Why Product Thinking Matters More Than Ever in Higher Education
Mar 13, 2026Higher education is full of projects.
What it often lacks is product thinking.
In this episode, Andrea Dunn shares how shifting from a project mindset to a product mindset changed the way she led complex initiatives—from course materials to identity systems to enterprise platforms.
Projects ask, Did we deliver?
Products ask, Did it actually work for the people using it?
That distinction matters.
Andrea describes how agile practices—short cycles, feedback loops, and prioritization—allowed her teams to respond to real needs rather than static plans. Instead of assuming the solution was right because it was approved, her teams watched how students, faculty, and staff actually experienced the system.
One example stands out: identifying repeated service desk questions not as user error, but as signals of design failure. When a process repeatedly confuses people, the system—not the user—needs to change.
This is product thinking in action.
For leaders in higher education, this approach offers relief from an impossible standard of perfection. You don’t have to get everything right the first time. You do need to pay attention, iterate, and adapt.
Agile leadership isn’t about moving faster for the sake of speed. It’s about learning faster—so that effort leads to impact rather than exhaustion.
The payoff is sustainable momentum. Teams feel heard. Stakeholders feel respected. And leaders can make progress without burning out their people.
If your institution feels stuck in endless initiatives with unclear outcomes, this episode invites a powerful reframe: stop managing projects in isolation and start stewarding products that serve real humans.
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