MVP
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Technological Innovation

Alumni Engagement Metrics

Led the implementation of a new data infrastructure system to measure the engagement of 215,000+ alumni.

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SKILLS

Project Management
Design Thinking
Facilitation
Data Analytics

OUTCOMES

  • Unified siloed data streams across 5 disparate departments.
  • 95% data integrity in year one.
  • Established sustainable maintenance plan.

PROJECT DOSSIER

Problem and Background

Tracking the engagement of over 215,000 alumni is both a structurual data issue and an organizational behavior challenge. My job as project manager was to optimize both our data infrastructure and help our team channel their work into one centralized metrics dashboard.

Historically, our Office of Advancement only tracked data around alumni donations. However, we recognized the importance of engaging our alumni population in ways that supplement and go beyond donations. This project had the goal of explicitly communicating the value of alumni engagement to university and external stakeholders. To do so, we would show the quantity and quality of our engagements as well as display how these engagements could be tied back to our campaign goals of giving.

Approach/Solution
Data Dashboard Image

Fig 1. The unified reporting dashboard.

My role required deep systems thinking. I spent the first phase of the project facilitating intensive stakeholder workshops across five disparate departments. We had to answer a critical question: How do we collect data on our engagement impact in a way that is responsive, complete, and a light lift for teams?

Using SQL and Salesforce, we began weaving together heavily siloed data streams. The sheer amount of data streams, as well as the disparate state of institutional knowledge made it extremely hard to know what data needed to be tracked and how to collect it. However, through focus groups and continued iteration, we were able to build a centralized system that was both easy to understand by teams and easy to maintain for our data analysts.

"Michael was instrumental in getting this project from a technical outline into a dynamic, living project that everyone in the office could see and touch"

The resulting infrastructure increased data integrity to 95% in the first year with a high degree of confidence. This established a new baseline for how our office can communicate its value for the alumni community and our campaign goals. The live engagement metrics dashboard is now up and running, with accountability structures, a clear maintenance plan, and quality control dashboard build right into the backend.