Revitalizing Workflow for Enhanced Productivity
Co-creating operational protocols for a restructured business
2023
Service Design
About
ID Academy is the executive education division of the Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech. It offers learning and development services to organizations globally and domestically in the United States. In 2023, new leadership gave ID Academy autonomy, accelerating its growth.
Under the previous administration, ID Academy performed ad hoc engagement and delivery of courses to learning partners. With the new goal of scaling up the service, I, the recently hired Program Manager, was tasked with establishing operational protocols for the efficient functioning of the newly restructured business. This project took two months to complete, and I worked with the Director of Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives, Faculty members, support staff, and a business intern.
Understanding the Systems
The ERAF diagram was created by analyzing and visualizing the complex interactions of the elements of the ID Academy system.
Objectives
With a review of the situation and an identification of existing systems, the project kicked off with the following objectives:
- Gain a comprehensive understanding of current processes, university policies, and digital systems.
- Streamline and optimize existing processes and systems to increase operational efficiency.
- Establish transparency and accountability in the workflow.
- Anticipate potential challenges associated with scaling ID Academy.
Co-creating a service blueprint
The service blueprint was created collaboratively with stakeholders involved in the project, including, but not limited to:
- Anijo Mathew | Dean and Director of Academy, ID
- Peter Zapf | Director of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives
- Leslie Balcer | Associate Director of Operations
- Shari Jones | Director of Student Success
- John Kristis | Controller, IIT
- Aimee Harpt | Senior Accountant, IIT
- Hong Zhang | Digital Services Coordinator, IIT
- Faculty members of ID Academy
- Ruhi Dholakia | Inter, Stuart School of Business
Developing the core blueprint highlighted gaps that needed to be addressed. These concerns were addressed during periodic check-ins. This co-creation process also helped define requirements for documentation, training modules, and access permissions.
Core Protocols
The stages from the service blueprint were visualized as protocols in a core swimlane diagram, which shows the current responsibilities of each stakeholder throughout a partner engagement journey. Scoring the time taken for each step provided insights and opportunities to improve efficiency.
Individual Swimlane Diagrams
The core swim lane is divided into individual diagrams for various stakeholders as communication tools. These diagrams represent all the relevant players, documents, information flow, and required actions. They highlight both the front-end and back-end processes. These diagrams are designed to evolve as ID Academy’s operating model scales.
