Instructional coaching has been recognized as one of the most effective ways to empower teachers with new skills and thereby improve student outcomes. However, there’s no denying that coaching is also time-intensive and challenging to scale. At Nisa, we see an exciting opportunity: What if we could extend the reach of skilled instructional coaches using the power of AI?

Nisa is an AI-enabled platform designed to augment the work of instructional coaches. With Nisa, coaches can streamline routine tasks, increase touchpoints with teachers, and collaborate with an evidence-backed, context-aware AI – all so that their time and expertise make the greatest possible impact.

How we design matters as much as what we design

For us at Nisa, building a tool for coaches means building with coaches. That’s why our design process is rooted in deep, ongoing collaboration with expert coaches and current educators.

We use traditional user research methods like interviews and surveys, but we don’t stop there – we invite coaches into our process in several unique ways:

• Early Empathy Interviews: Before developing the platform, we sat down with Teaching Lab coaches to understand their mindsets and goals through open-ended inquiry. These conversations reinforced a vital principle: coaching is about supporting teachers to be their best selves, not about evaluation.

  
  

• Coach Club: We've built a community of coaches who meet regularly to share honest feedback, brainstorm possibilities, and let us know what really matters to them and what they’re excited about. One theme that has emerged from these co-design sessions is that coaches are willing to put time into customizing and reviewing resources, but they want to be sure teachers will engage with them. This has reinforced the necessity of creating resources that fit into the busy lives of teachers, as well as those of their coaches.

  
  

• Small Group Workshops: With a few coaches at a time, we walk through real-world coaching workflows and show rough designs of the platform. We listen as coaches narrate their routines and identify the moments where AI can make the biggest impact. From these workshops, we have learned what makes an AI chatbot feel natural but not too uncanny, and curated but still able to be a second brain.

  
  

A coach’s voice makes all the difference 

These learnings shape our product in ways both subtle and profound. Sometimes, it’s as simple as the language we choose in our interface: labeling teacher interactions as touchpoints, and using terms like “glows and grows”. Other times, it means building entirely new features that reflect coaches’ real needs, or embracing a “warm demander” tone that communicates high expectations with deep care. We have even incorporated coaches’ voices into the platform quite literally, tuning the Nisa AI to learn from samples of real expert coaches’ responses to teacher questions, through a process called context engineering.

Add your voice

We’re just getting started on our journey to support instructional coaches. In late September, we’ll launch Nisa’s public pilot and learn, alongside our community of coaches, how this new AI-powered assistant can elevate their practice even further.

We’d love for you to join us on this journey. Stay tuned for more updates on how you can get involved, and join our mailing list to be among the first to try Nisa and help shape its next steps.

Together, let’s reimagine what’s possible with instructional coaching – giving every teacher, and through them, every student, the support they deserve.

Want to learn more about Nisa? Check out our founder, Agasthya Shenoy, presenting at ASU+GSV AI Show in April 2025!