Quick Introductions — Who Are We Talking With Today?

• Please tell us your name, role, and the unit you represent (college, school, or division).
• How involved are you personally in decisions about online program partnerships right now? Options: Lead decision-maker, Key influencer/advisor, Provide recommendations to leadership, Observer/support role, Unsure
• What is the single most urgent reason you agreed to this conversation today? Options: Enrollment decline, Board or executive directive, Competitor threat, Revenue diversification, Faculty pressure, Other
• What would you like us to understand first about your institution before we dive deeper?

Are We Just Living With A Slow-Motion Crisis?

• When you look at enrollment over the past three years, which description fits best? Options: Mild decline (<5%), Moderate decline (5–15%), Severe decline (>15%), Flat/steady, Recovering/increasing, Unsure/no consolidated data
• How long have you been tracking the current trend, and what internal stories do people tell about its cause?
• Which programs or departments have you identified as vulnerable if trends continue? Options: Undergraduate majors, Graduate programs, Continuing education/certificates, Professional programs (e.g., nursing), Non-credit workforce programs, Multiple/all of the above
• What would have to change in the next 12–18 months for you to feel confident the decline is reversed?
• How would you describe the emotional climate around enrollment—concerned, cautiously optimistic, defensive, resigned, other? Options: Very concerned/anxious, Cautiously optimistic, Defensive/protective, Resigned/accepting, Motivated/urgent

Who's In The Room When A Big Decision Is Made — And Who's Silent?

• If we mapped the decision network for an online program partnership, who would be listed as formal decision-makers? Options: Provost, Dean(s), CFO/VP Finance, VP Enrollment, Faculty Senate/Committee, Board/Trustees, Legal/compliance, Other
• Who tends to have the loudest influence in those conversations (name roles) and why?
• Are there stakeholders whose buy-in is currently missing but critical for approval? Options: Yes—faculty leadership, Yes—finance, Yes—board/trustees, Yes—IT/tech, No, we have necessary stakeholders, Unsure
• How long does it typically take to move from initial interest to a signed partnership at your institution? Options: <3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months, 12+ months, No standard timeline
• Tell us about a recent internal decision that felt fast and one that felt stalled—what made them different?

What Keeps You Up At Night About Outsourcing Program Development?

• Which of the following concerns would make you hesitant to partner with an external online program provider? Options: Academic quality erosion, Faculty resistance and morale, Unfavorable revenue-share economics, Loss of brand control, Data/privacy risks, Hidden implementation costs, None of the above
• Have you had prior experiences (positive or negative) with vendors that shape this concern? Please describe one concrete example.
• How worried are you that a partner will push enrollment at the expense of academic rigor? Options: Extremely worried, Moderately worried, A little worried, Not worried
• If a partnership model were to reduce net institutional revenue as scale increases, how would that affect your appetite to proceed? Options: Stop the project, Renegotiate terms, Accept with caveats, Depends on other benefits
• What assurances or guardrails would make those worries feel resolved?

Paint the Program’s Current Life—From Recruitment To Retention

• Describe your current enrollment funnel for the program(s) of interest (lead sources, conversion rates, typical cycle).
• Which internal capacities are strongest today and which are weakest? Options: Instructional design, Marketing/enrollment operations, Learning tech/LMS, Student success/advising, Data & reporting, Faculty development
• What are the most common failure modes that threaten program viability in your environment (e.g., low retention, accreditation pushback, faculty attrition)? Options: Low retention/completion, Poor course quality, Faculty resistance/non-engagement, Insufficient marketing ROI, Operational/IT failures, Regulatory or accreditation issues
• Give an example of a course or cohort that underperformed—what exactly went wrong and how long did it take to surface?
• How do faculty currently feel about online delivery—enthusiastic, skeptical, fearful, pragmatic, mixed? Share specific anecdotes if possible. Options: Enthusiastic, Skeptical, Fearful of quality loss, Pragmatic/conditional, Mixed

If We Could Agree On One Clear Target, What Would It Be?

• What is your numeric target for a pilot cohort (enrolled students) that would make you call the pilot a success? Options: <25 students, 25–50 students, 51–150 students, 151–300 students, >300 students, Undecided
• What margin or net revenue threshold must the program meet to be considered financially viable for your unit? Options: Loss-absorbing (short term), Break-even, Low positive margin (5–10%), Healthy margin (>10%), Depends on strategic value
• Which academic quality guardrails are non-negotiable for you? (Select all that apply.) Options: Faculty control of curriculum, Peer review of course design, Assessment integrity and proctoring, Accreditation alignment, Faculty compensation/support plan, Transparency of learning outcomes and assessments
• What pilot metrics beyond enrollment and margin will you use to judge success (e.g., CPS, course satisfaction, 30/90-day retention)? List your top three.
• How quickly would you expect early indicators (application volume, CPS, initial retention) to surface during a pilot? Options: Within 1 month of launch, Within 1–2 months, Within a semester, After first semester completion, Unsure

Where Can We Compromise — And Where Must We Hold Firm?

• Which elements are non-negotiable from your perspective (select the single most critical if you must choose)? Options: Academic control by faculty, Transparent financial reporting, Student learning outcomes protection, Data access and ownership, Brand approval rights, Other
• Which areas are you willing to be flexible on to accelerate impact? Options: Pilot scope size, Time to market, Shared governance model, Commercial terms (rev-share vs fee), Operational handoffs
• Describe a realistic exit or pause condition for a pilot that would satisfy governance (what metric threshold or time period triggers a rethink?).
• Who would need to sign off on those exit criteria, and how often should governance reviews occur? Options: Provost/VP Academic, Dean(s), CFO/VP Finance, Faculty committee, Joint governance board, Other
• If a pilot needed rapid corrective action, who should have authority to approve changes mid-course? Options: Provost/Dean, Joint steering committee, Project lead from vendor, Project lead from institution, Other

Your Ideal Pilot — Day One, Day 90, Day 365

• On day one of a pilot, what three operational items must be absolutely in place for you to consider the launch legitimate?
• By day 90, which of these early metrics would convince you the partnership is on track? Options: Application volume meets expectations, CPS within target, Course satisfaction > benchmark, Faculty engagement levels stable, LMS and tech stable, Retention above minimum
• What longer-term (12 months) signals would justify scaling beyond the pilot? Options: Sustained enrollments, Positive financial model, Faculty adoption and advocacy, Accreditation/compliance confirmation, Student outcomes improved
• How important is speed to market versus getting every detail agreed up front? Options: Speed is essential, Balance of speed and rigor, Prefer thorough alignment before launch, Depends on program
• Share one aspirational outcome for students that would make this partnership feel mission-aligned to you.

Who Owns The Work — Roles, Data, and Resource Gaps

• Which of the following responsibilities can your institution commit to owning during a pilot? Options: Faculty assignments and oversight, Program-level admissions decisions, Content approvals, Student advising, Data access and reporting, None — vendor to lead
• Which roles are you short on and would want the partner to staff or supplement? Options: Instructional designers, Marketing/enrollment ops, LMS administrators, Student success coaches, Data analysts, Faculty development trainers
• Do you currently have secure, shared data systems and approvals in place (SIS, LMS, CRM) to support a partner's access? Options: Yes—ready, Partially—some integrations needed, No—significant IT work required, Unsure
• If we asked you to name the single biggest resource gap that would derail a pilot, what would it be?
• What timeline and lead time expectations do you have for internal staff dedicating bandwidth to a pilot (hours per week, months of prep)?

Timeline, Approvals, and What Could Stop This From Happening

• What is your ideal start term for a pilot (semester or month)? Options: Next available term (3–4 months), Two terms out (6–9 months), One year out, Flexible/depends on approvals
• List the key approvals and procurement steps that must occur before we could sign an agreement.
• What are the single biggest likely blockers between now and a signed pilot agreement? Options: Budget/finance objections, Faculty resistance, Board/trustee concerns, IT/integration issues, Contracting/legal delays, Other
• If an obstacle appears, which escalation path would be most effective at your institution? Options: Provost-led escalation, Dean and project sponsor, Joint steering committee, Formal governance review, External mediator/consultant
• How flexible is funding for a pilot (internal reallocation, one-time funds, must be budgeted in advance)? Options: Flexible/one-time funds available, Requires budget reallocation, Needs approval in next fiscal cycle, Unsure

Deciding Together — What Would Make You Say Yes?

• Which commercial model do you prefer to discuss first? Options: Revenue-share, Fee-for-service, Hybrid (reduced fee + rev-share), Unsure/want to see scenarios
• What specific transparency or reporting would you require from a revenue-share partner to feel confident (frequency and content)?
• What governance cadence would you want during a pilot (weekly operational; monthly steering; quarterly governance)? Options: Weekly operational + monthly steering, Bi-weekly operational + monthly steering, Monthly only, Quarterly only, Other
• What would be an acceptable next step after this discovery session (e.g., internal alignment meeting, data exchange, draft pilot proposal)? Options: Internal alignment meeting with leadership, Data request and campus readiness audit, Draft pilot proposal with costs, Faculty briefing session, Pilot terms workshop
• Who should we include on the next call from your side, and what decision would you like them empowered to make?

Start with What You Already Know

• Tell me briefly: what triggered your interest in exploring online program partnerships right now? Options: Three-year enrollment decline, Competitor launched online program, Board/leadership revenue mandate, Faculty/department request, Other (explain)
• How many programs (by department) are you actively concerned about for near-term viability? Options: Just one program/department, 2–3 programs, 4–6 programs, More than 6, Unsure
• Which single metric would make you comfortable saying a program is back on track? Options: Enrollment headcount, Net tuition margin, Retention/continuation rate, Application-to-enrollment conversion, Other (specify)
• Who on your campus needs to be involved in deciding whether to run an online pilot (names/roles)?

Where the Numbers Are Hiding the Story

• If the enrollment data could speak honestly, what uncomfortable trend would it reveal about your programs?
• How have enrollments changed over the past three years at the program level? Options: Growing >5%/yr, Stable (±5%), Declining 5–15%/yr, Declining >15%/yr, I don’t have reliable program-level data
• Which student segments have you lost (or never reached)? Options: Adult learners (25+), Working professionals, Out-of-state students, Part-time students, International students, Traditional undergraduates, Other
• What are your current application → admitted → enrolled conversion rates for the target program(s)? Please include typical ranges or a recent example.
• When you look at retention after term one, what stands out as the biggest driver of attrition? Options: Academic preparation, Financial barriers, Student support gaps, Course design/mismatch, Scheduling conflicts, Other
• Do you have a single source of truth (CRM or SIS) where enrollment pipeline and retention metrics live? Options: Yes — fully integrated, Partially (some systems talk to each other), No — we use spreadsheets and siloed reports, Unsure

Who's Holding the Pieces (and Is Anyone Dropping Them)?

• If a pilot required tight coordination between marketing, instructional design, and IT, where would that most likely break down on your campus?
• Which teams currently own these capabilities: market research, paid digital marketing, instructional design, LMS administration, and student success? Options: All in-house, Mostly in-house with contractors, Fragmented across departments, We don’t consistently own these capabilities
• How many full-time equivalents (FTEs) do you have for online/digital program development and marketing combined? Options: 0, 1–2, 3–5, 6–10, 10+
• Where do your current teams feel most constrained: speed, skillset, budget, or governance? Options: Speed (time to market), Skillset (ID/production expertise), Budget, Governance/approval bottlenecks, All of the above
• Describe a recent internal project that stalled—what caused it to stall and how long did it take before escalation?

What Faculty Are Really Thinking (Beyond the Meeting Notes)

• If faculty could be candid, what would they say are the biggest risks of partnering with an external online provider?
• How would you characterize faculty sentiment toward online learning on a scale from champion to opponent? Options: Enthusiastic champions, Open but cautious, Skeptical, Opposed
• Have faculty expressed specific non-negotiables about academic quality or governance (e.g., control of curriculum, assessment, hiring instructors)? If so, list them.
• Which incentives or protections would most shift faculty from ‘open but cautious’ to ‘active partner’? Options: Faculty co-design roles, Clear academic governance clauses, Revenue sharing for departments, Dedicated faculty training & support, Authorship/credit recognition, Other
• Tell me about a faculty-led change that worked well here—what made it successful and who helped make it happen?

Failure Modes We're Seeing (So You Don’t Have To Learn Them the Hard Way)

• What’s the worst-case scenario you fear if an online program is launched poorly? Options: Brand reputation damage, Worse retention than in-person, Financial loss leading to cuts, Faculty backlash, Regulatory/quality issues, All of the above
• Where have you already seen signs that a shift to online could amplify existing problems (give concrete examples)?
• Which operational failure would hurt you most in year one: marketing targeting volume over fit, LMS outages, low course quality, or unclear financial terms? Options: Marketing volume-over-quality, LMS instability, Poor course design/engagement, Unfavorable financial terms, Other
• How would you like us to demonstrate risk controls up front (examples: pilot control metrics, faculty signoffs, phased payment triggers)? Options: Pilot acceptance criteria, Faculty review checkpoints, Payment tied to enrollment/retention, Quarterly governance meetings, Independent course audits, Other
• When a program fails on your campus, who ends up owning the fallout and how is it typically resolved?

What Would 'Back on Track' Actually Feel Like?

• Imagine 12 months after a successful pilot—what would have to be true for you to feel relieved and confident?
• Which early outcome matters most to your leadership: enrollment velocity, first-term retention, student satisfaction, or margin visibility? Options: Enrollment velocity, First-term retention, Student satisfaction (NPS/CPS), Clear margin visibility, Other
• What minimum numeric targets would you set for a pilot (e.g., enroll X students, Y% retention, CPS <$Z)? Please list any concrete thresholds.
• What trade-offs are you willing to make for speed (e.g., narrower program targeting, temporary faculty stipends, limited course offerings)?
• If success requires one behavior change from your campus, what should it be (e.g., faster approvals, delegated governance, or centralized marketing budget)? Options: Faster academic approvals, Delegated pilot governance, Centralized marketing budget, Dedicated cross-campus team, Other

Next Small Tests That Tell Us Everything

• What single, low-risk pilot would convince you this approach is worth scaling?
• What data access would we need to prove/disprove the pilot within the first 3–6 months (types and frequency)? Options: Daily/weekly marketing funnel data, SIS enrollment & retention snapshots, Student satisfaction surveys, LMS engagement analytics, Financial P&L updates, Other
• Who would be the named owners on your side for a pilot (department lead, IT liaison, faculty lead, enrollment manager)? Please list roles and contact approach.
• What would be an acceptable exit point if early signals go poorly (timeframe and metric triggers)?
• Which quick wins should we prioritize in the first 60 days to build credibility on campus? Options: Faculty co-design workshop, Landing page + lead gen test, LMS smoke test & pilot course build, Clear pilot governance charter, Student advisory panel, Other

How ready does this feel right now?

• Thinking broadly, how would you rate your team's overall readiness to move this pilot into production? Options: Very ready, Somewhat ready, Not ready, Unsure
• Which of the following are already in place for this pilot? Options: Signed partnership agreement, Data sharing / DPA, LMS sandbox or staging, Mapped course shells, Assigned faculty, Marketing plan and budget, Analytics dashboard or BI access, Student support plan
• Who are the executive stakeholders we should keep informed during pre-deployment (names and roles)?
• What is your target production date for launching the pilot? Options: Within 1 month, 1–2 months, 3–4 months, Next academic term, TBD
• Describe one concrete milestone that would make you say “we're definitely ready” to publish the pilot.

What's the hidden gap that would break launch?

• What single unresolved gap in your current setup would most likely derail the pilot if left unaddressed?
• How confident are you that internal teams will meet deadlines for the areas that typically slip (e.g., faculty approvals, accessibility fixes, roster sync)? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Not confident, Unsure
• Have you experienced missed handoffs between academic units and tech on past launches? If yes, briefly describe what commonly went wrong.
• Which failure modes worry you most for this pilot? Options: Low initial enrollments, Low early retention/completion, Faculty resistance, LMS outages or performance, Data/privacy breach, Financial underperformance
• Typically, how long does it take your faculty to review and sign off final course content? Options: <1 week, 1–2 weeks, 2–4 weeks, >4 weeks, Varies by course

Who's actually running the course?

• If the lead faculty were unavailable the week before launch, do you have a documented backup who could step in without missing a beat? Options: Yes, named backup and documented plan, Yes, informal backup but not documented, No backup, Unsure
• Please list the named individuals (role and contact) who will be responsible for: faculty lead, instructional designer liaison, LMS admin, and student success coach.
• Which governance body approves last-minute content or syllabus changes during a pilot? Options: Academic affairs committee, Program director, Department chair, Faculty governance committee, No formal body, Other
• How many members of the pilot faculty team have prior online teaching experience? Options: None, 1–2, 3–5, More than 5, Unsure
• What support or incentives are in place to secure faculty engagement across the pilot timeline?

Can data move when we need it to?

• If enrollment spiked tomorrow, could we pull enrollment, LMS usage, and early-retention data fast enough to adapt? Options: Yes, real-time dashboards, Yes, daily exports, Periodic reports only, No, manual-only processes, Unsure
• Which data feeds can we access ahead of launch? Options: Applications feed, Confirmed enrollments, SIS roster sync (daily), LMS activity logs, Grades and assessments, CRM marketing leads, Student support tickets, Financial aid status
• Are there signed data-sharing agreements and an identified technical owner for integrations? Options: Yes, agreement and owner, Agreement only, Owner only, Neither, Unsure
• What systems (SIS, LMS, CRM, SSO) — including vendor and version — will we be integrating for the pilot?
• What is the typical SLA for API or data access requests at your institution? Options: Same day, 1–3 business days, Up to 1 week, 2+ weeks, Varies widely

Content handoffs: where do good projects stall?

• Where in your content production workflow do deadlines usually slip—editing, faculty review, accessibility, media production, or another area?
• Describe your current authoring workflow and who owns each stage (storyboarding, media production, QC, accessibility remediation, final approval).
• Are source files and media stored in a shared repository with version control and naming conventions? Options: Yes, centralized with version control, Yes, but disorganized, No centralized repository, Unsure
• Do you have a documented accessibility remediation process and a named owner for accessibility sign-off? Options: Yes, documented process and owner, Informal process, owner unclear, No process, Unsure
• How do you prefer we coordinate content handoffs and milestones? Options: Weekly sync meetings, Deliverable checklist with dates, LMS staging links and comments, As-needed emails, Project management tool updates

Is your LMS battle-tested for a live pilot?

• When was the last time your LMS experienced an outage during peak traffic, and what was the impact?
• Which LMS environment will host the pilot? Options: Existing production course, Dedicated production instance, New instance for pilot, Unsure
• Do you have a sandbox for QA and a documented promotion process from staging to production? Options: Yes, documented process, Partial process, No process, Unsure
• What authentication/SSO method will students use to access the LMS? Options: SAML/SSO, OAuth, Institutional single sign-on, Local LMS accounts, Other, Unsure
• Are third-party LTI tools required for the pilot and are licenses or procurement approvals in place? Options: All listed and licensed, Some required; procurement pending, No third-party tools needed, Unsure
• Who is responsible for LMS incident response and what is the escalation path?

Who will own the risks you don’t want to talk about?

• If a data breach, accreditation issue, or reputational incident occurred during the pilot, who has the authority to halt the launch? Options: Provost/VP Academic, Dean/Director, Legal/Compliance, Program Chair, No clear authority, Unsure
• What insurance, indemnity, or contractual controls must be in place before go-live? Options: Cyber insurance, Indemnity clauses, Performance SLAs, Data processing addendum, Other
• Are FERPA, accreditation reporting, and Title IV responsibilities assigned and documented for the pilot? Options: Yes, clearly assigned, Partially assigned, Not assigned, Unsure
• Describe any past incidents (privacy, academic integrity, tech outage) that shape how conservative you want to be with risk controls?
• What contingency plans exist for instructor replacement, major tech failures, or rapid enrollment shortfalls? Options: Instructor backup pool, Alternate delivery plan (asynchronous only), Marketing pause or re-budget plan, Financial contingency, No plan

Can we run the playbook together?

• If we handed you a day-of-launch playbook today, how confident are you that your team would follow it under pressure? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Low confidence, No confidence, Unsure
• Which rehearsals or readiness checks would you require before go-live? Options: Faculty dry-run, Full-load performance test, Marketing readiness check, Student orientation session, Support desk simulation
• Who is assigned to own day-of-launch roles (marketing lead, enrollment manager, helpdesk lead, LMS admin)? Please provide names or roles.
• What urgent-issue communication channels and escalation paths will be used on launch day? Options: Phone tree, Slack/Teams channel, Email distribution list, Incident management tool (PagerDuty, etc.), SMS/text
• How will you communicate pilot expectations and troubleshooting instructions to students and faculty in the two weeks before launch?

What success signals will make us breathe a sigh of relief?

• What minimum measurable signals would you accept as evidence the pilot is working and which of those would trigger an adjustment or pause?
• Select the key metrics we should monitor closely in the first 6 weeks. Options: Applications, Confirmed enrollments, Marketing CAC (cost per enrolled student), Week 2 retention, Course completion rate, Student satisfaction (NPS), Average grade distribution, Helpdesk response time
• What are your threshold targets for the metrics above (for example CAC <$X, retention >Y%)? Please specify which metric each target maps to.
• How often would you like joint review meetings to assess metrics and go/no-go criteria during the pilot? Options: Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, Ad hoc as needed
• Which stakeholders must attend any go/no-go reviews? Options: Provost, Dean, Program Director, Marketing Lead, IT/LMS Admin, Faculty Lead, Student Success Lead

Opening: Where this conversation starts

• Which of these best describes your role today? Options: Provost, Dean (Continuing Education), Director of Online Learning, VP Enrollment Management, Other (please specify)
• What is the single most urgent trigger that brought you to explore an online partnership now? Options: Three-year enrollment decline, Competitor launched online program, Board directive to generate revenue, Need to expand adult learner market, Other (please specify)
• Who on your leadership team will need to be convinced for a pilot to move forward? Options: President/Chancellor, Provost, Dean, Faculty Senate/Committee, Finance/CFO, Chief Academic Officer, Other
• How would you describe the current decision timeline for program-level initiatives? Options: Immediate (1–2 months), Near-term (3–6 months), Academic-term (6–12 months), Longer (12+ months), Not sure
• In two sentences, what would count as a successful pilot for you?

If enrollment keeps sliding, what breaks first?

• If your enrollment declines continue for another year, what's the first program or function you expect to see real harm in—and why?
• Which of these consequences worries you most about continued decline? Options: Program closures, Faculty layoffs or reassignment, Reduced course offerings, Loss of accreditation/quality reputation, Budget cuts to student services, Other (please specify)
• Who in your institution tends to voice that worry most loudly—and how have they expressed it in past decisions?
• How would continued decline make you feel about taking an external partnership—relieved, skeptical, pressured, or something else? Options: Relieved, Skeptical, Pressured, Hopeful but cautious, Other (please specify)
• How long have you been managing this decline, and what stopgap responses have you already tried?

Who’s really calling the shots—and what would it take to move them?

• If we asked the dean, provost, and faculty chair to rank their decision priorities for a partnership, where would enrollment growth, academic quality, and financial return fall? Options: Enrollment growth highest, Academic quality highest, Financial return highest, Balanced evenly, Not sure
• Which formal approvals will a pilot need before launch (e.g., curriculum committee, faculty senate, finance), and who typically slows that process? Options: Curriculum Committee, Faculty Senate, Academic Affairs/Provost, Finance/CFO, Board/Trustees, None/Informal
• What evidence or guardrail would most quickly reassure your faculty about maintaining academic standards? Options: Peer-reviewed course design, Faculty co-creation credits, Assessment/learning outcomes alignment, Third-party quality audit, Pilot classroom observations, Other (please specify)
• Tell me about a past decision where faculty resistance stopped a project—what happened and how long did it take to resolve?
• If a single stakeholder needed to be convinced to proceed, who is that person and what would we need to show them?

Where quality feels most vulnerable

• If you had to name the single greatest academic-quality risk for moving online, what would it be? Options: Dilution of curriculum rigor, Faculty unfamiliarity with online pedagogy, Poor assessment integrity, Inadequate student support, Brand/reputation damage, Other (please specify)
• How do you currently measure course quality and faculty effectiveness for face-to-face programs? Options: Student evaluations, Peer review, Learning outcome assessments, Retention/completion data, Not consistently measured, Other (please specify)
• Describe a concrete example when course quality dipped—what were the indicators and what remedial actions worked or failed?
• Which academic guardrails are non-negotiable for you in any partnership (choose up to three)? Options: Faculty control of syllabus, Assessment ownership by institution, Accreditation alignment, Transparent grade data, Faculty development and stipends, Student learning outcome parity
• How emotionally willing are faculty to change pedagogy for online learning—excited, cautious, resistant—and what would shift that stance? Options: Excited, Cautious, Resistant, Depends on incentives/support

Unpacking your current capabilities (so we know what we’d actually need to do)

• Tell us about your in-house capacity for instructional design, marketing, and LMS/tech support—what exists and what’s missing?
• Which best describes your current marketing capability for adult/online audiences? Options: Strong in-house team with proven conversions, Basic in-house capability, limited digital expertise, Minimal/no dedicated online marketing, Rely on vendor or third-party agencies
• How many full-time equivalents (FTEs) do you estimate are directly involved in online course creation today (ID, media, faculty support)? Options: 0, 1–2, 3–5, 6–10, 10+
• Which systems and data pipelines are available for us to access in a pilot (e.g., SIS, LMS, CRM, analytics)? Options: SIS (Student Information System), LMS, CRM/Marketing Automation, BI/Analytics dashboards, None readily available, Other (please specify)
• Give one recent example where internal capacity limited a timely program decision or launch—what was the bottleneck?

What success actually looks like (not just numbers)

• If we remove the jargon, what does ‘success’ feel like to you at the end of a six-month pilot?
• Which outcome metrics would make this partnership defensible to your board or provost? Options: Net new enrollments, Cost-per-enrolled-student (CPS), Retention after term 1, Student satisfaction/NPS, Program margin thresholds, Other (please specify)
• What target CPS and first-term retention would you need to see to consider scaling beyond a pilot? Options: CPS <$2,000, CPS $2,000–$4,000, CPS $4,000–$6,000, Retention >70%, Retention 60–70%, Retention <60%
• Which qualitative signals—stories, faculty endorsements, student feedback—matter most to you alongside the numbers? Options: Faculty endorsements, Student testimonials, Employer interest/hiring inquiries, Academic committee approval, Media or peer recognition
• How quickly do you expect to see leading indicators (applications, CPLs, conversion rates) after marketing begins? Options: Within 2 weeks, 2–4 weeks, 1–2 months, 3+ months, Unsure

If we tried a pilot, what would make it fail?

• Name the top two things that have sunk pilots or vendor partnerships at your institution in the past.
• How tolerant are you of early underperformance in enrollment if quality and student experience are strong? Options: Very tolerant (quality first), Somewhat tolerant (short runway), Low tolerance (need quick traction), Not sure
• What exit triggers would you insist on including in a pilot agreement to protect academic standards and budget? Options: Enrollment below threshold, Retention below threshold, Quality audit failure, Faculty petition/concern, Financial loss threshold, Other (please specify)
• Have you ever ended a partnership early? If yes, what specific milestone or behavior prompted that decision?
• What contingency or remediation would make you feel comfortable continuing if the pilot underperformed against one metric but excelled in another?

What would make you say yes—really?

• If you could design the commercial model from scratch, what would your ideal balance be between revenue-share and fee-for-service? Options: Revenue-share preferred, Fee-for-service preferred, Hybrid (mix), Undecided—need scenarios
• Which financial transparency items do you require before agreeing to revenue-share (choose all that apply)? Options: Full marketing spend reports, Enrollment funnel data, Net tuition reconciliation, Monthly financial statements, Third-party audit rights
• What faculty support or incentives would be decisive for instructor buy-in (e.g., course release, stipend, co-creation credit)? Options: Course release, Lump-sum stipend, Per-course honorarium, Faculty co-creation credit/recognition, Professional development time, Other (please specify)
• How would you prefer governance of the pilot to be structured—who needs a seat at the table and what voting rights matter?
• What would be an acceptable pilot length and sample size for you to make a confident scaling decision? Options: One term cohort (3–4 months), Two-term pilot (6–9 months), Full academic year, Metric-driven timeline (until X enrollments)

Practical next steps & readiness signals

• Which of these readiness items are already in place for a pilot? Options: Committed faculty/single program identified, Access to LMS and course shells, Marketing contacts and CRM access, SIS data sharing agreements, Budget allocated for pilot, None yet
• What data access or privacy constraints would we need to navigate before launch (FERPA, IRB, vendor contracts)? Options: FERPA concerns, IRB requirements, Vendor procurement policies, Data sharing agreements needed, No significant constraints
• Who would be the day-to-day operational owner on your side for a pilot (name/role), and how many hours/week can they commit?
• Which LMS(s) and integration requirements should we plan around? Options: Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace/D2L, Moodle, Proprietary/Other, We need help deciding
• Realistically, what is the earliest you could approve a pilot to begin production work? Options: Immediately, In 1 month, In 2–3 months, Next academic term, Unsure

Final reflection: what keeps you up at night?

• Beyond the numbers, what about this decision keeps you personally up at night?
• What would you need to hear from us in our next conversation to sleep better about a partnership?
• Who else should join our next conversation to materially speed a decision, and what role will they play? Options: Provost/Academic affairs leader, Dean/Department chair, Finance/CFO, Faculty representative, IT/LMS lead, Other (please specify)
• How soon would you like a tailored pilot proposal after this discovery is complete? Options: Within 1 week, 1–2 weeks, In one month, No rush/unsure