Mike Gudenau

Open to new projects

Work
About me
Resume
Mike Gudenau

Open to new projects

Work
About me
Resume
Mike Gudenau

Open to new projects

From Overworked Teacher to Empowered Case Manger

Becoming a co-founder fresh out of a design bootcamp, I was a bit naive about the scope and variety of responsibilities I was walking into. But when you’re building something truly meaningful, and the people you’re building it for are part of the most overworked workforce in the United States, you step up. You fail fast. Move forward. Repeat.

I designed and managed the Mela Mela product from 0 to 1 — a data collection and classroom management workspace designed to fill the gaps in existing systems. Today, it’s a live product, empowering education professionals and their day-to-day workflows. Sometimes I tell people I’m doing my dream job.

Becoming a co-founder fresh out of a design bootcamp, I was a bit naive about the scope and variety of responsibilities I was walking into. But when you’re building something truly meaningful, and the people you’re building it for are part of the most overworked workforce in the United States, you step up. You fail fast. Move forward. Repeat.

I designed and managed the Mela Mela product from 0 to 1 — a data collection and classroom management workspace designed to fill the gaps in existing systems. Today, it’s a live product, supporting education professionals in their day-to-day workflows. Sometimes I tell people I’m doing my dream job.

Becoming a co-founder fresh out of a design bootcamp, I was a bit naive about the scope and variety of responsibilities I was walking into. But when you’re building something truly meaningful, and the people you’re building it for are part of the most overworked workforce in the United States, you step up. You fail fast. Move forward. Repeat.

I designed and managed the Mela Mela product from 0 to 1 — a data collection and classroom management workspace designed to fill the gaps in existing systems. Today, it’s a live product, supporting education professionals in their day-to-day workflows. Sometimes I tell people I’m doing my dream job.

From Overworked Teacher to Empowered Case Manager

Becoming a co-founder fresh out of a design bootcamp, I was a bit naive about the scope and variety of responsibilities I was walking into. But when you’re building something truly meaningful, and the people you’re building it for are part of the most overworked workforce in the United States, you step up. You fail fast. Move forward. Repeat.

I designed and managed the Mela Mela product from 0 to 1 — a data collection and classroom management workspace designed to fill the gaps in existing systems. Today, it’s a live product, supporting education professionals in their day-to-day workflows. Sometimes I tell people I’m doing my dream job.

My Role

Product Designer + Product Manager

Time frame:

March 24’ - Present

Industry:

Education

My Role

Product Lead +
Product Manager
Product Designer +
Product Manager
Product Designer + Product Manager

Time frame:

March 24’ - Present

Industry:

Education

A Call for Change

Special education teacher attrition is at a crisis level in the United States. Fifty percent of special education teachers leave their role within five years. Turnover is costly for school districts, and even more importantly, it disrupts the consistency and care that students rely on.

Special education teacher attrition is at a crisis level in the United States. Fifty percent of special education teachers leave their role within five years. Turnover is costly for school districts, and even more importantly, it disrupts the consistency and care that students rely on.

THE PROBLEM
A "five alarm fire"
A "five alarm fire"

Special education teachers are turning over at alarming rate.

THE PROBLEM

2.5x

2.5x

more likely to leave

Special education teachers have a 13% annual attrition rate, more than double the rate of general education teachers.

50%

50%

leave within 5 years

Losing a single 1-year teacher costs districts $7-25K.


Lower student achievement

Poor student outcomes correlate significantly with higher turnover rates.

Poor student outcomes correlate significantly with higher turnover rates.

Nationwide shortages

98% of US school districts report special education teacher shortages. 2 of 3 recruits enter the classroom before completing a credential program.

98% of US school districts report special education teacher shortages. 2 of 3 recruits enter the classroom before completing a credential program.

Underserved populations
disproportionally impacted

Special education is the area of greatest teacher shortage in the 200 largest US cities. Shortages are greatest in high poverty areas.

Underserved populations disproportionally impacted

Special education is the area of greatest teacher shortage in the 200 largest US cities. Shortages are greatest in high poverty areas.

Special education is the area of greatest teacher shortage in the 200 largest US cities. Shortages are greatest in high poverty areas.

2.5x

more likely to leave

Special education teachers have a 13% annual attrition rate, more than double the rate of general education teachers.

50%

leave within 5 years

Losing a single 1-year teacher costs districts $7-25K.



How are teachers being impacted day-to-day?

Special education teachers are asked to do it all: manage student caseloads (Individualized Education Programs), track progress data, generate lessons, collaborate with team, and communicate with families, often with fragmented tools and systems.

The result is a system that pushes even the most dedicated educators to the edge of burnout. What we heard from educators:

Special education teachers are asked to do it all: manage student caseloads (Individualized Education Programs), track progress data, generate lessons, collaborate with team, and communicate with families, often with fragmented tools and systems.


The result is a system that pushes even the most dedicated educators to the edge of burnout. What we heard from educators:

⛔️

75% of teachers surveyed suggest they cannot complete their responsibilities within contractual hours.

75% of teachers surveyed suggest they cannot complete their responsibilities within contractual hours.

⛔️

Student goal data often becomes a black box—disorganized, hard to interpret, and difficult to communicate data-driven insights across the team.

Student goal data often becomes a black box—disorganized, hard to interpret, and difficult to communicate data-driven insights across the team.

⛔️

Parent communication satisfaction averages just 2/7, highlighting major inefficiencies in timeliness, management, and reporting.

Parent communication satisfaction averages just 2/7, highlighting major inefficiencies in timeliness, management, and reporting.

“Some days, special education feels like it’s stuck in the past. We’re expected to do so much with a large caseload of students, and somehow just make it work. The weight of this work never leaves me.”

— Rose T. (Special Education Teacher, 9 years experience)

Humble Classroom Beginning → Co-founder Leading Product

Humble Classroom Beginning → Co-founder Leading Product

The initial concept of Mela Mela took root during my last years as a teacher, when I saw just how fragile my workflows were. The tools and strategies available just weren’t built for the reality of the work, and even veteran educators had no real answers.

What started as a design school project quickly evolved into something real. Something that had to work. After handing off my MVP designs to engineers, I realized my role was expanding. I was no longer just learning. I was leading product strategy, providing subject matter expertise, driving research, and working closely with our small team of engineers.

Falling in love with the problem, listening deeply to users, prioritizing design efforts, testing, and refining alongside engineers became the rhythm of my work. As I moved deeper into product strategy, metrics, and research, each new layer of understanding strengthened the foundation of my design process.

The initial concept of Mela Mela took root during my last years as a teacher, when I saw just how fragile my workflows were. The tools and strategies available just weren’t built for the reality of the work, and even veteran educators had no real answers.

What started as a design school project quickly evolved into something real. Something that had to work. After handing off my MVP designs to engineers, I realized my role was expanding. I was no longer just learning. I was leading product strategy, providing subject matter expertise, driving research, and working closely with our small team of engineers.


Falling in love with the problem, listening deeply to users, prioritizing design efforts, testing, and refining alongside engineers became the rhythm of my work. As I moved deeper into product strategy, metrics, and research, each new layer of understanding strengthened the foundation of my design process.

MVP Strategy

MVP Strategy

MVP Strategy

Early Decisions

Traditional data collection methods are rooted in student binders, individualized paper data sheets, Google Sheets/Excel, and anecdotal observations. Paper-based collection is difficult to manage, misses the mark in documentation quality and involves a cumbersome data synthesis process.

Traditional data collection methods are rooted in student binders, individualized paper data sheets, Google Sheets/Excel, and anecdotal observations. Paper-based collection is difficult to manage, misses the mark in documentation quality and involves a cumbersome data synthesis process.

Looks like

Feels like

Looks like

Feels like

Looks like

Feels like

“How might we reimagine a digital experience that aligns with current classroom workflows and mental models?”

I made a foundational design decision to create a simple yet comprehensive experience tailored to our core daily users: paraprofessionals. Competitor audits exposed a major oversight—paraprofessionals were rarely considered in interface or workflow design.

Business Impact

💥

In many special education classrooms, paraprofessionals outnumber teachers by a ratio of four to one or more. By focusing on their needs, we support the individuals who spend the most time with students and serve as the backbone of daily instruction. This not only strengthens the entire classroom team but also expands our total addressable market.

MVP Solution

MVP Solution

MVP Solution

  • 1

    Student Cards

  • 2

    Student Dashboard

  • 3

    Data Collection

  • 4

    Attached Lesson Plan

  • 5a

    Reports Graph

  • 5b

    Reports Prompt Table

  • 1

    Student Cards

  • 2

    Student Dashboard

  • 3

    Data Collection

  • 4

    Attached Lesson Plan

  • 5a

    Reports Graph

  • 5b

    Reports Prompt Table

Standardizing Data Collection for Classroom Teams

Data collection in special education is essential—but rarely easy. This case study explores why consistent, data-driven decisions are so hard to achieve in real classrooms, and how thoughtful design can help close the gap between compliance and daily practice.

MVP Case Study

View my design process

Standardizing Data Collection for Classroom Teams

Data collection in special education is essential—but rarely easy. This case study explores why consistent, data-driven decisions are so hard to achieve in real classrooms, and how thoughtful design can help close the gap between compliance and daily practice.

MVP Case Study

View my design process

MVP Case Study

Standardizing Data Collection for Classroom Teams

Data collection in special education is essential—but rarely easy. This case study explores why consistent, data-driven decisions are so hard to achieve in real classrooms, and how thoughtful design can help close the gap between compliance and daily practice.

View my design process

Pilot Outcomes

📈

Jan - April 25', average 750 goal submissions per month, 98% paraprofessional driven

📈

95% of support/feedback tickets come from paraprofessional staff

“I’ve never been super confident with computers, and honestly, I used to get really nervous trying to enter data. But Mela Mela is set up in a way that just makes sense. It’s simple, clear, and easy to use. Now, I can finish my notes without second-guessing inputs on Excel. It’s now a much quicker process.”

— Vivian V. (Paraprofessional)

Feedback

Paraprofessional enthusiasm: Strong early outcomes and positive feedback point to ease of use, especially in completing key Jobs-to-Be-Done task, such as submitting data sessions.

Hindsight is 20/20: The need to edit submitted data was our most consistent feedback . It was a huge AHA moment. I hadn’t realized how essential this functionality was until I saw teachers trying to work around its absence. That single insight made the product more well-rounded and usable. Clarity comes from real classrooms users.

Feedback

Paraprofessional enthusiasm: Strong early outcomes and positive feedback point to ease of use, especially in completing key Jobs-to-Be-Done task, such as submitting data sessions

Hindsight is 20/20: The need to edit submitted data was our most consistent feedback . It was a huge AHA moment. I hadn’t realized how essential this functionality was until I saw teachers trying to work around its absence. That single insight made the product more well-rounded and usable. Clarity comes from real classrooms users.

Post MVP Research

Post MVP Research

Post MVP Research

Innovation Lab - Getting Back Inside the Classroom

We had a functional MVP. It was in the hands of our early adopters but we knew we had to get back inside real classrooms. This is why we created the Mela Mela Innovation Lab. This initiative served two purposes: first, it gave us access to interview, observe, and learn directly from classroom teams in a district setting; second, it opened the door to securing our first district partnership.

Output and Process

1

10 interviews, 30 surveys across district

2

Facilitated focus-group ideation workshop with 4 teachers and 6 paraprofessionals

3

Get product in the hands of 18 new users (AKA: our development partners)

Outcomes

📈

Rich qualitative and quantitive data aligned product and engineering with an updated product roadmap with 2 major new features.

📈

Continuous feedback and usability testing on the live product helped surface key UX issues, revealing workflow friction points and informing our next round of design improvements.

Business Impact

💥

Increased revenue with our first district pilot, converting early users into our first paying customers.

Personal Growth and Impact on Process
Personal Growth and Impact on Process
Personal Growth and Impact on Process

The Innovation Lab is where I feel most empowered as a product designer. I led research, collaborated internally with my team, and built relationships with pilot participants.

Key learnings

Tool efficiency: Granular journey and decision tree mapping proved most effective strategy—helping us visualize where users experienced the most pain points and becoming the updated source of truth.

1) aligning internal team on niche classroom-specific workflows

2) multi-use document, guiding current and future ideation workshops with pilot participants

Access Challenges: Embedding ourselves into a typical school day has limits. With teams stretched thin, interviews and workshops disrupt the classroom schedule. Next time, I would advocate for funding to compensate teachers for participating outside of school hours.

The Innovation Lab is where I feel most empowered as a product designer. I led research, collaborated internally with my team, and built relationships with pilot participants.

Key learnings

Tool efficiency: Granular journey and decision tree mapping proved most effective strategy—helping us visualize where users experienced the most pain points and becoming the updated source of truth.

1) aligning internal team on niche classroom-specific workflows

2) multi-use document, guiding current and future ideation workshops with pilot participants

Access Challenges: Embedding ourselves into a typical school day has limits. With teams stretched thin, interviews and workshops disrupt the classroom schedule. Next time, I would advocate for funding to compensate teachers for participating outside of school hours.

Execution

Execution

Execution

Lifting the Blackbox of Data

Even in classrooms with a strong culture of data collection, a core problem remains: no one has time to make sense of the data or turn it into actionable insights. Teachers are left to interpret it on their own, often under time pressure. Paraprofessionals collect data daily but rarely see how it is used. Most insights only surface during annual meetings, if at all.

This isn't anyone's fault. Synthesizing raw data takes time, and most educators simply don't have it.

I collect the data, but I don’t really know what happens after that...or how it actually connects to the student’s plan.

— Gabe M (Paraprofessional)

Teachers and paraprofessionals are navigating a system that make continuous and meaningful data-driven insights difficult to to come by.

We saw an opportunity to flip that dynamic. By automatically synthesizing imported data into teacher-centered graphs and tables, we shifted the burden off educators and onto the system. What once took hours or was never done at all became available instantly. Insight was no longer a occasional event. It was now accessible any day of the week.

Outcomes

📈

We saw a 95% reduction in time spent synthesizing data, along with faster time to value through clearer data visibility and more consistent, data-driven communication among classroom teams.

📈

Pilot teachers report Mela Mela is saving them 30 minutes per student for each quarterly reporting period. For a teacher with 12 students on their caseload and a pay rate of $30/hour, that’s 24 hours saved annually = $720 in recovered time value per teacher, per year.

Business Impact

💥

Reducing time spent on data synthesis gave districts a clear ROI: less time lost to paperwork synthesis, more time supporting instruction, and enhanced data-driven communication within classroom teams and parents.

Reflection

What This Project Taught Me

This was my first real design project. It changed my life. What began as a conceptual design assignment turned into a live product, a real mission, and a crash course in what it means to be a leader and design for impact. It marked the beginning of my career in product design. Here my high-level reflections I will take with me into my next role: 


Impact on me:  I stepped into product management alongside design, learning to align user needs and product metrics with business goals and communicate clearly across my team sharpened my ability to drive strategy while keeping everyone on the same page.


Impact on my process:  Explicitly documenting user needs gave me confidence when collaborating with my engineers. Involving them early led to our most innovative work. Design is just pixels in Figma until engineers bring it to life. I saw firsthand how clear, early collaboration directly improved outcomes and user experience.


Impact on users: Teachers reported saving 30 minutes per student per reporting period. For a typical caseload, that adds up to 24 hours saved annually. Mela Mela reduces stress associated with reporting progress, increases collaboration consistency, and gives educators more time to focus on their students.


Impact on business: This time savings not only supports teacher wellness but offers clear ROI to districts—saving average classrooms $720 of recovered labor per teacher annually, and a more sustainable model for retaining educators(losing a single 1-year teacher costs districts $7-25K). In addition, Mela Mela’s focus on shared responsibilities lighten the load for teacher and also open us up for larger addressable market.

Beyond the Status Quo

Data collection is one of those tasks that quietly piles up until it becomes overwhelming. There’s no signal or red flag warning. It wears teachers down silently, leaving gaps in communication and is a factor that slowly pushes them toward burnout.

In special education, this is part of a larger, more troubling pattern — what some describe as a million paper cuts. No single task breaks a teacher. It’s the accumulation of responsibilities that feel minor in isolation but unmanageable in total: tracking goals, managing behavior, managing staff, writing reports, preparing lesson plans — all while teaching, caring, and responding in real time to high-needs students.

When systems don’t support this complexity, teachers are forced to choose between staying afloat or staying compliant. Most choose survival. Essential duties slip by. And who could blame them?

These slow-burning stressors lead to burnout, anxiety around their role, and ultimately, early exits from the profession. The consequences ripple outward to students, families, and schools, compounding year after year.

This is the gap Mela Mela is working to address. Not to “fix” teaching, but to ease the weight where it’s heaviest. To support educators with product decisions grounded in empathy and efficiency.

Reflection

Reflection

What This Project Taught Me

This was my first real design project. It changed my life. What began as a conceptual assignment turned into a live product, a real mission, and a crash course in what it means to be a leader and design for impact. It marked the beginning of my career in product design. Here my high-level reflections I will take with me into my next role: 


Impact on me:  I stepped into product management alongside design, learning to align user needs and product metrics with business goals and communicate clearly across my team sharpened my ability to drive strategy while keeping everyone on the same page.


Impact on my process:  Explicitly documenting user needs gave me confidence when collaborating with my engineers. Involving them early led to our most innovative work. Design is just pixels in Figma until engineers bring it to life. I saw firsthand how clear, early collaboration directly improved outcomes and user experience.


Impact on users: Teachers reported saving 30 minutes per student per reporting period. For a typical caseload, that adds up to 24 hours saved annually. Mela Mela reduces stress associated with reporting progress, increases collaboration consistency, and gives educators more time to focus on their students.


Impact on business: This time savings not only supports teacher wellness but offers clear ROI to districts—saving average classrooms $720 of recovered labor per teacher annually, and a more sustainable model for retaining educators(losing a single 1-year teacher costs districts $7-25K). In addition, Mela Mela’s focus on shared responsibilities lighten the load for teacher and also open us up for larger addressable market.


Beyond the Status Quo

Data collection is one of those tasks that quietly piles up until it becomes overwhelming. There’s no signal or red flag warning. It wears teachers down silently, leaving gaps in communication and is a factor that slowly pushes them toward burnout.

In special education, this is part of a larger, more troubling pattern — what some describe as a million paper cuts. No single task breaks a teacher. It’s the accumulation of responsibilities that feel minor in isolation but unmanageable in total: tracking goals, managing behavior, managing staff, writing reports, preparing lesson plans — all while teaching, caring, and responding in real time to high-needs students.

When systems don’t support this complexity, teachers are forced to choose between staying afloat or staying compliant. Most choose survival. Essential duties slip by. And who could blame them?

These slow-burning stressors lead to burnout, anxiety around their role, and ultimately, early exits from the profession. The consequences ripple outward to students, families, and schools, compounding year after year.

This is the gap Mela Mela is working to address. Not to “fix” teaching, but to ease the weight where it’s heaviest. To support educators with product decisions grounded in empathy and efficiency.

Reflection

Reflection

What This Project Taught Me

This was my first real design project. It changed my life. What began as a conceptual design assignment turned into a live product, a real mission, and a crash course in what it means to be a leader and design for impact. It marked the beginning of my career in product design. Here my high-level reflections I will take with me into my next role: 


Impact on me:  I stepped into product management alongside design, learning to align user needs and product metrics with business goals and communicate clearly across my team sharpened my ability to drive strategy while keeping everyone on the same page.


Impact on my process:  Explicitly documenting user needs gave me confidence when collaborating with my engineers. Involving them early led to our most innovative work. Design is just pixels in Figma until engineers bring it to life. I saw firsthand how clear, early collaboration directly improved outcomes and user experience.


Impact on users: Teachers reported saving 30 minutes per student per reporting period. For a typical caseload, that adds up to 24 hours saved annually. Mela Mela reduces stress associated with reporting progress, increases collaboration consistency, and gives educators more time to focus on their students.


Impact on business: This time savings not only supports teacher wellness but offers clear ROI to districts—saving average classrooms $720 of recovered labor per teacher annually, and a more sustainable model for retaining educators(losing a single 1-year teacher costs districts $7-25K). In addition, Mela Mela’s focus on shared responsibilities lighten the load for teacher and also open us up for larger addressable market.


Beyond the Status Quo

Data collection is one of those tasks that quietly piles up until it becomes overwhelming. There’s no signal or red flag warning. It wears teachers down silently, leaving gaps in communication and is a factor that slowly pushes them toward burnout.

In special education, this is part of a larger, more troubling pattern — what some describe as a million paper cuts. No single task breaks a teacher. It’s the accumulation of responsibilities that feel minor in isolation but unmanageable in total: tracking goals, managing behavior, managing staff, writing reports, preparing lesson plans — all while teaching, caring, and responding in real time to high-needs students.

When systems don’t support this complexity, teachers are forced to choose between staying afloat or staying compliant. Most choose survival. Essential duties slip by. And who could blame them?

These slow-burning stressors lead to burnout, anxiety around their role, and ultimately, early exits from the profession. The consequences ripple outward to students, families, and schools, compounding year after year.

This is the gap Mela Mela is working to address. Not to “fix” teaching, but to ease the weight where it’s heaviest. To support educators with product decisions grounded in empathy and efficiency.