To support the Associate Provost for Educational Opportunity and Success Programs, EOF and Academic Success at Montclair State University, I collaborated with two teammates to help the client navigate the shifting DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policy landscape.
Our main objective was to identify the client’s most pressing challenge and deliver a practical, easy-to-use system that helps them stay informed on DEI policy changes through digestible updates.
🧠 My Approach
The tool was designed with three goals in mind:
- Tackle a complex and evolving challenge
- Focus on the client’s most critical concern
- Ensure the final solution matched the client’s capacity and tech comfort
🔧 Steps Taken
- Team alignment: Met with team members to define project goals, set team norms, and align expectations
- Client discovery: Conducted an in-depth conversation with the client to understand their current approach, pain points, and constraints
- Background research: Investigated the DEI policy environment and explored existing tools
- Solution brainstorming: Collaborated with the team to generate and refine potential solutions
- Client feedback loop: Presented ideas to the client, collected feedback, and narrowed our direction
- Needs assessment: Assessed the client’s current and prior strategies to gauge effectiveness and usability
- Tool development: Built a customized news update system using RSS feeds, Google Alerts, Google Apps Script, and ChatGPT
- Final presentation: Demonstrated the system to the client and gathered final feedback
- Training support: Delivered training materials and a walkthrough to ensure the client could use the tool independently despite limited time
💼 Skills Demonstrated
- Conducting rapid needs analysis with limited input
- Applying consulting principles to clarify client needs and prioritize problems
- Using IO psychology frameworks to evaluate practical, scalable solutions
- Collaborating effectively in a multidisciplinary team
- Utilizing tools like Google Alerts, RSS feeds, Apps Script, ChatGPT, and Perplexity to build a functional, client-centered solution
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