The Innovation Forge Podcast

The Number 1 Adaptive Enrollment Management Podcast
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Data, marketing, and strategy converge to shape the future of Higher Education through Adaptive Enrollment Management. Whether you’re an enrollment manager, an ed tech professional, or someone excited about shaping the future of higher education, this podcast is your new workshop for forward-thinking ideas. We’ll be running two main types of episodes. First, From the Foundry, where I’ll read unabridged chapters from my book, The Innovation Forge. Think of it as your personal audiobook session—no subscription or separate download needed. In each reading, we’ll explore the principles of scoring systems, predictive modeling, and adaptive enrollment management, that can transform how institutions understand, recruit, and craft their incoming class. In the second type of episode we’ll have interviews featuring innovative leaders and artisans in data, marketing, admissions, and even specialized platforms like Slate. These 'Visiting Artisans’ are the people actively reshaping traditional practices, and together we’ll hammer out insights you can bring back to your institution or organization. We’ll talk about real-world applications, success stories, and challenges, all while highlighting the practical strategies that spark true innovation. Join me as we explore Adaptive Enrollment Management in The Innovation Forge Podcast. dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com

  1. 2d ago

    S04 E11 The Next Class and a Tech Whiz

    Coffee, Coals, Tech Whiz and The Next ClassToday, we reveal a bit about The Tech Whiz. We also take a peak at the new episode type: The Next Class joining The Innovation Forge this semester.And the Eldraliths pop up yet again... Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S04 E11 The Next Class and a Tech Whiz

  2. Aug 31

    S04 E09 The Grand Pavilions of the Codex (Chapter 1 of From Posters to Practice)

    The fairgrounds open to a grand entryway, and beyond the gates rise the Codex Practitioners. Each pavilion carries its own geometry, its own symbol, its own lesson. Towers of data blocks, domes of prisms, halls of light and time. These all stand as monuments to the disciplines that shape The Innovation Forge.The Codex Practitioners are not abstract roles but living crafts. The Slatewright builds and leads, the Mentallurgist refines thought into clarity, the Threadweaver draws threads of journey into sturdy fabric, and others follow with their own gifts. Each hall demonstrates not only what its Practitioner does, but also why their work matters for the whole.This chapter invites you to wander the pavilions. Step across query grids, beneath balance scales, into studios of letters and laboratories of light. Each stop is a chance to understand the craft behind enrollment work, the hidden disciplines that sustain the larger structure. Together, these halls form the Codex, a collection of practices and craft that stand firm even as the world outside shifts.Purchase the book from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-For... Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S04 E09 The Grand Pavilions of the Codex (Chapter 1 of From Posters to Practice)

  3. Aug 24

    S04 E08 The Board is Set (Episode 1 of Inside the Funnel)

    Applications open next month, which means the enrollment cycle is already being won or lost.Welcome to the first official episode of Inside the Funnel, the monthly enrollment management sports desk covering fictional schools, real strategy lessons, fake mascots, analyst call ins, staff injury reports, and the slow collapse of institutional overconfidence.In this episode, we set the board for the season.CRM State opens as the early favorite with dashboards, reports, filters, and just enough overconfidence to earn the first mascot reveal of the year: Metricub. The tools are there. The question is whether anyone knows what action each signal should trigger.Pell Grant A and M starts quietly, which should make the louder schools nervous.Portal Polytechnic is still living off its preseason button fix.Coupon State promises discount discipline, which history suggests should be monitored closely.Prestige U is already polishing a decimal point for later selectivity theater.This month’s lesson is simple: July is not dead time. July is where you define the signal, name the owner, attach the action, and decide whether your cycle will be adaptive or reactive.Featured segmentsThe Big BoardCRM State leads the preseason standings, but dashboard readiness without action rules may become a problem fast.Fieldsmith’s Register to MascotsCRM State earns Metricub, the Enrollimon of raw measurement without enough meaning.Instrument of the WeekThe Inquiry Lantern is lit for the season, revealing who is following real curiosity and who is chasing volume.The Aces Injury ReportData Knight is already dealing with dashboard overload, The Fixer is already overused, and Tech Whiz is still recovering from Portal Polytechnic’s preseason ceremony.The Independent SubqueryCRM State claims dashboard readiness is strong. The subquery asks whether those dashboards have action attached.The Film RoomThis episode tees up Build Your Persona Engine, a Slate strategy training on turning scattered student information into useful personas that can guide travel, outreach, dashboards, and later modeling. • S02 E17 Building a Persona Insights Engine... Core lessonA dashboard without an action rule is not strategy. It is a prettier way to delay a decision.Adaptive Enrollment Management starts before the cycle gets loud. If your team has reports with no owners, messages with no rules, and meetings with no decision rights, the cycle has already started making choices for you.Follow the seasonThis is Episode 1 of a full enrollment cycle story.Next month: Apps Open, Chaos Opens WiderThe Inquiry Lantern is lit. Metricub is loose. Leonard may or may not be getting his own show.Topics coveredEnrollment managementAdaptive Enrollment ManagementSlate strategyHigher education marketingAdmissions operationsStudent searchInquiry generationCRM strategyEnrollment dashboardsStudent personasApplication cycle planningHigher ed satire#InsideTheFunnel #EnrollmentManagement #HigherEd #Admissions #Slate #AdaptiveEnrollmentManagement #HigherEdMarketing #CRM #StudentSearch #TheInnovationForge Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S04 E08 The Board is Set (Episode 1 of Inside the Funnel)

  4. Aug 17

    S04 E07 RARE Related Automation and Relationship Engine (Gilded Build)

    The Innovation Forge | Gilded BuildTonight’s build takes on one of the most underused, misunderstood, and frankly underbuilt features in Slate: Related Records.Most teams treat Related Records like storage.We’re going to treat them like a logic engine.This is a real-time Gilded Build where we’ll construct a system that:Sends tour follow-ups from the actual student guide, tailored to the prospect’s major, housing, and backgroundTriggers counselor outreach after high school visits, using the exact staff relationship tied to the interactionPowers event communications dynamically, changing messaging based on logistics like parking, check-in, event type, and audienceNo duplicated templates.No manual follow-up.No “we’ll just send a generic version.”Instead:Configurable Joins drive the structureRelated Records define the relationship layerMerge logic and conditional content handle the voice and personalizationThis is about building communications that feel human without requiring humans to manually send them.If your templates feel rigid,if your personalization doesn’t scale,or if your team is stuck copying and pasting variations of the same message,this build is going to push past that.🔧 What we’ll build liveRelated Record structures for guides, counselors, and eventsConfigurable Join strategies to connect records cleanlyDynamic content blocks that adapt messaging automaticallyDecision logic that determines who sends what, to whom, and why🎯 Who this is forSlate builders who want to go deeper than standard templatesComms strategists trying to scale personalizationOps teams tired of maintaining duplicate logic everywhereAnyone who knows there’s more power in Slate but hasn’t unlocked it yet🔥 Gilded Build SeriesThis is part of the Gilded Build series, where we don’t just build something that workswe build something that keeps working under pressureMore logicMore flexibilityMore edge cases handled up frontBecause real systems aren’t cleanthey’re forged🕒 Going LiveWe’re building this from scratch, in real time.Mistakes included. Fixes included.⚒️ The Innovation ForgeWhere enrollment strategy meets system designand where builds turn into infrastructure Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S04 E07 RARE Related Automation and Relationship Engine (Gilded Build)

  5. Aug 10

    S04 E06 Wildcard and the Funnel Lineup

    Coffee, Coals, Wildcards and The Funnel LineupToday, we reveal a bit about The Wildcard. We also take a peak at the new Funnel-inspired episodes joining The Innovation Forge this semester.And the Eldraliths pop up yet again... Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S04 E06 Wildcard and the Funnel Lineup

  6. Aug 3

    S03 E21 Feature Engineering Act 2 (Slate Configurable Joins How-To)

    This episode of #TheInnovationForgePodcast is your next point for transforming Slate behaviors into engineered insight.Time to stop treating student behavior like it happens in a vacuum.This episode covers:🗓️ Who showed up after the admit dropped⚡ Who’s on a login hot streak📉 And whose scores are slipping week by weekIt’s Slate feature engineering with a wristwatch.Because timing isn’t just everything, it’s insight. These tools allow you to stop reacting and start anticipating. By engineering behavioral timelines, you’ll tell the story of a student’s engagement as it unfolds, not just when it ends.🎙️ If you’re ready to find your early signals and avoid late regrets, hit play. And bring a calendar.#TimingIsAFeature #StreaksNotFlukes And as always, subscribe to the podcast and get your copy of The Innovation Forge in ebook or print - https://tinyurl.com/TheInnovationForgePaperbackMusic: "Cold Sober" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Journey To Ascend" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Midnight Tale" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Galway" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Goblin_Tinker_Soldier_Spy” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Southern Gothic” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Village Consort" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"Club Seamus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S03 E21 Feature Engineering Act 2 (Slate Configurable Joins How-To)

  7. Jul 27

    S04 E04 The Portalcast (Episode 1 of The Next Class)

    Welcome to The Next Class.In our first episode, The Portalcast, we visit the fictional campus of Portal Polytechnic, a STEM focused school where the application portal has opened, the checklist is waiting, and students are trying to figure out what comes next.The school is fictional. But the questions get real.Out of State Oliver wonders how to understand a campus from hundreds of miles away. Aid Anxious Anya wants financial clarity before falling in love with a school. Procrastina Paige is trying to build earlier than her panic. Steady Eddie trusts one small step at a time.Along the way, Campus Cruiser Carla offers a practical student field note, Queryn Crossjoin brings calm from The Application Desk, Tessa Scrollore explains why clarity is care, and Professor Vellum Datum reminds students that curiosity comes before confidence.The big lesson: the portal is open, but the path is yours.If you are applying to college, supporting a student, working in admissions, or just fascinated by how students make big decisions, this episode is for you.Created by The Innovation Forge.#TheNextClass #ThePortalcast #TheInnovationForge #CollegeAdmissions #AdmissionsPodcast #HigherEd #StudentJourney #CollegeSearch #STEMAdmissions Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S04 E04 The Portalcast (Episode 1 of The Next Class)

  8. Jul 20

    S04 E03 Ongoing Adaptive Deliver Engine in Slate (Gilded Build)

    Let's build in Slate! Welcome to The Gilded Build.This is where functional Slate builds go to get polished, overengineered, and dressed up far beyond what was strictly necessary.In this first episode, I build an automated weekly events Deliver that goes well past the usual “here are some events” approach. We are using student specific logic, dictionary exports, dynamic templates, umbrella event redirects, and very precise time formatting to make the message more useful and a lot more engineered.In other words, we are taking a perfectly reasonable Slate process and refusing to leave it in peace.This episode is for anyone who wants to build event promotion emails that feel more dynamic, more targeted, and more thoughtfully crafted, without settling for the plain version just because it technically works.If that sounds like your kind of nonsense, you are in the right place.Subscribe for more episodes of The Gilded Build.#Slate #Deliver #Ongoing #ForLoop #Format Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe

    S04 E03 Ongoing Adaptive Deliver Engine in Slate (Gilded Build)
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Data, marketing, and strategy converge to shape the future of Higher Education through Adaptive Enrollment Management. Whether you’re an enrollment manager, an ed tech professional, or someone excited about shaping the future of higher education, this podcast is your new workshop for forward-thinking ideas. We’ll be running two main types of episodes. First, From the Foundry, where I’ll read unabridged chapters from my book, The Innovation Forge. Think of it as your personal audiobook session—no subscription or separate download needed. In each reading, we’ll explore the principles of scoring systems, predictive modeling, and adaptive enrollment management, that can transform how institutions understand, recruit, and craft their incoming class. In the second type of episode we’ll have interviews featuring innovative leaders and artisans in data, marketing, admissions, and even specialized platforms like Slate. These 'Visiting Artisans’ are the people actively reshaping traditional practices, and together we’ll hammer out insights you can bring back to your institution or organization. We’ll talk about real-world applications, success stories, and challenges, all while highlighting the practical strategies that spark true innovation. Join me as we explore Adaptive Enrollment Management in The Innovation Forge Podcast. dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    The Number 1 Adaptive Enrollment Management Podcast
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    214
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © David Dysart
  • Show Website
    The Innovation Forge Podcast