A collection of problems, or one bigger opportunity?

Across early childhood and schooling, different business areas were raising technology requests to address their own enrolment challenges.

Some were looking to improve existing processes. Others wanted new functionality or better ways to manage relationships with families. Each request had its own context, priorities and expectations.

Taken individually, many of these requests made sense. But looking at them together raised a bigger question:

Were we solving a series of unrelated problems, or were we looking at different parts of the same underlying service?

I started exploring this question with Hugh Twomey, Director of Early Childhood and School Operations (EC&SO).

Looking beyond individual projects

Rather than treating each request as a separate technology initiative, we began looking at enrolment as a broader capability spanning early childhood and schooling.

This meant considering the experience of families and the needs of the people administering enrolments, rather than starting with the systems or projects already on the table.

There were opportunities to think more proactively about how enrolments could work across a child’s journey through education, rather than treating each transition or interaction as an isolated transaction.

It also gave us a better way to connect business priorities with the technology capabilities needed to support them.

Building a shared direction

Working directly with business leadership, I helped develop a Parent Relationship Management (PRM) strategy and supporting technology roadmap.

The work brought together previously fragmented demands into a more coherent view of the capabilities needed across early childhood and schooling.

It also helped connect the department’s business priorities with Technology Enablement’s strategic direction, giving us a clearer basis for discussing priorities, sequencing work and making investment decisions.

Importantly, this wasn’t about creating a giant technology program or committing to a particular platform before understanding the problem.

It was about establishing a shared direction and giving individual initiatives a place within a broader plan.

Strategy is as much about what not to do

One of the challenges in product management is that there’s rarely a shortage of ideas or requests for new functionality.

The harder task is deciding which problems matter most, which capabilities should be shared, and where investment will make the biggest difference.

A joined-up strategy helps make those decisions more transparent. It also gives teams a way to challenge requests that might solve an immediate problem but add unnecessary complexity over time.

Rather than repeatedly starting from scratch, we could begin to make decisions in the context of a longer-term enrolment capability.

From individual transactions to better services

The work reinforced an important principle: organisations often structure their technology around their own teams, systems and responsibilities, even when the people using those services experience them as one continuous journey.

A family doesn’t necessarily see a distinction between early childhood enrolment, starting school and subsequent transitions. They simply want the process to work.

The opportunity is to design the underlying services and capabilities around that broader experience.

The strategy and roadmap provide a foundation for moving in that direction. There’s still work ahead to turn that ambition into delivered improvements, but having a shared view of the problem is an important first step.