Directing this partnership became one of my main projects at Full Measure. I worked closely with the Coalition for College to coordinate and market the partnership to schools. 

In the end, I led an initial webinar, created a micro site, special CMS  and tutorials, and hosted office hours for Coalition members to learn about Adora, our offerings and begin creating their access tours.

In our first launch, just a few months after the start of the partnership, we launched over 30 tours of new campuses. This increased the total number of schools on the platform by 330%.

Quickly, in fact even before launch, we started to see Coalition clients convert to become paid clients of the full platform. 

The partnership was also a big step in Adora’s product evolution towards becoming a self serve system, a long term goal. Prior to this partnership, launching a tour was a 6 week+ process that was very hands on and consisted of an onboarding call, a 1 on 1 tutorial on how to use the CMS and weekly check ins (and that was before we had a client services team so that was all me!).

For the Coalition partnership, I trialed a more streamlined and self serve approach. I hosted an introductory webinar, posted video and written tutorials online, and redesigned the CMS to be more intuitive

Additionally, we added features that enabled faster editing and publishing such as previewing content while drafting and publishing with the click of a button.

I still offered office hours and email support, but was delighted that multiple schools launched without ever having to talk to me or the client services team. While the CMS still is a work in progress, the launch of so many tours in such a short period affirmed our progress toward a more self-serve CMS where clients can sign up, build a tour, and launch all online and on their own.

I became a tour guide in college and initially started Adora because I wanted to increase access to higher education. But, let’s be real. These institutions have plenty of work to do to truly include, serve and care for their students, especially those of color. 

The Coalition tours cover topics ranging from the transition to college, financial aid and cost, identity and inclusion, to land acknowledgments.  I hope that these tours can highlight what’s being done while also challenging schools to think deeper about what still needs to be done.