We were tasked with verifying this hypothesis from our division's product strategy:
We [Regions Group] can significantly improve the way we interact with schools, academies and trusts - saving time and frustration for internal and external users
To confirm whether this hypothesis was correct, we did a discovery that focused on 3 Regions Group application processes:
- academy conversions - where 'maintained' schools apply to become an academy. Ideally this is done using the Apply to become an academy service.
- academy transfers - where academies move from one academy trust to another. There is no digital applications service for this process
- significant changes - anything which will change a school's funding agreement with DfE. For example, changing their religious designation. There is a Microsoft Form for one type of significant change application, but the other type is submitted using an Excel spreadsheet
In our discovery we spoke with a mix of:
- school headteachers
- trust CEOs
- trust chief financial officers
- school headteachers
- DfE delivery officers
Problem statement
Based on our research, we confirmed the hypothesis we were given and defined this problem statement:
"Submitting academy applications is not the most efficient for DfE delivery staff and external applicants
- external applicants aren't always sure which process they need to follow
- there's back-and-forth between DfE and trusts to get projects onto Prepare conversions and transfers
These inefficiencies create frustration, and delays in the application being processed"
We decided to focus on addressing this problem for academy transfers first because:
- it's simple compared to other application processes
- we have transfers subject knowledge in our division
- we need to start somewhere