I mentioned in the last post that I was starting a class this week, and we had our first meeting to go over the syllabus and to start off with our projects. Basically, we’re going to be coming up with our own project for portfolio purposes for the next eight weeks.

Unfortunately, the thoughts I had came by with the feedback, “Maybe think a little smaller.”

This, uh, isn’t much of a surprise to me, nor is it the first time this has happened! I have a lot of big ideas, and I tend to think in a large scope. This can be a problem in a lot of ways, if I can’t think of the smaller things that are also important, or littler details that would yield results as well.

Considering I only have a couple of months to put together this project and flesh it out, I need something that won’t overwhelm me with all the different tasks and things that need to be done and learned to do a good job.

Preferably, I need to find something that will be in line with the jobs I’m interested in or applying for. Unfortunately, that casts a pretty big net. Some of the industries I’m interested in are wine, non-profit, marketing tech, and healthcare. I’d jump into anything with eagerness, but those four are in the top for me. That helps me narrow down what my problem should be that I’ll work on.

I also have to take into consideration the kind of data that will be available. Doing customer analysis, especially in the case of marketing tech, shouldn’t be difficult to find data on, and it aligns with what I’m interested in and the jobs I’m applying to.

It helps that it feels less overwhelming, or it feels smaller, like I’m able to get a better handle on it and what it’ll require.

Coming from the angle of customer analysis with wine and non-profits could help businesses in those industries as well, depending on the question or the problems they’re facing. For example, who tends to drink the kind of wine that the vineyard is putting out, where are they most successful and where could they use help?

Non-profits I would say would come at it from the angle of, who is their client base, and are they helping them adequately? Though that gets into a larger question that can branch off in different directions: how do you measure success, is it based on qualitative results or quantitative?

I think if I need to think small, I’ll go with customer analysis for a marketing tech firm. From here, I’ll look for data, and then model my question from there.

This post has been a little longer than my normal ones, but I appreciate you taking the time to sit and read through all of this. Next week I’m hoping to have something more to add to my portfolio along the lines of a separate project not associated with the class.

Thank you again for tuning in, and until next time, may all of your data cleaning be swift and simple!