An afterschool program for tweens

Your students.
Real problems.
Real solutions.

Kikku Labs gives 12–14 year olds the tools to tackle real community challenges using design thinking, user research, and modern technology. We partner with schools worldwide and take care of the rest: curriculum, local teacher hiring, and remote training.

Partner with us See how it works ↓

Cities launching Fall 2026

Facilitators per 10 students

Curriculum prep for your team

The program

A semester of real problem-solving

Students work in teams of 4 to 5 on a challenge from a local business or community organization. Each month they produce a real deliverable, not a school project.

Weeks 1–3

Understand

What is actually going on? Students observe, interview, and reframe the challenge before they start building anything.

Weeks 4–6

Validate

Form a hypothesis. Test it with the people actually affected. The evidence shapes what happens next.

Weeks 7–9

Get Feedback

Share early ideas with the partner. Listen, push back, revise. Nothing ships without real feedback.

Weeks 10–12

Build & Deliver

Polish the solution into something the partner can actually use. Present it back with the research to back it up.

Community challenges

Real briefs. Real stakeholders.

Every semester, Kikku Labs brings in 2 to 3 challenges from local organizations in your city. Students pick a team and a brief, then go deep for the whole semester: talking to real people, testing ideas, and delivering something the partner can actually use.

These aren't made-up scenarios. Partners are real organizations that actually want what students produce.

Local Business

"How might we turn first-time visitors into regulars without losing what makes us special?"

A neighbourhood bakery is trying to build regulars, not just walk-ins.

Students deliver: A customer journey map, three tested concepts, and a recommendation backed by real interviews.

Nonprofit

"How might we reach families who need us most but don't know we exist?"

A local food bank is having trouble reaching households in parts of the city that don't know they exist.

Students deliver: A tested outreach concept and a distribution plan mapped to where the need actually is.

Community Space

"How might we make teenagers feel like this place belongs to them?"

A public library wants to be a place teenagers actually want to be.

Students deliver: A teen programming concept built with real teens, ready to run.

Cultural Institution

"How might we reduce food waste at our weekly market without changing what vendors love about it?"

A farmers market coordinator needs solutions vendors will actually get behind.

Students deliver: Three tested concepts with vendor feedback and a pilot plan for next season.

Civic Org

"How might we help elderly residents navigate new city services they weren't designed for?"

A community centre is trying to help elderly residents use city services that were not built with them in mind.

Students deliver: A tested walkthrough prototype and a set of recommendations the centre's staff can start using.

How we source challenges in your city. Kikku Labs finds and onboards local partner organizations before the semester starts. Partners get a validated, usable output at the end, not a school project.

What Kikku Labs provides

You bring the students.
We handle the rest.

Your team doesn't need to build or run anything. We show up ready to go.

Full curriculum, delivered

Every session is planned and ready to run. Facilitators get detailed guides, challenge briefs, and feedback frameworks. Your staff does not need to prepare anything.

Local teacher hiring & remote training

We find and vet facilitators in your city: education graduates, experienced youth workers, community educators. Kikku Labs trains them remotely before the program starts.

Community partner sourcing

We find the challenge partners so you don't have to. Students get real briefs from real organizations in your community.

What students learn

Skills that show up in college essays, job interviews, and real life

Students use the same frameworks and tools that designers, product teams, and community organizers actually use.

Problem-solving frameworks

Design Thinking

Empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. Students learn to start with questions, not answers.

User Research

Interviews, observation, surveys. Students go talk to real people before they form any opinion.

Structured Feedback

Giving and getting feedback as a real skill. The first idea is never the final one.

Modern toolkit

CanvaVisual design & presentations

Lovable / Bolt.newAI-assisted rapid prototyping

ChatGPT / ClaudeResearch, synthesis, brainstorming

Miro / FigJamCollaborative visual thinking

Notion / GammaProject docs & presentations

Partnership model

Built to work in any school, any city

Kikku Labs fits around your school, not the other way around.

Grade level

Gr 7–8 or Gr 9–10

Challenge scope and output expectations shift by age group. We adapt to who you have.

Session format

Weekly, 1.5 to 2 hrs

We work around your school schedule and start time, not the other way around.

Cadence

Monthly or semester

Default is one deliverable per month. Schools can extend into a full semester arc for bigger projects.

Facilitators

Local hire, remote-trained

We find and train educators in your city before the program starts. Your team does not source anyone.

Revenue

50% to your school

You provide the space and help fill spots. Kikku handles curriculum, training, and challenge sourcing.

Community

A global student network

Your students join cohorts across cities, tracking each other's work and tackling shared challenges.

Program pricing

^$300

per student · per month · USD

Cohort size10–20 students

SessionsWeekly, 1.5–2 hrs

Facilitators3 per 10 students

School revenue share50% of fees

Curriculum & trainingIncluded

Community challengesSourced by Kikku

Founding partner discount available for pilot schools joining Fall 2026.

Where we're launching

Two cities. One shared community.

Our Fall 2026 pilots launch simultaneously in San Francisco and Toronto, so students connect and collaborate from day one.

San Francisco Fall 2026

San Francisco, CA

Partnering with private and public schools

Working with schools across SF to bring Kikku Labs to Bay Area students. Community challenge partners include local businesses, nonprofits, and civic organizations.

Toronto Fall 2026

Toronto, ON

Partnering with ARC (Asian Roots Collective)

Our Toronto pilot runs through ARC, one of the city's most recognized youth community organizations. ARC is backed by Jeremy Lin Basketball School, Simu Liu, and major corporate sponsors.

About the founder

Cindy Yang

Founder, Kikku Labs · Director of Product Growth

"I believe the future is in the hands of the next generation. I want to make sure they're equipped to help us shape the best future possible."

Cindy has spent 10+ years building learning experiences for kids as an educator and product designer. She holds an M.Ed from Harvard Graduate School of Education (2015). Kikku Labs is the program she always wanted to exist.

Scratch (MIT Media Lab) Helped facilitate the Family Creative Learning Workshop at MIT Media Lab, making coding a shared activity between kids and parents.

codeSpark (Begin Learning) Built and launched project-based coding classes for ages 5 to 8, generating $1M in Year 1 revenue.

ARC Toronto Co-designed and ran Coding Melons, a workshop for kids in the Asian Roots Collective community in Toronto.

Harvard Graduate School of Education, M.Ed 2015 Focus on learning design and educational technology.

Earlier: McKinsey & Company, Indeed, Spin Master Digital Games, HarvardX.

Your students.Real problems.Real solutions.