Beyond Business Process: Designing for the Institutional and Student Experience

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In higher education, the focus on business process redesign (BPR), automation, and workflow efficiency has become the standard. Institutions are investing heavily in streamlining operations to eliminate inefficiencies and improve compliance. 

But here’s the problem—process improvements don’t always translate into better student experiences. It’s time to go beyond business process.

Processes are just mechanisms, not the experience itself. 

 

The Problem with a Process-First Mindset 

 Business process redesign (BPR) has been the go-to strategy for institutions looking to improve operations for years. However, most BPR efforts focus inward—on how the institution functions—rather than on how students experience those functions. This leads to idealistic models filled with “word salad” about what could be rather than clear, actionable pathways to meaningful transformation. Institutions often end up with long reports, abstract frameworks, and no real strategy to move from Point A to Point B. 

Consider financial aid applications. An institution may streamline approvals by reducing processing time from 10 to 5 days. But if the process remains confusing, filled with jargon, and requires multiple follow-ups, students still struggle—and the institution hasn’t truly improved the experience. So, while process improvements may look good on paper, they don’t necessarily enhance the student journey.  

The shift from a process-driven to an experience-driven approach is critical. Instead of asking: 

  • “How can we streamline this process?” 

Institutions should ask: 

  • “How does this experience feel for the student, and how can we improve it?” 

The Power of Experience-Driven Transformation 

The alternative to BPR-first thinking is Experience-Driven Transformation—a unified approach that delivers exceptional experiences and journeys across: 

  • People – Students, faculty, and staff interacting with institutional systems. 
  • Processes – The workflows that guide engagement and decision-making. 
  • Technology – The tools that should enhance, not dictate, the user experience. 
  • Data – The foundation that ensures people can access insights, processes function smoothly, and technology delivers real impact. 

A true experience-driven strategy involves: 

  • Mapping the entire student journey rather than isolating administrative functions. 
  • Prioritizing human-centered design to create intuitive, personalized, and supportive interactions. 
  • Understanding emotional touchpoints, recognizing that ease, confidence, and trust matter just as much as efficiency. 
  • Aligning technology and data with experience ensures that digital tools and insights support—not dictate—the student journey. 

 

A New Way Forward with Higher Digital’s ESP Approach 

At Higher Digital, we take this concept even further with our Enterprise Strategic Pathways (ESP) approach. This guided, user-centric framework helps institutions move beyond isolated process improvements toward holistic, transformative experiences.  Unlike traditional BPR approaches that focus on isolating and fixing individual workflows, ESP takes a holistic, user-centered approach—prioritizing the whole student, faculty, and staff experience across processes, technology, and interactions. With ESP, institutions can: 

  • Gain a full view of student, faculty, and staff experiences, identifying pain points and opportunities for meaningful change. 
  • Bridge the gap between technology, process, data, and people, ensuring that digital tools and insights enhance—not hinder—the student journey. 
  • Create a strategic roadmap for institutional transformation, aligning every initiative with quick wins , long-term engagement, and success. 
  • Leverage data as a decision-making tool, allowing institutions to use real-time insights to improve experiences NOW—from enrollment to graduation and beyond. 

 

Inside-Out vs. Experience-First Thinking 

Institutions that focus solely on improving future-state processes risk missing the bigger picture. Too often, an “inside-out” perspective leads to bureaucratic obstacles, delays, and impersonal interactions that frustrate students and staff alike. 

  • If students continue to struggle with inefficiencies, institutional change hasn’t succeeded.
  • Transformation remains incomplete if faculty and staff lack the tools and support to enhance engagement.
  • Decision-making suffers if data remains siloed, outdated, or difficult to interpret, and the institution cannot fully optimize the student experience.

Higher Education leaders must reframe the conversation: 

  • Instead of asking, “How do we improve our processes?” 
  • We should ask, “How do we transform experiences?” 

Because at the end of the day, processes are just tools—but a unified institutional and student experience is what truly matters. 

 

Learn how our Enterprise Strategic Pathways solution can help you and your institution transform experiences.

•by Andy Kearney