What is the best way to get PICC into the hands of Guidance Counselors?

[LisaGee]

1. What would make this tool more useful to them? Data points, wording, etc…
2. What’s the best way to get it into their hands?
3. What side materials would be helpful for them?
4. Recommendations for Fun Facts that they think would be appealing and useful to their students.
5. Get suggestions for Future Features.

[LisaGee]

@jjoteal Try Greg Darnieder at ED for thoughts. Darnieder, Greg Greg.Darnieder@ed.gov

[jjoteal]

Notes from my meeting with Greg Darnieder

Targets 1) Associations: ASCA, NACAC, NCAN 2) Ed programs: GEAR Up/NCCEP, Trio, COE 3) State/Regional Groups: SREB 4) Foundations (Lumina, Kresge, regional funders) 5) Non-profits (425 orgs are also members of NCAN; e.g. Michigan College Access Network) 6) Independent college access groups 7) NCSCPS - http://www.ncscps.org/ 8) IHEP

Methods

• "To accomplish awareness you need to make contact with folks 9x in 9 different ways"
• Conferences
• Printed materials
• Personal emails from Greg ("this is as much about relationships as anything else")
• Convince people of the value of the tool. What makes it different then let's say Naviance? Especially when school district have already made a heavy investment in Navience.

Next Steps for Jess

• Compile list of upcoming conferences + dates + find out of Ed will have a presence
• Produce downloadable print materials that Ed folks can bring to conferences
• Compile a detailed list of all associations, foundations, orgs, etc.

[jjoteal]

Update: Spoke with Mr. Darnieder again this morning and regarding Saturday's launch, he didn't have any specific recommendations outside of the rule of 9 mentioned above. While it is important to ensure that counselors know that the tool exists shortly after launch, it is more important to do persistent communications through multiple channels.

I've also pinged Kelly Leon who is getting me a list of all Ed Comm's outreach contacts for the tool. She's going to highlight the orgs that would likely garner the most counselor attention. She's also pinging OESE (where School District leads live) to see how they plan on communicating the tool to school districts and will be making the necessary connections between OESE and OCO. She will keep me updated on those conversations so we can coordinate as necessary.

[jjoteal]

Per the task title above, this seems like a "distribution" task vs. a usability testing task. Accordingly, I think the issue of "getting PICC into the hands of guidance counselors" should be assigned to Ed Comms, but the ongoing usability testing with guidance counselors should be assigned to me. Naturally, I will need to coordinate with Ed Comms to ensure that when they contact guidance counselors that we can simultaneously ask them to participate in usability testing. Let's ensure that this is on the agenda for the next working group meeting.