(2018) Customer Experience & Innovation Forum Recap: Top Takeaways and What to Expect Next

On Thursday, October 11th, 2018, Othot hosted the inaugural Customer Experience & Innovation Forum. We were honored to have a great representation from many of our customers, and it made for an interactive and collaborative session.

This year’s forum focused on three themes: customer centricity, innovation, and impact. The focus on customer centricity is to understand “what you say” as partners and thought leaders in the higher education space. The goal for innovation is to explain “what we do” to improve the product and services to help meet your goals. Finally, impact is about identifying “what we achieve together”, which is the ultimate outcome we strive for.

The three themes were highlighted throughout the forum as we discussed the evolution of Othot in where we came from, where we are at, and where we are going.

Product Recap: Student Lifecycle Modeling, “What-ifs” (2017)

We started our discussion around the development of Othot through the 2017 year.

During the previous years, we heard from the market the need to apply technology and data science to create actionable intelligence, develop predictions through highly accurate modeling, and identify the influences that change a prospective student’s decision to enroll over time.

This valuable feedback in previous years led directly to product developments around lifecycle modeling, prescriptive “what-ifs,” transparency in model performance metrics and top impacts, and automation in our data science process.

Product Recap: Improved Visualization, Enhanced Financial Aid Allocation (2018)

From here, we transitioned the discussion to the current year to gain a better sense for where we are at right now in our evolution.

Again, we heard from the market the need to improve visualizations for managing goals, identify a better way to allocate aid, and begin to impact retention strategies even in the enrollment cycle.

This valuable feedback in the current year led directly to product developments around predict sets, dashboards, sensitivity, additional predictions, and improved forecast predictions.

Product Roadmap: Matrix Optimization, New HIQs, Individualization Page Visualizations (2019)

Finally, we discussed the future and where we are going. Based on continued feedback from our partners, we heard the need to optimize strategies, continuously improve visualizations, and provide indications earlier in the enrollment cycle to make improvements.

As an outcome, Othot’s Product, Development, and Data Science teams are actively working on new product features around matrix optimization, additional High Impact Questions (HIQs), new individual page visualizations, guides and tool tips, signals & triggers, and prospect buy optimization.

Customer Stories

While we were pleased to discuss the market feedback and product developments, the highlight of the day was the incredible stories shared directly by some of your peers in higher education on the impact they experienced in the latest enrollment cycle and where they plan to focus next.

Texas Tech University, Arizona State University, Rhodes College, and the University of Delaware provided incredibly powerful stories how they leverage advanced analytics in areas of marketing, recruitment, and financial aid to achieve and even exceed enrollment goals.

The stories and use cases provided amongst customers enabled the basis for a collaborative community utilizing advanced analytics. You can tell these institutions aren’t just looking for a tool, but a strategic solution to continuously excel in their space.

Advanced Analytics Summit

In parallel to the Customer Experience & Innovation Forum, attendees also had the opportunity to join the Advance Analytics Summit hosted in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh.

We welcomed many thought leaders in the industry who provided insight during panel discussions on how their institutions are leveraging advanced analytics in enrollment, retention, and student success initiatives.

I hope everyone will be able to join us next year for Customer Experience & Innovation Forum and the Advanced Analytics Summit. For more information on this year’s events or planning for next year’s, please reach out to us at customersuccess@othot.com.