District 3 Education Stack

Challenge

Design online and offline learning experiences for a growing, nonprofit startup incubator to reach more entrepreneurs and reduce operational load for the instructional team.

Outcome

A simple kit of off-the-shelf tools that were carefully selected for District 3’s context, reducing manual processes by 60% and extending D3’s reach by 300%.

The Process

10,000 files & 1,000 processes

A tight budget and lack of technical expertise resulted in tools being used in the wrong context, creating numerous undocumented manual processes.

The mandate was to reduce operational bloat in order to increase the instructional team’s focus on the entrepreneurs.

Not reinventing the wheel

While management initially intended on developing a proprietary solution, analysis uncovered poorly managed resources and lack of staff buy-in.

Instead, extensive work went into researching off-the-shelf solutions, working with the team, and testing rapidly with entrepreneurs to select the appropriate product mix.

Engaging more entrepreneurs

District 3’s wide range of stakeholders meant that no single solution would suffice whilst maintaining staff agility.

The final kit has enabled D3 to raise over $600,000 in funding from the government and extend its services across the province. For 2019, D3 will be powering the online interactions of international entrepreneurship competitions.