The tender was evaluated on price-quality ratio, which meant competing on paper wasn't enough. We had to show up fully. We designed the entire website before we knew whether we'd win — not because we had to, but because that's the only way we know how to do things. The passion was there from the first conversation. We put it all on the table, and it was enough.

What we found was an organisation with enormous energy and a clear sense of purpose — and a digital infrastructure that had stopped being able to keep up with it. The platform they had was a dead end. Not broken in the dramatic sense, but quietly limiting. Every new council brought new ideas, new services, new ways of wanting to reach students. And every year, technology was the thing holding them back rather than helping them go further.