Internal Platform Development Through AirTable
Engineering for Change (E4C) is a global organization dedicated to preparing, educating, and activating the international technical workforce to improve the quality of life of people and the planet.
In order to grow the organization, a centralized tool is required for its external activities to manage interactions with current and potential sponsors, strategically approach opportunities, and streamline operations across its various programs like mentor sourcing and fellow recruitment. At the same time, E4C requires a centralized tool to manage all internal activities in a way that allows for time tracking, assigning responsibilities and accountability, understanding resource allocation, building documentation, and activities tracking integrated into a daily workflow.
The primary objectives of this project were to develop a Customer Relationships Management (CRM) tool; a Program Management (PM) tool to improve communication across team members and leadership; and an External tool that allows collaboration with users outside the organization.
Research was conducted into the shortcomings of the existing system, and interviews were conducted with E4C staff and fellows to understand the process of improvement. The Fellow conducted several design sprints and tackled development bottlenecks, resulting in a recommendation to work with Airtable and JavaScript to create the respective platforms.
The Fellow developed a database that synchronizes bases for data accuracy across the organization and developed web application interfaces that connect users to the databases without exposing the raw data. The Fellow also implemented Automation, a Cloud Function that relieves the burden of users of manually inputting a range of information. Clear documentation of the implementation was developed, including video tutorials, database schemas, and analysis documents.
