Miva Open University was launching a fully online degree program in Nigeria and needed a Student Information System that could handle enrollment, records, and academic workflows from day one, and scale rapidly.
Academic operations were manual: spreadsheets for student records, email-based transcript requests, and disconnected LMS data. Growth from 1 to 2,000 students within a year was at risk without a system of record.
- Centralize student records and academic history
- Automate transcript generation and delivery
- Integrate the SIS with the LMS and admissions funnel
- Build for 10x scale without re-platforming
Shadowed registrars, admissions officers, and faculty to map every step of the student lifecycle. Interviewed 20+ students to understand friction in onboarding, course registration, and transcript requests.
Sequenced delivery into three releases: (1) records and enrollment, (2) transcript automation, (3) LMS and reporting integrations. Each release shipped behind a feature flag with operational dry-runs before cutover.
- Wrote the PRD and prioritized a thin-slice MVP for the first 50 students
- Partnered with engineering on data modeling for transcripts and grades
- Designed transcript-request and approval flows with the registrar
- Coordinated rollout, change management, and training across departments
Migrating live student data without losing academic history, while keeping the registrar's office operational during peak admissions windows.
The SIS scaled enrollment from 1 to 2,000 students, cut transcript processing time by ~70%, and became the single source of truth for academic operations.
- Thin slices win when the system of record is critical: ship the spine, then the limbs
- Operational stakeholders are co-designers, not reviewers
- Automation only sticks when the manual fallback is intentionally removed