What is MGC

MGC is a cloud-based software allowing prospective students to determine programmatic and college “fit” via a unique questioning algorithm that provides customized resources. Prospective students can access MGC 24/7 via their mobile device, tablet or desktop. College administrators can view prospective students in progress before they even inquire as well as re-engage prospects that have not responded to requests to visit campus. MGC also provides prospective students with a Career Action Plan (CAP). This plan can be printed up or used via the software to track progress toward educational goals along with their advisor at the college

Problem Space

This is a unique problem since we are trying to bridge the gap between prospects and students who have their own set of problems.

From schools standpoint

One of the most challenging issue for schools is how they are losing majority of the leads even before having an opportunity to pitch to them. Typically in the current model of operation, schools spend a lot of time and money, but still end up frustrated by the current recruitment system that is broken. Even in the scenarios where they successfully convert a prospect to a student, more often than not they face another uphill battle of retaining that student and help them graduate.

From students standpoint

Prospects are often busy and don’t want to be distributed by schools and admissions professional during their regular work schedule. From our initial market research we have also identified that there is a trust issue between the admissions representatives. Prospects see them as sales people selling their programs instead of helping them see their career fit. They want to explore about their interests and program fits on their own and then contact schools that aligns with their career goals.

Solution Overview

The MGC student journey is modeled after the proven EnrollMatch® Admissions training program and provides the ability for prospective students to experience an admissions interview/coaching session from their smartphone, tablet or desktop computer. They can explore their interests, research career options, proactively identify and resolve potential challenges, review customized school resources, complete an application, upload enrollment documents, apply for financial aid, go on a virtual tour, complete a Career Action Plan™.

We spent over 6 months to iteratively take all the key elements of EnrollMatch® and built into a software program that helps the prospects and schools. Some of the highlights of the software (in version 1) are:

Version 1

Helps students to explore their goals and interests and work with schools they like
Prove a portal for them to keep working through their journey and save all helpful resources
Works in partnership with your admissions team to increase “shows” and enrollments
Provides a proven coaching service to expand schools’ offering and provide a point of difference in the marketplace
Identifies and engages prospects with custom (and compliant) information and resources before they even inquire.
Provides a proven method to coach prospective students in uncovering meaningful insights and problem-solving to determine fit and impact retention
Creates a seamless coaching process from admissions through graduation
Protects schools from possible misrepresentation with consistent, compliant materials given to prospective students.
Provides CRM-enhancement to integrate with current systems to enhance the prospective student experience, improve conversion metrics, and enhance compliance.

Version 2

After 2 years of launch MGC became a successful program with over 100 campuses using it. I re-joined the team as a Product Designer to help with the user research and usability studies. For the first six 6 months I spent conducting user research and usability testing with prospects, admissions representatives, program managers, and directors of admissions. We iteratively improved the product along the way. We have realized that we can take this software to next level. We have started a research project to identify how we can improve a program that is already successful. Here is what we did at a glance:

We did field studies to observe how admissions people are using the program to help the prospects
We did usability studies with the current users of the system (all user roles)
We have conducted longitudinal user studies with prospects
We have conducted focus groups and brian storming sessions with industry experts

After a 3 month research project we have identified several areas we can improve upon as listed below:

Help students explore more about their goals, skills, and interests
Make the student journey more engaging
Help students stay motivated to finish exploring their career options
Refresh the UI to make it more appealing for the target audience
Ability for the schools to further customize experience for their prospects
Advanced analytics for the schools to help students more efficiently
A stand-alone CAP App (previously linked to the MGC experience)

Some of the highlights of V2 experience

Note: Since V2 is set to launch towards the end of April, I could only add a few highlights here.

More engaging experience

We totally re-designed the look and feel of the student journey. Instead of collecting lot of data upfront, we changed to a step-by-step journey where we provide value at each steps before they choose to continue.

Motivation to continue

We have added progress trackers along the way to keep them informed about how they are doing and what they will unlock after each phase. We have also added nudge emails that reminds them how close they are to finish their journey.

Connecting with Coach

We have built a feature for prospects to connect with one of the coaches from schools to help them on demand. As the students progress through each phase of their student journey they can choose if they need further help.