Springboard

The Data Science Intensive course at Springboard turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.  It brings together a good collection of content and exercises to allow students to adapt a technical background to current data science skills and tools. 

When I applied, I didn't appreciate how beneficial the mentoring structure is in building both knowledge and confidence.  Besides being very helpful with the technical curriculum when I get stuck, we also spend time talking about the data science industry as a whole to help prepare for my job search once I get through the rest of the course. 

The Data Analytics for Business course had :-

1)Great content- the case submission every alternate week kept me on the track. Being an analytical thinker,I read the material and jumped straight to the case assignment due.

During the weekly mentor call, I discussed my problem solutions and approach with my Mentor who was very helpful.She gave me great feedback and examples from her job which I inculcated in my final submission.

2)The weekly mentor calls kept me accountable to always be working on the course content. That is the best part about this course.

Great experience. Would highly recommend this course!

 

You might be wondering how someone with no background in tech decided to enroll in a UX design course. I was an Area Manager with Costco for 5 years, 9 years with them in total, and I just started to get desperate; looking for a way out. One of my close friends has been successful in his career, and he is now a Talent Coordinator (or something like that. it doesn't even sound like a real job). We were hanging out and I was venting about my dislike for my career choice, then he suggested that I look into UX design. We went to college together, and we both have a degree in visual arts, so he knew I had creativity in me. He even recommended Springboard. 

The more I read about UX, the more I felt like I was already doing it, in a way. I worked in an area where I was consistently redisigning the customer's shopping experience... physically. The concept came very naturally to me, and I felt confident that I could apply it to mobile and web design, so I enrolled. 

It seems that the staff at Springboard are very open and very helpful. I never had an email that went unanswered. My mentor was very positive, encouraging and understanding. Through the first half of the course, I was very motivated. I didn't fully understand the first project, a harvard design challenge, which was to "redesign the gift-giving experience." I thought to myself, "Aren't gifts supposed to be a surprise? Why would I interview someone about the gift they want?" It wasn't until I forced myself through the project that I got a clearer understanding of what to do. When I moved on to my own project idea is when the wheels started to really turn. 

There are a lot of articles to read and a lot of videos to watch; all with important information, most are very boring and monotone. I suppose it's tough to find highly skilled UX designers with a lot of charisma... Anyway, I always had questions, and I always emailed my mentor about them. He always replied with an answer, but sometimes it was better to discuss on our weekly video chat. 

The process of UX was new to me, so even though I really didn't like it, I was excited about it. There were so many new terms and unfamiliar ideas, so it was a challenge. At some points, I felt like many aspects of UX were a bit pretentious or unnecessary, but that's coming from me; a person who is new to this world. 

I've never been fully motivated to do research, conduct interviews or gather data. I have done these things in the past, but only because they were part of the job. In UX, that IS the job. Still, I went ahead and spoke with family, friends, co-workers and even posted in the Springboard Community on Google+ for help. It turned out that I enjoyed creating surveys and gathering data. I just don't like talking to people (haha). Even in the Springboard Community I felt somewhat uncomfortable because it seemed like all the members where overwhelmingly positive. It was either that, or they were faking it, and both ideas were a turn-off to me. However, I can't complain too much because many of them did participate in my surveys and things and even provided feedback. So, if I ever didn't thank you, then just let me do it now. 

My favorite part of this course was the actual designing. I enjoy sketching, and it turns out that I love the Sketch program (I paid $100 for it, one time payment, worth it). I've never used it before, but I picked it up really quick. My mentor was legitimately impressed with my first round of wireframes. This part of the course is where I put the most effort in, where I spent the most time, and somehow where I started to lose motivation. The work became very tedious and repetitive, but I suppose that is the case with most things. Again, I pushed through. I eventually had a testable wireframe flow that I uploaded to InVision. Once I started to get feedback from that, my motivation went back up. I guess it's nice to see some sort of result after putting in a lot of work. 

I designed two flows for my mobile app project, my mentor approved them, and then I moved on to create a presentation. You can view my Capstone Project here. 

Where am I now?

Well, just before I started the course I had demoted myself from my management position. I was headed that direction regardless, because I was unhappy/unfulfilled, but it would've been really tough to work a 10-hour day, come home exhausted, and focus even harder on my course work. So now I was in a position with much less stress and more energy to dedicate to the course.

Things just seemed to fall into place. In my last week with Springboard, I was brought into a new position. It wasn't exactly a promotion, but it was new and I enjoyed the work. It was an undiscovered territory for Costco, so it was up to me to figure out what the position entailed. It turns out that my newfound UX knowledge played a big part in my new position. I was creating spreadsheets, gathering data, talking to members about their needs and just doing a lot of brainstorming in general. I've been in this positions for 3 months so far, and I'm actually enjoying it. 

I was the Merchandising Manager in my warehouse, which is senior level. My annual salary was $68,500, my shift started at 2:00am, and I my days off were Wednesday and Sunday. I am now the Volume Sales Coordinator, I make $24/hour with a bi-annual bonus of $2,500, and I work Monday-Friday starting at 5:00am. I make less money, but I'm much happier.

In the end, I am glad I took this course, and I'm glad I have this experience under my belt. However, I don't see myself applying for jobs in UX. I just don't think I can be a functional part of that type of work environment. Although, I think this course would be exponentially better if it helped to get you actual experience in the field; even an unpaid part-time internship. My idea of the work environment is a total assumption. I, and most students, would benefit greatly from a real-world experience in the field without a full committment on the student's part, as well as the employer's. Regardless, the experience that I gained here is something that I hope to use if/when one of my creative endeavors come to fruition.  

 

It was only last year, when I switch from Architecture to UX Design. Although I was familiar with the concept, I didn't know anything about the tools & process when it came to the digital application of UX. I started online, reading and watching anything UX related. I signed up for different online classes and managed to learn the techniques to the point that I was able to finish my first passion UX Process.

Six month into my learning path, I found myself confused and not sure of anything I have learned. It was at that point that I realized in order to move on, I need to bridge the gap between my gained knowledge and its application in real world projects. Springboard bridged that gap for me. It gave me structure, discipline and a proven path to follow in order to materialize my visions. 

One month into my springboard journey I started working with startups, and I can't emphasize the value of having a mentor, who worked with me on specific projects in hand. My mentor not only helped me with the technical part of the projects, but also guided me through must have conversations with my clients.  

Signing up for Springboard, was one of the best decisions that I have made and as a result I got to be a cofounder of two startups, doing what I love and being confident about it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I had been interested in getting into Data Science for a while and was looking for an online course that would enable me to study at my own pace while also working full-time. I was choosing between the Springboard Data Science Intensive course and the Udacity Nanodegree...what ultimately tipped me in favour of the Springboard course was the opportunity to have weekly video calls with an industry mentor.

Overall I was very satisfied with my decision to enroll in the course and found it worthwhile and good-value-for-money.   I think I ended up taking a little longer than the 'average' amount of time to complete the course, however this was my own decision and ultimately enabled me to dedicate more time to my capstone project as well as study some extra-curricular materials under the guidance of my mentor.   Regarding the course content, I thought that the selection of materials was in general very good, especially given the attempt to squeeze such a large amount of material into a short amount of time. I particularly enjoyed the Machine Learning and Data Storytelling materials from Harvard CS 109. Probably the one area where I would have enjoyed a deeper dive is in Statistics, particularly including some Bayesian methods.   In terms of the level of skills or knowledge required, all my programming experience was self-taught, however in general I did not encounter any significant problems and was able to complete all of the course requirements without difficulty.   In summary I think the Data Science Intensive course is a great introduction to Data Science. It certainly does not 'make' you into a Data Scientist but I think it really helps to lay the foundations for understanding the Data Science landscape and beginning to work on related problems.

Perhaps more than anything, it also helped me to grow in confidence and realise that Data Science is not just necessarily for people with PhDs, but is a field that can be accessible to people from varied backgrounds. I already find myself using techniques and tools that I learned during the course to be more effective in my work.

I initially signed up for this course because I felt that while I had analytical aptitude, I lacked the opportunity to demonstrate it in my current work environment at the time.   This course turned out to be exactly what I needed to turn that situation around for me.

The case study nature of this course, along with my mentors support, gave me what felt like actual on-the-job experience.  I now feel confident on job interviews that I have valid analytical projects/experiences under my belt, both to talk to and to draw from....projects that I learned from, projects that I made mistakes on but still recovered from, projects and time-frames that were challenging yet achievable, some projects that I liked more than others, and definitely projects that I am proud of accomplishing.

Additionally, with this course, I started off thinking it was my technical skill set that I wanted/needed to build up in order to keep myself marketable in the workforce.  The best thing about this program is that it shifted my focus to developing a problem-solving mindset above all else.  Then, the technical skillset became the second nature skill that supported the objective of modelling a solution to a busines problem in order to help a business achieve a business goal important to them.

Overall, while this course does require a dedicated effort, I have no regrets whatsoever in my decision, first to enroll, then to follow through in completing the course, and now to recommend it to others.

For a few years I had been considering switing from an Art Director/graphic designer position to a UX design focused role. Because I was pretty familliar with the industry and process I wanted a course that would teach me enough to give me the confidence and some portfolio pieces to actually apply for UX positions, without having to go back to college. 

It took me about 3 months to complete the course and because I was really diligent about updating my portfolio constantly with new work , I was able to land a job as a UX designer before completing my last week of the class!

The course curriculum is structured in a way that naturally walks you through the UX design process. You definitely have to stay motivated enough to sign on everyday and complete your tasks. The content gives you a really solid foundation of the UX feild, some which I knew and a lot I didnt. I really appreciated that as new content came out into the world the course integrated it in. 

My mentor was probably the best part! She was extremely knowledgeable Not only did I look forward to speaking with her every week, but I learned so much from her that wasnt included in the curriculum. She gave me the guidance and critique I needed to take my projects to a more professional level. 

 

I was looking for ways to break into the UX field and knew I needed a portfolio to be considered for a position. I didn't really know how to go about it but when I discovered Springboard helped build a portfolio with a mentor, I took the opportunity. It's very reasonably priced especially since you can finish at your own pace. I took two months to reduce cost and simulate a real world scenario of being on a deadline. 

UX Design Office hours were very helpful gleaning anything I can from the mentor interviews, general Q & A's, and design challenges. Fabio and Emily are very engaging and helpful. I still participate after graduating and I learn something new during every session. Catherina was an awesome student advisor as well always prompt in her responses and flexible when needing more time on things. 

Biggest asset is the Mentorship which is mostly where the value in the course is. I was fortunate to get paired up with a great mentor with lots of experience. He was gracious enough to extend our calls longer than the average of 30 minutes. We built great rapport and he really helped guide me in the right direction through letting me figure it out on my own with the questions he would ask instead of telling me how I should do it. 

The course definitely helped lay a foundation of UX where I can continually build on it. I've received responses from companies and have done a few interviews so it has made a difference. Just put in the hard work and it'll show.

I often read online articles on books relating to graphic design and UX but it can be hard to find really great trustworthy content. Springboard took that pain away by curating a well rounded basis for UX designers. However the true value to this course is the one-on-one mentorship calls and the group office hours calls. This was a huge added value to gain insights from industry professionals with many years experience.

As a design industry professional I wanted a course that would suit my existing level of knowledge to keep me engaged whilst delving further into UX, which Springboard has succeeded in. This course is a great option for complete beginers and for those who already have some intro knowledge.