Hi, Iām Brooke! TLDR; Iām interested in strategy, operations, or research in the context of consulting, agency, think tank, non-profit, or related work. I have a lot of experience with EA community organizing strategy and planning I can share and discuss. Currently co-organizer of EA Delft and in the second year of my Strategic Design masters at TU Delft.
Brooke O'Connell šø
Karma: 51
Thank you James for your kind words!
You make an important point about success metrics. Iāve been exploring some ideas some basic data but havenāt settled on which ones yet. Hereās a few ideas Iām looking at:
Adoption rate (% of fellowship graduates who create a workbook)
Completion rate (% who follow through on at least 3 activities they committed to)
Progression metrics (how many members move from one track to the next over time)
Qualitative satisfaction data from our check-in conversations
Iād love to eventually track longer-term outcomes like career changes or impact-focused projects launched, but I expect that will take more time to materialize.
As for a how to guide, Iām hoping this post is a good start, but it would be interesting to explore how to further operationalize this!
Thank you for the thoughtful feedback and suggestions, Alex! Great points about the ordering of the workbook, and the proposed implementation steps. Those resonate with me as well, and I think itās likely Iāll actually try a couple of those ideas!
So far we have done the 1:1 chat at the end of the fellowship and this has felt useful for guiding members through using it, and helping them to further fill it out. I have also gotten feedback that sharing our own completed workbooks as examples has definitely helped make it a little less intimidating for members, so glad you pointed that out as well.
Regarding failure modes, itās still early days for us trying it out, but thereās a few ones I might expect could happen:
1. Timing issues: Introducing the workbook when members are overwhelmed (e.g., exam periods for students, etc.) might lead to low engagement. It could make more sense to prioritize the workbook at the beginning of the Introduction Fellowship or at the start of a new semester when people are naturally in a planning mindset.
2. Accountability gap: Not having a structured follow-up process could mean workbooks get filled out but not acted upon. Something like the 2-month and 4-month check-ins you suggested could be useful.
3. Excessive formality: The full workbook intimidating. It may be possible to create a āliteā version for those who prefer a more casual approach, which might increase participation among less committed members.
4. Organizer bandwidth: Tracking and supporting every member could become overwhelming for a small team. Potential solutions could be:
- Creating peer accountability pairs/āgroups
- Training more experienced members to conduct some of the follow-up conversations
- Using a batch approach where we focus on helping 5-8 members at a time
To answer your question about presentationsāyes, I do have a deck that could be used (itās actually where some of the images are from). It can be found here: https://āāwww.canva.com/āādesign/āāDAGXSf3cBKc/āāIJQCkVazb5_vNzWbrHypPw/āāedit?utm_content=DAGXSf3cBKc&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
Thank you for your comment and taking the time to read the post! Iām glad to hear that the three distinct paths resonated with you.
Iāve thought a little more about your question and finally have some thoughts. The TLDR is that your question is something Iām considering myself and weāre exploring effective ways to track this this semester. Below are a few initial ideas:
What weāre already doingā
1. Individual tracking: For those who have done their workbook online, weāve asked members to share them with us and we keep track of them in a central document (this if of course at their discretion). This allows us to refer back to them during one-on-one check-ins and help members update their plans as they progress.
What weāre considering to tryā
2. Aggregated insights: Using a simple spreadsheet to track key data points across all workbooks, such as:
Which track each member selected
Their primary goals
Specific activities theyāve committed to
Progress updates from check-in conversations
3. Pattern identification: Every quarter, we could review the spreadsheet data to identify trends, such as:
- Common interest areas that might warrant dedicated programming
- Activities with high engagement/ācompletion rates
- Activities that members struggle to complete (which might need more support)
Iāll emphasis that these are work in progress ideas, and if you have additional ideas for how we can improve this or general feedback, Iām definitely open to it!
Thanks for your comment Nina! Iāve definitely kept tabs on and been inspired by what you all are doing at HIP. In fact, we might be using some small pieces as inspiration for a revamp of our career fellowship later this year (more so tailored for current students or recent grads). Iāll definitely add a link to the IAP in the āActivitiesā tab in the template.