Your Slate team needs clear responsibilities, time for training, and support from leadership. This article describes how to organize that work and review progress.
Setting priorities for Slate
Decide which institutional goals your Slate team will support. Use those goals to set project priorities and determine staffing needs.
Agree on who maintains shared data and how departments use it. Review data quality and user access regularly. Include reporting needs in project planning so staff can evaluate the results of their work.
Organizing support and administration
Support models
Choose a support model that fits how your departments work:
Centralized support: One team coordinates configuration, standards, and support across departments.
Departmental support: Specialists support the processes and staff in their departments.
Combined support: A central team maintains shared standards, while departmental specialists handle local needs.
Support responsibilities
Define where staff send questions and when a question moves to another support level:
First level: Staff answer routine questions.
Second level: Departmental specialists investigate process and configuration questions.
Third level: Technical staff investigate complex issues with integrations and database structure.
Decisions and change review
Assign responsibility for each process and its data. Establish a steering committee to resolve priorities that affect multiple departments.
Review planned changes before release. Record what will change, why the change is needed, its risks, and how to restore the previous configuration. Include permission checks and data reviews in this work.
Defining staff roles
“If you’re hiring a Slate Administrator, you’re not hiring just a skill set but really the person behind it. They should be curious, resourceful, and calm. They don’t need to know absolutely everything, but they should know at least the first steps to finding the answer.”
Yulia Korovikov
Associate Dean of Admissions & Director of Recruitment
Swarthmore College
Use these responsibilities to define roles for your team:
Slate administrator or CRM manager: Oversees configuration, governance, and user management. Coordinates work across departments and connects project priorities to institutional goals.
Technical lead or administrator: Designs workflows, automations, and API integrations. Maintains the technical configuration and investigates complex issues.
Data and reporting specialist: Creates dashboards, reports, and data visualizations to support decisions.
Business analyst or departmental Slate administrator: Works with departments to translate process requirements into Slate configurations. Trains staff and identifies improvements.
Hiring and development
Look for candidates who ask questions, investigate problems, and explain their work clearly. Staff should be able to teach others and consider the needs of the people who use their configurations.
Define responsibilities and decision authority for each role. Review compensation against the scope of the work. Set criteria for advancement from analyst to administrator roles, and include time for professional development.
Technical skills
Match technical development to each person's responsibilities. Relevant areas include:
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Queries and data analysis
Workflows, rules, and automations
APIs and integrations
Database structure, governance, and security
Planning professional development
Set learning goals with each staff member. The following schedule provides an example for the first year. Adjust the schedule and time allocations to the person's role and workload.
First 90 days: Learning the basics
Complete relevant Learning Lab courses.
Create short reference notes for tasks such as queries, rules, and portals.
Participate in the Slate Community Forums and community-led groups, such as Super Slate Technolutions Friends and the Slate Community Slack workspace.
Months 3 to 6: Applying skills
Allocate 4 to 6 hours each week for a departmental project. Have staff document the work and the Knowledge Base or Community Forums resources they used.
Months 6 to 9: Sharing work
Allocate 2 to 3 hours each week for community participation, plus time for events. Staff can prepare a Get Inspired post or a Slate Summit proposal and lead a 20-minute internal training session. Keep the presentation, post, or recording for future reference.
Months 9 to 12: Taking responsibility for an area
Assign responsibility for a specific area of Slate. Have the staff member lead one improvement each quarter, document local procedures, and help train new colleagues. Allocate 4 to 6 hours each week for this work.
Training budget
Include training costs, Slate Summit registration, and travel in the budget. Reserve work time for learning and for staff to apply what they learn.
“I’ve advised my VP that Slate Summit attendance should be considered part of our annual cost for using Slate. Most years we’ve been able to bring around 6 people — such a great opportunity to divide & conquer, growing our Slate knowledge and bonding as a team.”
Andrew Meyers
Director of Admissions Operations & Communications
Hope College
Supporting and retaining staff
Discuss workload, compensation, and development during regular staff reviews. Give staff authority to make decisions in their assigned areas, with clear limits on changes that require approval.
Learning time: Reserve 2 to 4 hours each week for Learning Lab, work with colleagues, or demonstrations.
Recognition: Acknowledge specific work in team meetings. Support staff who want to present at Slate Summit or contribute a Get Inspired post.
Career development: Set goals for the next 6, 12, and 18 months. Review progress and adjust responsibilities as skills develop.
Compensation: Review pay annually against responsibilities and market conditions.
Work arrangements: Consider hybrid or remote work opportunities.
“Retention comes down to three things: fair compensation, recognition, and professional growth”
Israel Chia
Director of Enrollment Technology and AnalyticsUniversity of the Pacific
Use a monthly 20-minute demonstration to share completed work and lessons learned. Give developing staff an opportunity to lead an area for a quarter with support from a mentor.
Reviewing priorities and progress
At your next planning meeting, confirm who is responsible for shared administration and each departmental area. Review the time available for training and the changes planned for release. Before adding another platform, assess whether Slate meets the requirement.
Track project completion time, rework caused by data or permission issues, and use of existing features. Review staff turnover and urgent fixes alongside these measures. Use the results to identify where staffing, training, or process changes are needed.