Case Study 1 – Guy Felder

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HOW OPTIMIZING CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY DOMINGUEZ HILLS’ INTERNAL PROCESSES OPTIMIZED ITS CULTURE, PEOPLE, AND TECHNOLOGY.

It was great to have outsider perspective on how to optimize our processes through a clear, holistic lens rather than focusing on what was already happening.

J. Kim McNutt, Dean of College of Extended and International Education

THE CLIENT

College of Extended and International Education at CSU Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) in Carson, California

THE ASPIRATION

Every student is considered a customer with a choice and CSUDH is committed to giving each customer an incredible experience, whether they’re broadening a skillset, finishing a degree, or starting a brand new program. CSUDH is 100% self-supporting through tuition dollars, which adds up to more than $17 million and 15,000 unique enrollments annually.

THE CHALLENGE

CSUDH supports about 50 academic and training programs virtually, in person, or through a hybrid model. While this is impressive, the organization also utilized about as many different internal processes to get things done, which was frustrating for everyone involved. The processes lacked clarity, shared task lists and timelines, and the ability to be seamlessly executed if one person was out of the office, meaning that registrations often did not get processed in a timely manner. The team was on the precipice of implementing a brand new CRM registration system, so they were in immediate need of a streamlined and efficient workflow that could be integrated into the new system.

THE PROJECT

Guy met with CSUDH to design a process improvement task force consisting of representatives from leadership, marketing, finance, operations, technology, payments, registration, and more. Talking to each individual, Guy identified about 40 processes total that supported tasks such as third-party payments, collections, installment plans, and how a student receives a certificate, among others. He also asked each team member to describe in a narrative format all of the processes they utilized, including obstacles and roadblocks, e.g. “I work with the instructors to do program updates, but sometimes I’m not sure who is the final approver.”

Using a technique often embraced by software engineers and developers, but equally as valuable in the higher ed space, Guy transformed these narratives for each process into visually appealing flow charts with specific shapes to denote steps taken and how they’re carried out.

THE SOLUTION

Implementing streamlined workflow processes across the board yielded immediate incremental results, which led to team members noticing that they could complete more complex tasks and challenges without the redundant tasks and minutiae of unnecessary emails, calls, and meetings. The project also narrowed the scope of work and the timeline for the upcoming CRM upgrade.

THE DELIVERABLES