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.
Content
- Objective
- Approach
- Steps taken
- My role
- Skills demonstrated
- Overview of I-Hawk Analytics
Objective
Our team’s 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.
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
My Role
As a part of this team, my role includes:
- Collaborate with team members to brainstorm the main problem and solutions
- Set up the map to visualize state-level activities
- Create surveys to conduct pre-test/post-test
- Film tutorial video for asynchronous tool training
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
Overview of I-Hawk Analytics
How this analytics tool can solve the problem?
After multiple meetings with clients, our team realized that our client’s pain point lies in the constant changes in DEI policies and his inability to find sufficient information in order to make concrete plans for his department.
This is when we conceptualized this tool Hawk-i Analytics. The tool is sustainable, flexible, and easy to navigate.
About Hawk-i Analytics
Hawk-i Analytics is a multi-platform, automated tool that aggregates, analyzes, and visualizes DEI-related news and policy developments nationwide.
Hawk-i Analytics produces reports include timelines, state-by-state analyses, legal updates, and recommendations, all sourced transparently from curated web links.
Below is a video giving brief overview of our final product:
