Learn how the Center for Digital Thriving expanded its youth advisory with In Tandem, turning small group conversations into big research impact.
For the Center for Digital Thriving (CDT) at Harvard Graduate School of Education, research begins with a simple premise: young people aren’t just subjects of study, they have essential expertise about the world we’re all learning to navigate.
As part of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, CDT creates knowledge and research-based resources that help young people thrive in a tech-filled world. Their team, focused on the intersection of well-being and technology, has long recognized that the most meaningful insights come from young people themselves. They pair research grounded in youth voices with a deep belief in critical optimism—holding space for both the promise and the pressure of growing up online.
But even for a team deeply committed to youth voice, sustaining that commitment at scale wasn’t simple. CDT needed the right systems, support, and structure to operationalize and expand youth voice across its growing portfolio of research and resources.
For years, CDT ran its own youth advisory boards to ensure young people’s lived experiences informed research on digital well-being, AI, and classroom life. But sustaining momentum for their youth advisory and reducing operational friction became increasingly important. They strived for proactive structures that could carry that work forward without relying on constant manual effort.
That vision aligned directly with what In Tandem was building. As a youth experience research and design platform, In Tandem pairs organizations with young people in trusted, safe, and well-supported environments where honest, nuanced insights can actually emerge.
The platform recruits and supports a diverse cohort of teens, helps to create the conditions where they can open up, and streamlines the entire process so organizations can learn from and with them, not around them.
“Youth aren’t just participants, they’re partners in discovery.”
— Emily Weinstein, Co-Founder, Center for Digital Thriving
Collaborating with In Tandem made it possible for CDT to operationalize and extend its youth advisory work. Working with In Tandem’s Youth Partners allowed CDT to engage a broader, more diverse group of young people across 200+ voices, while also building relationships with a small group of teens they met with every month.
Together, the two organizations built a model that balanced consistency with creativity, giving CDT the space to go deeper inside small groups while maintaining access to a broader, more representative cohort of young people across the country.
For the Center for Digital Thriving, youth participation has never been a box to check; it’s the foundation of credible, relevant research. Their mission is to help educators and other caring adults develop a more nuanced view of tech’s role in young people’s lives. That means their research must be shaped by those growing up with tech every day.
But as the team’s work expanded, maintaining a high-quality youth advisory became increasingly complex. The challenge was never whether to include youth, but rather how to do so effectively and sustainably.
"As an early partner, CDT helped demonstrate how the model could flex—supporting sustained engagement with the same youth to build rapport, while still drawing from a broader cohort as different research needs emerged."
— Abbie Wyatt-McGill, Director of Business Development | In Tandem
For years, CDT managed its youth advisory board in-house. The model was effective but labor-intensive: recruiting diverse participants, navigating payment and tax compliance, and handling consent protocols often took more than 20 hours each week.
For CDT, this wasn’t just a matter of capacity. Every hour lost to administrative logistics meant less time to invest in planning sessions and crafting activities for dialogues in session, the kind that leads to richer understanding and mutual trust.
CDT needed a partner who could take on the operational load while protecting the integrity of the process. A partner who could handle consent, recruitment, and logistics, freeing their team to focus on research quality and insight generation.
That partner was In Tandem.
The collaboration between CDT and In Tandem didn’t start from scratch; it grew from prior shared work.
Before their official collaboration, In Tandem team members and CDT had already worked together, alongside Hopelab, to create the Youth Voice Playbook. The project revealed just how naturally their values aligned: that engaging youth is not an optional step, but the foundation of credible, ethical research.
“We invest a lot of time in building rapport with young people. With In Tandem’s youth partners, we felt the group arrived ready to engage. That foundation, combined with our rapport-building, allowed us to move more quickly into deeper, more meaningful conversations.”
—Emily Weinstein, Co-Founder |Center for Digital Thriving
Knowing how well their values aligned, CDT turned to In Tandem to help transform its long-standing commitment to youth voice into a sustainable system. In Tandem offered the infrastructure and flexibility to make it real.
Together, they developed a model that combined CDT’s research and facilitation expertise with In Tandem’s operational and youth-support infrastructure—creating a collaboration grounded in trust, transparency, and shared purpose.
“Collaborating with In Tandem allowed us to spend less time on recruitment logistics, forms, and compliance, and more time on the quality of our session/youth engagement.”
— Eduardo Lara, Research Manager | Center for Digital Thriving
The collaboration revolved around three interconnected areas of work, each reinforcing the other.
Both teams entered the work with distinct strengths that made the collaboration hum.
Every partnership finds its rhythm, and for CDT and In Tandem, that rhythm came from iteration. The work was intentionally designed to learn as it went, balancing structure with space for curiosity.
When our collaboration launched, the plan was simple: two general advisory sessions per month where youth could join and begin shaping the conversation.
It was a familiar model; efficient, consistent, and proven. But as conversations unfolded, both teams started to sense that something deeper was possible.
“What we heard from the CDT team was that they’d like deeper insights.”
—Dave Torres, Chief Growth Officer | In Tandem
The early group sessions generated good feedback, but not always the candor CDT hoped for. In response, In Tandem and CDT experimented with smaller formats, creating 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1 sessions that invited more intimate dialogue.
These sessions allowed youth to speak freely, challenge assumptions, and explore the complexities of digital life in ways large groups couldn’t always accommodate. It also created space for more conversational engagement that built rapport in important ways.
The smaller conversations soon became the heartbeat of the work. Youth shared stories that changed how researchers framed their questions. CDT began hearing patterns, not just opinions, and saw how repeated, small-group conversations helped build trust.
While small-group sessions became a defining feature, the teams didn’t stop there.
They layered these sessions with asynchronous activities, such as short surveys, written reflections, and online follow-ups, to include youth who couldn’t attend live sessions. They also adjusted session length and facilitation style based on engagement data and feedback from both youth and staff.
In Tandem handled the operational backbone that made experimentation safe and seamless, managing:
This allowed CDT to focus on the conversations taking place, giving them room to pilot new methods quickly without compromising compliance or participant care.
Over time, a rhythm of co-creation emerged. In Tandem and CDT met regularly to review what was working, where engagement spiked, and where facilitation could evolve.
Each insight sparked another iteration, creating a continuous loop of reflection and refinement. This wasn’t a static advisory board. It was a living model, designed to adapt in real time.
Every conversation revealed something new about how teens think, connect, and make meaning in digital spaces. Through In Tandem’s infrastructure and CDT’s curiosity, long-held insights were tested, expanded, and brought into dialogue with youth experience.
Across sessions, four themes consistently surfaced, and with them, a few surprises that challenged the team’s assumptions.
“The moments youth pushed CDT’s own thinking—even if it meant reframing or backpedaling—that was when we knew the model was working.”
— Abbie Wyatt-McGill, Director of Business Development | In Tandem
Youth shared candidly about how AI is reshaping learning. For some, it’s a creative shortcut; for others, a source of anxiety or ethical confusion.
These perspectives helped CDT explore not just how teens use AI, but how they define “learning” in a world where information is instantly accessible.
Participants described constant tension between connection and exhaustion. Social media can be a lifeline—but it can also drain energy and focus.
This insight reframed CDT’s questions around *thriving*: not simply avoiding harm online, but learning to navigate digital life with awareness and balance.
This topic sparked some of the revealing conversations.
Teens were keenly aware of the topics circulating in politics and the news. Yet teens’ engagement with politics varied widely by location, identity, and comfort level—some avoided talking about politics altogether, while others chose to post on specific platforms or moments.
For CDT, these differences challenged assumptions about what “digital engagement” looks like and reminded the team that civic expression online isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Discussions about friendship surprised both teams.
Youth spoke about the different ways AI is (and isn’t) showing up in their everyday lives—from helping them style outfits to deciding if they should break up with a friend.
Hearing those experiences reframed CDT’s understanding of the pressures and motivations pushing young people to turn to a bot instead of a human.
“It was surprising to learn how things have changed for teens but also how much has stayed the same.”
—Eduardo Lara, Research Manager | Center for Digital Thriving
By collaborating with In Tandem, CDT didn’t just expand its reach; it strengthened the quality and consistency of its work.
Youth perspectives were embedded directly into outputs such as the Youth Advisory Insights Memo on Gen AI and related reports, ensuring that findings reflected the complexity of young people’s real experiences.
The operational support also gave CDT’s researchers more time to focus on depth and synthesis.
With hundreds of staff hours saved annually, the team redirected that time toward stronger discussions, analysis, and strategy.
“Partnering with In Tandem didn’t just make logistics easier; it elevated the quality of our work.”
— Emily Weinstein, Co-Founder | Center for Digital Thriving
For the teens who took part, this experience went far beyond being “heard.”
Through the small-group sessions and co-interpretation work, youth developed new skills and confidence in sharing their perspectives. They practiced research literacy: learning how findings take shape, how questions are framed, and how bias can shape interpretation. Many said the process helped them see themselves differently—not as participants, but as partners in understanding how technology shapes their lives.
Across the advisory and memo development process, youth gained:
“I used to think I was the only one who thought this way. Now I know other teens do too.”
— Youth Partner
What began as an experiment in youth-centered design, built on the infrastructure already in place, became a repeatable model for research collaboration.
By the end of the first year, CDT and In Tandem had found a rhythm that turned logistics into leverage, transforming youth insight into tangible tools for educators, researchers, and peers across the field.
10–12 Youth Partners engaged in a year-long advisory, alongside 20+ additional youth in seasonal co-design sessions
1,000+ staff hours saved annually
5+ tangible outputs delivered (AI memo, teacher PD resource, classroom frameworks, Imagine Sessions, and advisory model)
A consistent group of 10 to 12 Youth Partners met twice a month throughout the school year, shaping how CDT approached research design, data interpretation, and classroom application.
Two deep-dive cycles focused on generative AI and digital well-being gave youth and researchers space to co-design ideas for how technology could support, not replace, human learning.
A public-facing report that wove youth voices directly into CDT’s generative-AI research, showcasing what authentic youth participation looks like in practice.
Drawing from youth feedback, CDT created a professional development experience that helps teachers navigate AI’s role in learning and classroom integrity. Educators called the PD “timely and relatable,” citing how clearly it echoed students’ lived experiences.
Together, CDT and In Tandem co-built discussion tools for schools that bridge youth experience with academic inquiry, making complex digital topics approachable for both teachers and students.
CDT’s continued collaboration with In Tandem has become a signal to the broader field: youth-centered design isn't a one-off exercise; it’s a standard worth sustaining.
Since 2024, CDT has used the In Tandem platform to engage young people across multiple research streams, integrating youth perspectives into both research execution and communications. Their endorsement has carried weight: CDT has referred at least four peer research organizations to In Tandem, citing the team’s rigor, reliability, flexibility, problem-solving approach, and care as clear differentiators.
For In Tandem, that validation confirmed the model’s staying power: proof that even the “messy middle” of iteration leads to stronger, more authentic results.
For both the Center for Digital Thriving and In Tandem, this work was never meant to be a one-time collaboration. It was a proving ground for what sustained, ethical youth-centered design can look like.
What began as a single advisory board has evolved into an ongoing practice, one that’s seamlessly integrated into how research is collected, interpreted, and shared. With In Tandem managing the logistics, CDT can focus on what matters most: engaging directly with young people and amplifying their insights.
For In Tandem, the collaboration helped refine a scalable, flexible platform that other research organizations can adopt without losing authenticity or depth.
“When we hear people are curious about youth advisory, we’re quick to recommend In Tandem.”
—Eduardo Lara, Research Manager | Center for Digital Thriving
CDT’s ongoing collaboration with In Tandem demonstrates to the research community that sustained youth-centered design leads to stronger, more relevant insights. Each new collaboration helps refine the approach:
For In Tandem, lessons from CDT now serve as a touchstone for future partnerships:
These principles have strengthened the In Tandem platform, shaping how organizations connect and collaborate with young people and how the system continues to evolve through collaborations like CDT.
They also serve as proof points when edtech developers, learning tool designers and youth-centered organizations ask what meaningful youth-centered design really takes.
The CDT collaboration shows that sustained collaboration with youth isn’t out of reach. It provides a path to stronger insight, richer research, and deeper connection, and it proves that the work becomes truly sustainable with the right structure and support.
With a partner like In Tandem, the work of listening differently becomes not only possible but powerful.
CDT was one of the earliest collaborators to put the In Tandem platform into practice, helping shape how it works in the real world and how it continues to grow. Their collaboration offered early proof of what becomes possible when the right structure brings young people into the center of the work. And as more teams center youth voices, the ripple effect continues, proving that when young people are partners in discovery, everyone learns more.
We didn’t reinvent youth engagement. We just built a platform that makes it easier for organizations to weave young people into the fabric of their work.