Lincoln High School introduced Trivory in 2019, and we spoke with Business Manager Jill Ross to learn how it became an indispensable tool for the entire school community. “Trivory is the app to use if you want to know what’s happening at Lincoln,” she explains. “It just makes it so easy for everyone to stay updated.”

One key to Trivory’s success at Lincoln was letting students drive the initial rollout. According to Ross, focusing on students first gave them ownership, which boosted engagement and helped build a stronger sense of community. “We really pushed it out, telling everyone, ‘This is our app. This is how you’re going to know things,’” she says. By the following year, the school invited parents to join, and the app’s usage grew organically from there. “Making it student-driven in the very beginning helped make it successful because students bought in right away.”

Ross particularly values Trivory’s calendar because it was designed to solve a common problem: cluttered interfaces overloaded with small text. “I like the simple graphics and how each event has a little icon,” she notes. “When I’m creating an event, I just type ‘baseball,’ and it picks the icon for me.” Color-coded icons also make it easy to distinguish activities at a glance. “Other calendars can get muddy when you zoom out, but Trivory lets me zoom in on the things I care about without losing track of anything.” For Ross, another essential daily feature is the automatic morning alert that tells her if it’s an A day or a B day—something students and parents alike find incredibly handy.

Trivory’s one-way communication design is another key advantage over more traditional two-way tools. Ross points out that many other communication products “invite a response,” creating a flood of replies to manage. “Trivory allows me to communicate with families without forcing me to answer questions about my communications all the time,” Ross says. “That is really key to me.” By eliminating the need to manage constant replies, Trivory helps ease the communication burden for school staff.

Simplicity is another hallmark of Trivory. “Trivory doesn’t take any time on my end to push information out,” Ross says. “Other tools have so many complicated systems and logins that it’s hard for me to want to learn them, but Trivory is super easy and just makes my day simpler. I love it.” She also appreciates that the app requires no login for students or parents, making adoption virtually frictionless. “I never have students come and ask me for help logging in or resetting a password. I just tell them to get the app, and they can do it themselves.” As for setup, Ross adds, “There’s a little bit of work at the beginning of the year setting up the calendar, but then after that it just manages itself.”

For other schools looking to adopt Trivory, Ross recommends starting with students to build early momentum. “In the first year, focus on students and really encourage them to use it,” she says. “Then in the second year, bring in parents and the rest of the community.” She adds that Lincoln promotes Trivory each year during Back to School Basics, when families pick up IDs and receive important school information. This approach allowed Lincoln to roll out Trivory efficiently, so students, staff, and parents always know what’s happening at school.