IAAO: Developing a Strategic Roadmap for Educational and Designation Programs

The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) is both a national association and a body that provides designations and professional development programs for those responsible for commercial and residential real estate tax assessments. While their primary market is tax assessors in the United States, they also offer their assessments and designations internationally. IAAO asked the Springboard team to work with their Board and their Education team to create an inventory of knowledge and skills needed for their target market. This inventory is the strategic roadmap to evaluate all of IAAO’s educational programs, aligns to the national IAAO designations, and makes it possible for IAAO to become the world-wide market leader for the tax assessment profession. We first worked with the IAAO staff to prepare a working strategic plan to present to the IAAO Board in order to gain approval for the project. We then conducted interviews with key stakeholders, reviewed all of the existing IAAO materials and the designation requirements, and drafted a high-level initial mapping. With the mapping now complete, IAAO has a validated, comprehensive foundation of required skills for its profession that will drive all future educational and designation programming.