Program Design Basics
Organizations that are engaged in economic development very often operate at the program level. Meaning they structure their work as a set of programs to help organize their efforts and then assign resources where needed. A program is a set of related activities managed in a coordinated way to achieve a specific outcome. Programs include policies, procedures, projects, tasks, goals, etc. They may originate from a strategic planning process or they may just be developed to meet an immediate need. Programs in an economic development context can be anything from a small accelerator in an urban neighborhood to a large industrial park in a multimodal transportation corridor. No matter the size or the intended outcome the process involved in designing a program is the same — just scaled differently. When HatchForm is engaged by organizations or departments to create or modify a program we typically break program design process down into five sections:
Problem or Need Identification
Internal Assessment
Model Development
Piloting
Metrics
The individual steps in the process will be explored in more detail in later posts. Most of them are self explanatory on the surface. The elements of the program creation process used by HatchForm are not new or novel. But by having a set process in place to design, pilot, and test programs for efficacy organizations can be more agile in addressing pressing problems and more deliberate in choosing allocations of resources for maximum impact.
Many of these sections run concurrently but it is often good to break the process down into manageable and achievable steps. A pilot for instance will look very different for a proposed real estate development program than it will for a business mastermind meeting. But, the fundamentals are basically the same. For now let’s look at the process for developing an entrepreneur support program in a small rural town.
The economic development department for Union County recently completed an economic development strategic plan. In the plan the contractors pointed to a high number of cottage business operating under the radar in the county and a high percentage of people who expressed an interest in opening their own business.
Problem or Need Identification: Because of this information the county is interested in learning more about these cottage industries and about the individuals who are interested in starting a business. The county laiunches a series of informational sessions by partnering with a local resources provider. The sessions concentrate on the steps necessary to start a business and a run down of state laws on cottage businesses — especially retail food producers (bakers, sauces, etc.) who operate out of the homes. As part of these information sessions attendees are asked to complete a survey asking about the hurdles they are facing.
After reviewing these surveys along with Q&A from the sessions the county finds that most cottage businesses want to move out of their homes but they do not know of place where they can go.
Internal Assessment: Union County economic development organizes a meeting with other economic development and entrepreneur support organizations in the area. They share the information they have gathered and tell the group they are interested in helping cottage food businesses grow and expand beyond their homes and help them access new markets and customers. Union County economic development knows that they do not have the staff or resources necessary to tackle this problem on their own and they will need help. Through this meeting and some subsequent discussions the county decides to partner with a local community college who has an underutilized commercial kitchen.
Model Development: To maintain momentum created by information sessions the county decides to run a cohort based program. They hire a local firm to organize and facilitate the technical aspects of the cohort. The county wants participants in the cohort to go through a 6 week accelerator where they learn about running a food business, marketing, permitting and licensing, financial management, employees, etc. After completing the first phase the cohort participants will be able to use the commercial kitchen to make batches of their products for free for three months. The county will organize a mock storefront in one of their commercial districts where the products will be on sale. Cohort participnats will be in charge of stocking the shelves, pricing the products for wholesale, and maintaining inventory. They can use the storefront to showcase their products, invite potential wholesale buyers, test marketing ideas, and build a customer base.
Pilot: The county will fund the first cohort including the contractor, the cost to use the commercial kitchen, and any marketing and advertising. The entire pilot is expected to cost around $45,000 and take 6 months from initial advertisements to wrapping the storefront. If the pilot goes well the county will apply for state and federal grants to continue it.
Metrics: For the program to continue after the pilot the county will look at a few metrics from the initial cohort. these include: number of businesses that successfully moved out of their homes, number and value of wholesale clients acquired during or after the pilot, and number of jobs created by the cohort companies. The county through its contractor will survey the cohort companies three and 9 months from the end of the cohort.
If the pilot fails to produce the desired results the county can go back to drawing board, learn from what worked and what didn’t, and pilot another model that might work better. If the pilot is a great success and they are able to secure funding for the program to move forward the county may consider expanding by building a commercial kitchen or creating other program verticals for small product or cosmetic manufacturers.
This example is simplified but the core is still true. Defining a process for program design and execution creates benefits for everyone — from the economic developer to the support organization to the small business that is able to capitalize on the opportunity.
