My DECA students helped build RallyOrder

I teach business at Coeur d’Alene High School and advise our DECA chapter, which means I also help run a student store.

Advisors know that second job. You work with the tools you can get approved, and you make them work.

When RallyOrder reached out, I jumped at the chance to have my students influence what a new DECA SBE point-of-sale and education platform could become.

They kept coming back

A lot of companies talk to educators. Fewer sit in the back of a classroom during a lunch rush, watch a sophomore work a line, and take notes.

The RallyOrder team did that week after week for months. I think the front office knew them on a first-name basis.

They brought design sketches, tablet prototypes, and competing versions of the same screen. My students ran them, debated them, and said what felt right or wrong.

Teenagers are magnificent at finding problems in technology. The team asked for direct feedback, left to work on it, and returned with the next build.

My students argued about button sizes and split payments. They flagged ideas that felt like something an adult assumed students would want.

I watched rejected ideas disappear and requested ideas show up. We kept asking how the platform could help students in the store, in class, and at competition.

Setup day

When the finished point of sale came back, I did not know how long setup would take.

We had it running in one day. The register paired to our store, loaded the catalog we had built, and my students rang sales before the end of class.

The side-by-side test

We kept our existing register. Both systems ran in the same store, and the crew chose which one to use for each shift.

Within a few days, students kept choosing RallyOrder. The line moved faster for them, the screen made sense at the counter, and they could review the sales data in class afterward.

They could also see their own feedback in the product they were using.

What I would tell another advisor

First, student judgment is worth more than students may realize. Mine shaped a product because the team kept listening and returning with new work.

Put students in front of real decisions. With advisor-approved access, they can help manage the catalog, pricing, inventory, margins, analytics, and competition preparation.

Second, tools affect the experience. I watched the same students and lunch rush work differently on a register designed around their setting.

Our store helped build this, and we are proud of the result.