reasons why clients depend on us to help frame their products and services so that they resonate with their customers. Please contact us if you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you.