CASE STUDY • PROGRAM OPERATIONS
Program Operations &
Process Transformation
GitHub Education • Contract
Modernizing outdated processes, standardizing high-volume workflows, improving customer support operations, and building scalable infrastructure for an established education program.
IMPACT AT A GLANCE
THE SITUATION
An established program with operational infrastructure that needed to catch up.
When I joined GitHub Education as a contractor, I entered an established program with significant opportunities to modernize its operational infrastructure.
Core operating procedures and repositories were approximately two years out of date. Frequently used customer responses lived in a separate document rather than directly in Zendesk. Onboarding and renewal reviews lacked consistent documentation standards, renewal reporting could miss institutions requiring review, and customer tickets regularly exceeded the team's 48-hour response SLA.
Rather than treating each issue as an isolated problem, I began looking at the program as an interconnected operating system: documentation, decision-making, customer communication, data, escalation paths, and reporting all needed to support one another.
STANDARDIZING OPERATIONS
Turning outdated procedures into usable operating standards.
The Challenge
Existing onboarding and renewal documentation did not consistently provide reviewers with clear, current guidance for completing high-volume program work.
My Approach
I rebuilt the procedures into clearer quick-start reference guides that defined the objective of each workflow, required review steps, decision criteria, documentation expectations, and escalation pathways.
When I encountered processes that were ambiguous or poorly defined, I worked with management to establish a shared operating interpretation rather than allowing individual reviewers to make inconsistent assumptions.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT OPERATIONS
Moving customer communication into the team's actual workflow.
Frequently used customer responses were maintained in a separate document. Several contained grammatical issues, inconsistent language, or did not fully address the questions customers were asking.
I reviewed and rewrote the templates with an emphasis on professionalism, completeness, customer-facing language, consistency, and reducing unnecessary back-and-forth.
Once I received access to the Zendesk database, I transferred frequently used responses directly into Zendesk so the team could access standardized messaging within the system where the work was already taking place.
Manual Response Process
External document → locate template → copy → modify → respond
Integrated Zendesk Workflow
Zendesk → select standardized response → contextualize → respond
reduction in open ticket backlog following improvements to prioritization, documentation, standardized responses, and escalation pathways.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Designing processes for changing business needs.
Updating documentation was not enough if the underlying process itself no longer met the needs of the program.
During my review of existing SOPs, I evaluated the underlying workflows to identify unnecessary manual steps, inconsistent decision-making, and opportunities for greater operational efficiency.
I developed improvement proposals and collaborated with management to align process changes with evolving program requirements, creating clearer standards for execution and more scalable day-to-day operations.
LEADERSHIP GROWTH
From program administrator to operational lead.
Within my first several months supporting GitHub Education, I was promoted from Education Program Administrator to Team Lead, expanding my responsibility for program execution and operational improvement.
I became a primary escalation owner for complex program issues, a resource for process interpretation, and a point of coordination across internal stakeholders.
My responsibilities evolved from executing established workflows to helping shape how the program operated, including prioritization, process standardization, issue resolution, and continuous improvement.
MY APPROACH
Understand the system. Identify friction. Establish standards. Build for scale.
This transformation went beyond updating individual workflows. By connecting process documentation, operational reporting, team enablement, and escalation management, I helped establish a more consistent, measurable, and scalable operating model.