Design an enrolment journey that families rave about
Experience Design Workshop
There are a handful of defining moments throughout the enrolment journey (and school lifecycle). You might have noticed that they depend heavily on who is running it. That there is no strategy or 'playbook'. Or that the people who it's meant to serve are finding it more frustrating than delightful.
- 01 Observation and interviews
We speak with your team to get a deep understanding of the specific goals of the moment, and how its functioning as things stand.
- 02 Half-day workshop
Together, we employ design thinking and a human-centred design via the Experience Builder to design every facet of the moment. We consider all nine dimensions of experience: Moment, Hero, Jobs, Friction, Transformation, Posture, Action, Frontstage, and Backstage.
- 03 Playbook delivery
We turn the workshop output into a finished experience playbook your team can use (and build on) to deliver the redesigned moment.
Enrolment Journey Mapping
No single picture of how the enrolment journey actually runs. Different staff describe the process differently to families. When someone leaves, the process knowledge leaves with them.
- 01 Pre-workshop research
We speak with key staff and review your current processes.
- 02 Workshop day
Over a day of collaboration, your team maps the full enrolment journey together using Bolsta's 6-Step Enrolment Journey and the Experience Builder framework.
- 03 Synthesis and delivery
We synthesise the enrolment journey into a custom enrolment journey map that you can continue building and refining over time.
Experience Training
Train your team in experience design using the Experience Builder framework (inspired by Human-Centred Design, Design Thinking, and more). Learn a shared language and model for designing delightful family-centred experiences, as well as responding constructively to communication challenges.
- 01 Pre-work
We work with your team to identify a real moment your school is facing (a tour, an open day, a crisis).
- 02 Training day
Your team learns the Experience Builder's nine-dimension framework by applying it to that moment. The day combines teaching, practical exercises, and live design work. Your team learns by doing.
- 03 After the day
Your team leaves with a fully designed experience ready to implement, reference materials they keep, and a method they can reuse across tours, events, and key touchpoints.
Custom scopes
We regularly work with schools on custom scopes, unique to their particular situation.
- 01 Team training tailored to your marketing, communications, or experience gaps
- 02 Strategy advisory for marketing, enrolment, or communications decisions
- 03 Capability building for marketing and admissions staff
- 04 Alignment sessions for new leadership or team members joining mid-year
What schools say
“I consider Jacob a trusted extension of our marketing department, who not only comes up with thoughtful ideas and well structured strategy input, but based on the very strong relationship we have developed over 5 years, he is willing to ask me the difficult questions. I really appreciate that because iron sharpens iron and it makes us better.”
David Gray Director of Mission & Community Belmont Christian College
Frequently Asked Questions
Who needs to be in the room?
It depends on the workshop, and Jacob helps you settle the final list on the pre-workshop call. As a rule, it’s the team most directly involved in the work, plus at least their direct report, so the people who’ll own the outcome are the ones shaping it.
What if our team’s sceptical about another workshop?
This is really understandable. Workshops are a dime a dozen in education, and we know that. We structure so much of our work around them for one reason: it’s how we build with you rather than for you. We genuinely value the face-to-face, because in our experience the best ideas, the clearest alignment and the most energy come from being in the same room, making something together.
What if our team doesn’t agree on how things currently work?
Disagreement, or misalignment, is normal in any organisation, and especially in schools, where the care people have for their roles runs deep. Part of what makes marketing, communications and enrolment tricky is that everyone carries a slightly different mental model of how those roles should work. That’s exactly why a shared picture matters. We see our job as facilitating those conversations, which aren’t always easy, so that over time the team grows more aligned and more collaborative, and can serve its students and families better.