Episode
Ep. 88 - Brian Clark: Building RISD's Digital Future at Scale
- Podcast
- The Signal
- Published
- May 22, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1808
- Processing state
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Summary
What happens when a prestigious art and design school has over a hundred siloed websites, each with its own content management system, hosting arrangement, and visual identity—many of them orphaned and unmaintained? You get a digital governance nightmare. But you also get a rare opportunity to rebuild from first principles. In this episode, Jeff Dillon welcomes Brian Clark, Senior Director of Digital Experience at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Brian shares the remarkable story of how he led the consolidation of RISD's fragmented digital ecosystem—from 100+ disparate sites to a unified, design-driven, user-centric platform built on Drupal. He explains why this wasn't just a technical project but an organizational and cultural one, requiring years of relationship-building, transparent communication, and strategic alignment with the institution's broader brand refresh. Brian also offers a grounded perspective on AI in higher ed, explaining why RISD chose to implement AI-powered search as a "practical layer" to achieve existing goals around quality and access—not as a shiny add-on. He discusses how conversational search is giving his team unprecedented visibility into what students, parents, and donors are actually asking, and why that insight is "gold." Finally, he reflects on his unique career path from book publishing to agency work to higher ed, and how the principle "at the end of the wire, there's a person" has guided his approach to digital experience for over two decades. For anyone responsible for digital strategy, web governance, or user experience at a college or university, this episode is essential listening. Key Takeaways Governance Fragmentation Is a Real Institutional Risk: RISD accumulated over 100 siloed websites due to a lack of governance, c…