How observability helps Quill in its mission to help kids write better

One of the concerns as schools closed at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year was its impact on the progress of already disadvantaged pupils. Denied in-person attention as they grappled with remote learning, would they fall even further behind? The response from many teachers across the US was to turn to Quill, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping low-income students improve their writing skills, which in less than six weeks saw over a million new students sign up for its online service. With just 22 members of staff, including a six-person software engineering team, the sudden demand was a test of the organization's resilience, driving its total user population above three million. For us, that was a huge spike in new users.