Twice a year, Education Analytics’ (EA) staff from across the country come to our office in Madison, Wisconsin, for collaborative meetings, team retreats, and skill- building.
For Summer Week 2025, we hosted our first-ever EA Conference. EA staff from every team submitted proposals with ideas, product innovations, operational success stories, or knowledge they wished to socialize with the rest of the organization. The conference featured more than 20 sessions, with formats ranging from individual talks and panel discussions to demos and workshops. University of Wisconsin-Madison Sears Bascom Professor of Learning Analytics and Learning Sciences, David Shaffer, delivered an inspiring keynote speech about how to build presentations that captivate and interest audiences.
Curious about what we covered at the EA Conference? Dive into the full blog recap for highlights from sessions and discussions.
Tools & Tech
Each session was part of three topic areas — Tools & Tech, People & Culture, and Processes. Senior Research Analyst Kayla Bollinger, Research Analyst Manager II Hayley Tymeson, and Research Analyst II Iris Zhong presented the session, “The Generalists: How Analysts Connect Structured Data Systems and Exploratory Research Methods” as part of the Tools & Tech track.
Kayla, Hayley, and Iris explored coding approaches that support the goals of exploratory research and highlighted how straightforward coding practices can help researchers:
- Encourage flexibility when it’s most valuable
- Compartmentalize changes to easily see their impact
- Enable straightforward comparisons of results
- Minimize cognitive load and reduce unnecessary complexity in research
Exploratory research often requires customization and flexibility, while technological systems frequently need the opposite - modularity and automation. Data analysts can bring tools from each discipline to help bridge that gap, making it easier to both conduct exploratory research and incorporate vetted methods into technological tools.
Processes
Within the Processes topic, Data Engineer Manager John Merfeld presented the session, “Conway’s Law: How EA Invents.” John started his session by explaining Conway’s Law, first published in 1968, which observes that, “Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.” Since its introduction, scholars and practitioners have expanded on this idea, exploring how organizations might adapt their approach to structuring teams and planning projects.
John connected this theory directly to Education Analytics, noting that as an “organization that designs systems,” EA is naturally subject to Conway’s Law. Throughout his session, he highlighted that EA doesn’t just create a suite of products, but also builds frameworks for thinking about data — from governance structures to research approaches.
He further illustrated the connection by applying Conway’s Law to one of EA’s newer products, Runway, showing how team structures and communication patterns shape its design. Wrapping up his session, John suggested that as EA continues to grow and diversifies, we may benefit from developing our own guiding theory of how we design and build -– one that reflects both our mission and the way we work together.
As EA has grown, we've had to make more decisions around how we organize ourselves, and I enjoyed getting to visualize some of the practical effects of those choices. Of course, my perspective is limited by where I sit in the organization, so it was also great hearing from a few people after the session that my discussion prompted them to reflect on how their own teams communicate and collaborate. My primary goal with this session was to spark reflection and conversation.
People & Culture
Featured in the People & Culture topic, Program Operations Strategist I Alyssa Lucas presented the session, “Change is Hard: Best Practices for Supporting Impactful Change.” Alyssa’s session introduced a practical approach to supporting change — whether it involves a small process improvement or a complex, cross-functional initiative. Alyssa discussed the different stages of the change management cycle, including:
- Preparing thoughtfully and communicating early
- Supporting adoption through training and development
- Establishing measures of success to sustain progress over time
Alyssa grounded her change management insights in experience, drawing on a recent cross-functional initiative where she and her team applied these best practices. She reflected on what supported success, what proved challenging, and the lessons learned along the way. Importantly, Alyssa framed her session not as a claim that change is easy, but as an opportunity to share key principles for making change efforts more intentionally collaborative — and ultimately more impactful — at any scale.
Change management can be a very difficult process that will never be perfect. It all depends on the resources available, timing, ability to identify successful outcomes, and much more. Doing some research in this area has shown me that EA is already doing a lot of great things and has good processes in place, and that we can use these learnings to refine improvements to the user experience.
Also featured in the People & Culture track, Services Delivery Lead Ruth Brandvik, Services Delivery Manager Julie McLeod, and Project Coordinator Swathi Siva Srinivas presented the session, “From Project Risk to Reward: A Risk Management Adventure.” Their session emphasized that risks are inherent in work and daily life. Ruth, Julie, and Swathi highlighted potential risks EA could encounter, including late data, data issues/errors, resource allocations, competing priorities, scope creep, and more.
In their session, Ruth, Julie, and Swathi aimed to give participants a clear, practical understanding of risk management by covering:
- Core definitions and tools, such as risk registers, probability/impact matrices, and risk response calculations
- Strategies for engaging team members in meaningful risk management conversations
- The steps of the risk management process through a hands-on group activity and simulation
- EA’s own risk repository, explored through a collaborative discussion
- Practical methods for tracking and monitoring risks over time
In our session, we focused on how integrating risk management into project planning from start to finish helps teams respond with clarity and confidence rather than react to uncertainty or a crisis as it comes up. We want to be able to give teams a framework to think about risks in an effective way that helps in managing projects smoothly and successfully!
The inaugural EA Conference brought together staff for thoughtful discussions, informative group activities, and engaging demos. We are excited to discover how the practices and insights gained during these sessions will shape how teams collaborate internally and strengthen our partnerships with schools, districts, and states nationwide.
