Case Study:

The State Context

The State of Georgia, recognized as a premier destination for business and industry, faced a strategic challenge common to large-scale government entities: a fragmented talent pipeline. While the state offered robust educational and vocational resources, these assets were siloed across the University System of Georgia (USG), the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), the Department of Education (GaDOE), and the Student Finance Commission (GSFC).

To realize the Governor’s "Top State for Talent" vision, the state required an internal consultant to unify these disparate agencies under a single, AI-driven College and Career Navigation Solution.

The Challenge: Operational and Cultural Silos

The primary obstacle was not a lack of resources, but a lack of coordination. Each agency maintained its own legacy tools, data standards, and strategic priorities. The project required a leader who could navigate complex inter-agency dynamics, eliminate redundant state spending, and synthesize a massive volume of "discovery" data into a cohesive technical requirements document for a high-stakes procurement.

The Consultant’s Strategic Intervention

Selected as a member of the Governor’s Workforce and Education Strategy Team, the consultant acted as the primary architect for the Navigation tool. The intervention was structured around three core pillars:

• Governance and Consensus-Building The consultant convened an Executive Workgroup comprised of senior leadership from all involved agencies. By facilitating high-level decision-making at critical inflection points, the consultant secured the necessary compromises to move from a "best-of-agency" mindset to a "best-of-state" solution. This involved leading mind-mapping and discovery exercises to align agency desires with practical, statewide outcomes.
• Process Mapping and Technical Scoping To provide a rigorous foundation for the project, the consultant's team developed a COPIS (Customer, Output, Process, Input, Supplier) framework. This ensured that the citizen—the student, veteran, or adult learner—remained the central focus of the system architecture. Further, the team conducted a comprehensive inventory of existing agency tools to identify overlaps, ensuring the new platform would be an efficient use of taxpayer resources.
• Procurement Leadership Moving from strategy to implementation, the consultant led the team through the requirements-gathering phase. This included:
• Developing a Request for Information (RFI) to gauge market capabilities.
• Coordinating vendor demonstrations and conducting market research on AI-integrated career counseling.
• Authoring the project scope and technical requirements for the comprehensive Request for Proposal (RFP).

The GEORGIA MATCH Evolution

Prior to the Navigation tool, the consultant served as a core team member to develop GEORGIA MATCH, the nation’s largest direct-admission initiative. From initial conception to operationalization, the consultant worked with agency leaders to develop the functional model. This role continues through ongoing strategic consulting, ensuring the program evolves to include new features that drive statewide enrollment.

The Results: A Unified Talent Pipeline

The consultant’s leadership transformed a high-level executive vision into a functional roadmap for the state.

• Strategic Alignment: Established a single, unified vision for 26 institutions and multiple agencies, legally supported by the Top State for Talent Act.
• Operational Readiness: Provided the state with the necessary technical documentation and procurement framework to secure a full-featured Career Navigation platform.
• Sustainable Growth: Secured the "connective tissue" between agencies, ensuring that Georgia’s educational infrastructure directly feeds into its record-breaking economic development wins.