One of the great things about working for OIT at Notre Dame is the opportunity for professional development and conference travel. Over the years, I’ve been to many interesting industry-led events, and while I do suggest experiencing the spectacle of an over-budgeted, planet-scale vendor conference at least once (thanks for the Aerosmith concert, Oracle!), I have come to the conclusion that some of the best, most valuable experiences occur at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Smaller, more higher ed-focused conferences are a fantastic place to meet peers tackling the same challenges and opportunities that you are, to learn from others’ experience, and to trade ideas, goals, and solutions. The Common Solutions Group, or CSG, is an excellent example of this approach. At CSG, schools such as Harvard, Penn State, NYU, and many others meet to discuss relevant topics of the day, with some sessions (“discussions”) held as hour-long presentations, and others (“workshops”) given concentrated time for multiple participants and group interaction.
At the most recent event, held at Florida State University, the workshops focused on three topic areas: customer experience, classroom technology evolution, and research support, while discussions featured application lifecycle management (that’s me!), risk management, and approaches to privacy.
The customer experience workshop highlighted the importance of listening and understanding customer journeys with a series of examples from the participating schools. For instance, the University of Washington did a deep dive on users’ experience of their IT procurement processes, documenting clear opportunities for improvement and identifying steps to address them. It’s that thing we hear all the time about the “voice of the customer.” As Virginia Tech pointed out, news of a poor experience propagates much faster than a good one, and schools need to be deliberate and proactive about crafting them. This workshop culminated in a group exercise on customer journey mapping, demonstrating simple tools for gathering feedback from users that can help drive better solutions.
The classroom experience session showcased some truly fantastic learning space designs; I found Texas A&M’s convergence of tech and physical infrastructure very interesting. I’d never considered what unique AV implementations must go into a circular arena-style lecture hall with 360 degree projection screens! NYU showed their methodology for assessing space needs — another example of the “common solutions” that can be found at CSG. The workshop concluded with a panel featuring our own Amanda Sarratore speaking from her experience at Notre Dame.
The research computing session was especially relevant, having had my own experience helping design secure cloud enclaves with the C3PHI project, and participating in Notre Dame efforts, led by Scott Kirner, to improve our own service in this area. Right away, it’s good to realize that we are not alone in our challenges! Research computing carries a diverse set of needs, and it’s not only tough to match services to every grant or project; first you have to communicate that the services exist! This session echoed the CX workshop in its emphasis on understanding customer needs, and it highlighted some successful organization and service design strategies at other schools that will help us define our own.
As this blog is getting fairly long, I’ll simply say that Paul Drake did a fantastic job representing Notre Dame as he presented on Risk Management. Later, Jane gamely stepped in at the last minute to chair the discussion on privacy in the absence of that session’s leader. My talk (along with Penn State and Virginia Tech) on application lifecycle management led to some great in-room discussions and follow ups with other schools, including a connection at Stanford, where their effort is modestly scoped to (checks notes) every single service offering.
As you can see, the topics at CSG can be quite wide-ranging. For me, it was a great opportunity to learn about areas that I don’t necessarily work in on a daily basis, and an especially great chance to talk to higher ed peers. I made it my mission to connect with as many people as possible, and particularly, to learn about different schools’ approaches to applications and integrations. Following these chats up with zoom calls the next week resulted in a ton of concentrated benchmarking that will tangibly inform our future efforts.
So thanks to Jane, Katie, and the SLT for this opportunity. I could (and might!) write an entirely separate blog on how I’ve changed my approach to conferencing over the years for the better. For now, I will just encourage you all: make the most of it. Be an active participant, make connections, and use what you’ve learned to energize you and propel you forward when you’re back at home. And if you can catch a classic rock show along the way, more power to you.