Who we are

A learning design studio grounded in classrooms, schools, and the people who make them work.

Mission

Tools and strategies built for the realities of education.

We create accessible, personalized, and impactful tools and strategies that merge human-centered design with emerging technologies in education.

Vision

A world that reimagines learning with empathy, equity, and connection at its core.

A world where people use insights and innovation to reimagine learning and teaching with empathy, equity, and connection at the core.

Our story

Built by educators, in classrooms, for the work that actually happens there.

Insights & Innovations started where most of our best ideas do: in real classrooms, with real students, and real constraints. We were teachers, school leaders, and learning designers watching a wave of educational technology arrive that promised a lot and delivered for very few. Most of it was built without us, then handed to us to use.

We started the studio to flip that. Build with educators, students, and school communities, not for them. Treat innovation as something that has to hold up on a Tuesday morning, not just in a pitch deck. Let pedagogy lead, with technology as the partner.

What you see now is the result: a small studio that consults with schools and systems, develops educators through hands-on programs, and ships practitioner-built tools like ConnectInk. Every engagement is a chance to learn what actually works, and every cycle teaches the next.

Team

The people behind the studio.

Portrait of Rahul Patel

Rahul Patel

CEO · Co-founder, ConnectInk

Rahul Patel is a New York City education leader and Principal of Northside Charter High School in Brooklyn. He is CEO of Insights & Innovations and Co-Founder of ConnectInk, now in its second pilot year and recently covered by Chalkbeat. He has trained hundreds of educators in AI fundamentals, prompt design, and workflow shifts that return time to teaching. A longtime Restorative Justice practitioner, he builds routines for circles, harm repair, and community agreements.

Portrait of Julio Intriago-Izquierdo

Julio Intriago-Izquierdo

Program Manager · Co-founder, ConnectInk

Julio Intriago-Izquierdo is an educator, learning designer, and social innovator from Ecuador. He is Co-Founder of ConnectInk and Program Manager at Insights & Innovations, where he leads design and research for the tool's classroom pilots. A Fulbright Scholar, he is a doctoral student in Design of Learning Technologies at Columbia University. He co-founded Diseña Futuro, a social enterprise that has trained over 2,000 educators and reached more than 30,000 students across Ecuador through design-driven education.

Partners

We've had the privilege of working with schools, organizations, and institutions committed to reimagining education.

Bed-Stuy New Beginnings Dr. Richard Izquierdo Charter School East Bronx Academy Leaders High School Northside Charter High School Teachers College, Columbia University CPET at Teachers College The Wellness Classroom
How we work

Our creation cycle.

  1. 01

    Audit

    We start by listening. We dig into your data, observe in classrooms, talk to teachers and leaders, and surface the patterns no one's named yet. The goal isn't to confirm what you already think. It's to find what's actually happening.

  2. 02

    Co-design

    We partner with educators, leaders, and students to shape solutions that fit your community. Not consultants handing off a plan, but co-designers building alongside you.

  3. 03

    Prototype

    We build something testable, a tool, a workflow, a program, and put it in real hands fast. Small enough to fail safely, real enough to teach us something.

  4. 04

    Implement

    We support the rollout, train your team, and refine based on what we learn in practice. Then the cycle starts again with a new question, a new prototype, a deeper understanding.

Let's build something together.

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