In early September the Lead Links of the Learning Product and Service Circle (Jeffrey Wescott), Membership Circle and Operations Circle (Briana Krompier), Finance, Development and Revenue Circle (David Guendelman) and General Company Circle (Ian Inaba) met with our Board of Directors for their regular update on the company and key objectives going forward. The team sought to share major updates since the introduction of the upgraded learning model, financial data and impact of learner feedback on the Guild’s priorities going forward. Due to the complexity and density of the financial information included in the presentation deck, it has not been included here. If you are interested in understanding more about the Guild's financial modeling please join the Constraint Resources Design Challenge Team when it's rolled out in the upcoming weeks. You can learn more about the Constrained Resources Design Challenge in section 3 of this digest.
- **We are pausing enrollment for the rest of the year and will reassess in early 2018 whether to reopen enrollment for the Spring. Our highest priority is focusing on the learners who are currently in the program and beginning to “build with” you rather than “build for” you. **
- Increased SEP-to-Learner Ratio since May
- All technical staff except one is now in a learner facing role
- Phases and associated learning supports created additional structure and guidance
- Added an outbound recruiter role
- Hired 4 alumni (3 Full Time Employees) as coaches
- Areas earmarked for improvements:
- Peer-learning structures (e.g., P1/P2 pairing)
- P1/P2 coding/projects
- P3 structure
- Resources for P4/P5 curriculum and career development
- Focus on current learners
- Increase and shorten feedback loops
- Prioritize Guild-to-Career pathways for current learners
- Capture Learner Stories and Story of the Program
- Build Alumni Network
- Raise Additional Impact Capital
- 58.2% of learners passed on 1st attempt
- 22.4% passed on 2nd attempt [Phase Boundary Interviews]
- 19.4% did not pass after 2 attempts, of which
- 13.4% are pacing fine, but were sorted too far ahead
- 6% are pacing slower than our expectation
We have paused all exit conditions associated with no-pass Phase Boundary Interviews due to learner feedback and our desire to explore both why pacing may be slower and the implications of this data.
- 31.8% of applicants did not pass for entrance into the August/September cohorts.
This is the current iteration of the old “commitment ceremony”/“membership review process” where the Guild seeks to see if the learning model is working for the Learner and the Learner has an opportunity to cancel their membership without financial obligation to the ISA. Learners take a Hacker Rank coding challenge during week 4. They have until week 5 to cancel membership.
- 100% pass rate for the August Cohort
On Friday, September 15 the Staff introduced v1 of The Learner Engagement Model. After soliciting proposals for this model from learners and designing an engagement model of our own, the staff met with learners, heard feedback and integrated learner and staff ideas into the version of the model shared below. It is designed to create greater integration of learner perspectives and problem solving capacity into the overall operations of the Guild You can read the full write up about the model here,** **which includes more context and the rationale behind some of the design choices.
- Compatibility with current governance Enables minimizing transition time and makes it possible for us to start using it immediately.
- Ease of learner access Enables diverse representation of ideas and makes it easy for learners to participate.
- Transparency and choice Empowers learners with more information to optimize participation.
- Circle Engagement Channels Learner Slack now has six #engage-channels for all circles whose work has implications for learners. Use these channels to raise tensions about work the circle is doing. The Learner Engagement role on the staff will support you in moving forward. Staff may also use these channels to solicit feedback from Learners about particular issues relevant to the circle.
- Design challenges or one-off focus groups A request to participate in finding a design solution to a Guild problem may come from any circle, at any time and is open to any learner who wants to participate. Working groups around specific challenges or topics may form and disband as needed.
- LPS feedback sessions facilitated by circle lead link (continuing current structure)
- Weekly Guild Digest You're reading it right now!! It's published on Fridays via the #guild-announcements Slack Channel and includes stuff like this and other important things happening at the Guild, i.e.: significant projects, and/or strategy updates.
- Monday All Hands Gatherings Meet up on the Light Side at 9:10am for a quick overview of what the Digest covered the previous week, set intentions for the week, and shout-out anyone who supported you in moving your work or your life forward the previous week. These are dope. Don't miss them.
The staff plans to roll out two major design challenges within the next week or so: Constrained Resources and Aligned Incentives. Here's a sneak peek into what each challenge is asking us to think about.
Feedback about exit conditions suggested that asking people to leave the program is an intolerable design and has a huge impact on the learning community and the person(s) asked to leave. This challenge grew out of our attempt to address this concern by asking Learners to think with us around how to best apply the limited resources we have to achieve our mission of building an onramp into tech for people who otherwise wouldn't have one. This challenge will entail working with staff members in the Finance, Development and Revenue circle and the Learning Product and Service circle, digging into the financial model, and looking at ways to balance building a sustainable Guild with the needs of the learning community.
This design challenge also grew out of learner feedback about exit conditions, learner financial responsibility and Guild profits. Our goal as a company has always been to align our incentives with those of the Learners and only make money when Learners land jobs paying over $50,000. The feedback we've heard about your experience of the program and perceived value has thrown the current alignment model into question. This challenge will entail working with staff members in the Operations, Learning Product and Service and Finance, Development and Revenue circles. It seeks to figure out, similarly to the questions posed above, how we can develop contracts and financial agreements that align your incentives with ours.
We recently created a new role in the LPS circle called "Learning Experience Design." This role is accountable for ensuring effectiveness and cohesion across all aspects of learning at the Guild, including curriculum, the phase interviews, the supporting software and documentation. SJ Pratt will be energizing the role, so expect to see and hear more from SJ moving forward (including at the learner feedback meetings).
I did all I could to code anchors into this digest so you wouldn't have to scroll through the entire thing. But, alas, I just couldn't get it to work. The digest is a public Learners Guild repo, so if you can figure it out, which I'm sure many of you can, please submit a pull request with anchors added to the code. And, I'll buy you a gelato if you teach me how to do it myself! <3