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HigherEd Insight LLC
McLean, Virginia, United States
Patricia Steele
Principal & Founder
1
Preferred learners
  • United States
  • Academic experience or paid work
Categories
Business strategy Market research Competitive analysis Market expansion Education
Project scope
What is the main goal for this project?

As a company, we currently exist in one market, but we believe we are ready to take our business to the next level and expand our scope of services and clients. With your help, we hope to assess our customer landscape in the higher education industry beyond those we currently cater to by learning about their expectations and behaviors. Specifically, we are interested in exploring the methods colleges and universities currently use to:

  • explore outcomes,
  • track graduates,
  • assess the experience of graduates, and
  • conduct federally-mandated exit interviews (for loan servicing purposes).


Additionally, we would like to know what types of companies and/or products that exist in the marketplace to address this need.


This will involve several different steps for the students, including:

  • Researching the target market through a review of literature, policy reports, and industry association intelligence with guidance.
  • Identifying a honed-down list of institutional clients and ideal contacts for our key questions.
  • Conducting a landscape assessment of existing organizations, businesses, or other government entities that offer services/solutions in this arena of student outcomes.
  • Creating an interview protocol based on findings in the first two bullets, and pilot testing that survey through some cold call interviews (and considering whether the protocol could be a survey).
  • Analyzing interview/survey data to identify any ideas, solutions, and strategies for the next steps.
  • Compile a presentation with recommendations.
What tasks will learners need to complete to achieve the project goal?

By the end of the project, students should complete the following list of activities.

  • Research our target market through primary and secondary sources
  • Develop a target institution list for exploration
  • Create an interview protocol for data collection
  • Analyze data collected to address research questions
  • Identify a list of company/organization profiles of entities providing relevant services/solutions
  • Create a report including all research, survey data, and analysis with location recommendations based on the weighted decision matrix.

Final deliverables should include

  • A final presentation that provides an overview of all research, findings, data, and analysis with recommendations
  • A slide deck to be presented to the project manager explaining the recommendations.
How will you support learners in completing the project?

Students will connect directly with us for mentorship throughout the project. We will be able to provide answers to questions such as:

  • What does our company currently offer and how are we seeking to expand?
  • Who are our competitors? What products/services do they provide that are similar to ours?
  • Input on choices, problems, or anything else the students might encounter.
What skills or technologies will help learners to complete the project?

In order to complete this project, students can self-teach, but it is beneficial to be familiar with:

  • Market research.
  • Searching for appropriate literature.
  • Analyzing interview data.

Nice to haves for students include

  • Experience in marketing research and literature reviews.

Again, students can complete this project without any of the prior knowledge listed here. Students will be expected to research and learn more about this above as the project goes along.

About the company

Higher Ed Insight (HEI) is a woman-owned small business that offers services in strategic learning, evaluation, custom research, and facilitation. HEI’s team includes skilled applied researchers and facilitators with a range of expertise focused on improving education and workforce outcomes.

Our Focus and Commitment
HEI is dedicated to helping every client become a learning organization or entity, and maximizing their use of data for programmatic and organizational strategic planning and decision making.

Experience and Services
Since 2010, our team has served hundreds of clients in the education and workforce sector, including federal, state, and nonprofit entities. We have a wealth of content expertise in the areas of College Access and Success, STEM Education, Career Technical Education, Rural Education, Workforce Development, and Adult Learners. Our services focus on organizational learning and span the following categories:

> Strategic Learning
> Program Evaluation + Planning
> Custom Research Studies + Literature Reviews
> Meeting Facilitation (Virtual + In-person)
> Strategic Planning Meetings + Events
> Quantitative + Qualitative Analysis
> Survey Development + Administration