Data Management

We've included some sample project ideas below. We encourage users to mix-and-match components from various departments for the best cross functional project experience. In all cases, we customize the projects based on company goals and student learning objectives. 

• Company Data Collection Inventory and Mapping

  1. What is the product and business model?
  2. How is the business organized from an organizational perspective?
  3. What main systems does the company use to organize and execute?
  4. What data is produced by the system as a result?
  5. What strategic goals does the data help address?
  6. What would flow chart of all the systems look like? What are the key data inputs and outputs within each system? How do they all connect to one another?

• Create New Metrics (and KPIs) Using Company Data

  1. How can data from multiple sources be analyzed, organized, or visualized to provide more insight to internal and/or external users?
  2. Are there other potential use cases for the company’s data?
  3. What other data points would be useful to capture in order improve the quality and/or relevance of insights?  
  4. What metrics would be best to use in order to showcase potential benefits and use cases?

• Build a Sample Dashboard

1. 1. What company data is available? How reliable is that data?
   2. How can data from multiple sources be analyzed, organized, or visualized to provide more insight to internal and/or external users?
   3. Can you organize these key pieces of data into a preliminary dashboard?
   4. What procedure is required to keep the dashboard up-to-date? Are there any tools that could help with this process?

Marketing

We've included some sample project ideas below. We encourage users to mix-and-match components from various departments for the best cross functional project experience. In all cases, we customize the projects based on company goals and student learning objectives. 

• Industry Marketing Benchmarking Analysis

  1. What is the company's target demographic, product, and business model?
  2. What is the customer’s problem and how the company's product or service is solving that problem?
  3. How would you compare the company's products with the rest of the providers in the industry? Pay close attention to how other companies are marketing their products and positioning the brands.
  4. How would you compare the company’s marketing performance to competitors?
  5. What improvements would you recommend based on your assessment?
• Marketing Strategy Impact Analysis
  1. Examine the company's past marketing strategies. What worked? What did not? How would you showcase progress over time?
  2. Compile data into a visualization to track trends of successful and less successful strategies.
  3. Compare the company's marketing tactics with competitors to showcase what works effectively - or not effectively - with certain customer demographics
  4. What other marketing strategies could be used to benefit the company?
  5. What technologies could be involved in different marketing strategies? How can you use them most effectively? How would you measure success?

• Marketing Strategy Development

• 1. What are the company's past marketing strategies? What worked? What did not? How would you showcase progress over time?
  2. What is the customer’s perception of the company’s brand, product, and services?
  3. Propose 2-3 digital, experiential, or social, marketing strategies for the company to consider. Assess cost, reach, mediums, and any other components needed for a full understanding of this investment.
  4. Select one campaign and develop a road-map that will prepare the company to launch your campaign. Keep in mind timing, required resources (budget, people, etc.), projected results, and how you would measure ROI.

• Customer Brand Perception Analysis

  1. Does the company assess their brand perception at all? If so, what do you find interesting about the process or findings?
  2. Conduct structured customer interviews to gain a better understanding of their customers’ preferences, purchasing habits, and decision-making processes. Consider: Demographics, Discovery Channels, and their Product Aptitude
  3. Suggest a new effective process to collect more customer data on brand perception and customer experience.

• Marketing Mix Assessment & Recommendations

  1. Consider a 360 marketing approach when deciding the appropriate channels to utilize. What is the current marketing mix for the company? Analyze where the company spends the most and where the company performs bests.  
  2. Propose an alternative marketing mix for the company that you think will work best for the product, industry, and customer type. Where should the company allocate resources to generate better performance? Consider paid advertising, social, display, content, guerrilla , experiential, affiliate, partnerships, etc.
  3. What are the costs and benefits of using your strategy? What are the key risks and costs? Compare these risks with potential reach and benefit.

Sales & Business Development

• Industry Sales Benchmarking Assessment

1. 1. Familiarize yourself with the company product and business model.
   2. Create a comprehensive list of key competitors and industry stakeholders that sell similar products and/or services. Compare your host company with competitors in the following areas: pricing, features, services, regionality, customer demographics, etc.
   3. Who are the biggest competitors and how do they stack up against the company's performance? What do the biggest competitors in the space tell you about the industry?
   4. Do any companies present interesting opportunities for partnerships?
   5. What additional channels can the company tap in order to scale more effectively?

• Sales Process Assessment

1. 1. How has the company’s business model change over time? What has changed about the product, service, and team?
   2. What is the current status of the sales process within the company. Do you think this is more or less effective than previously? How does the team feel about the sales process and overall performance?
   3. Where does the company hope to be in 1-3-5 years from a sales perspective? How will the sales process, team, and structure need to change in order to address these changes?
   4. How satisfied are the current customers with the product or service?
   5. Craft a survey and administer customer interviews to help identify where the company can improve. Pay close attention to how the company may be able to provide additional value to existing customers.

• Prioritizing Sales Initiatives

• 1. What is the company’s sales strategy? How many different lines of business exist? Are they separated by different products and services or divisions?
  2. What lines if business are providing the most revenue for the company currently? How was this book of business built originally? How does the company expect for this to grow over time?
  3. What new sales opportunities are on the table? Is the company prioritizing this sales initiative? What do you think the potential is for this new line of business?
  4. Are there alternative ways to sell that the company hasn't considered? Would they be more effective? What data do you have to support your reasoning?
  5. How would you prioritize the sales team’s time and resources with regards to the sales plan?

• Inside vs. Outside Sales Strategy Assessment

  1. What’s the difference between an inside and outside sales strategy? What  has the company tried to-date? How effective was that process? What types of results did it yield? What resources were required? Can you measure the ROI and growth rate?
  2. How could you adapt the sales process to include either more inside OR outside sales tactics?
  3. How would you go about implementing this sales strategy? Do you think it would produce better results?
  4. What goals would you set for the new team over the next 3-6 months and/or 1-3 years? How would you measure success?

Software Development

We've included some sample project ideas below. We encourage users to mix-and-match components from various departments for the best cross functional project experience. In all cases, we customize the projects based on company goals and student learning objectives. 

• Software Design

1. 1. Who are the key stakeholders and what are the business requirements? Map this out as user stories or flow charts.
   2. Design a wire frame that showcases the flow from screen to screen.
   3. What are the technical requirements? How long would this take to build? What key types of engineers would be required to build out the whole product?
   4. How would this software be integrated into the company’s current product or operations? How would you train stakeholders on how to use the software?

• Software Development

1. 1. What are the specifications for the software? Who are the key stakeholders and what are the business requirements? Map this out as user stories or flow charts.
   2. Design a wire frame that showcases the flow from screen to screen.
   3. Begin developing the software. Establish ways to ensure the quality and accuracy of what you’re building. Ensure this matches the company core team’s process.
   4. Test the software out with stakeholders in order to ensure it runs as expected. Make tweaks that are required.
   5. Deploy new software including annotations to the code. Provide third-party training modules for the new software if needed.

• User Experience Review

1. 1. What software does the company currently use? How do their systems currently interact with one another? How well does it function?
   2. How well-designed is the user experience? What types of challenges are you encountering when trying to navigate through the software?
   3. Administer a user experience test with current and prospective customers. What key themes emerge?
   4. What recommendations would you suggest when it comes to improving the overall user experience?

• Software Testing and Maintenance

1. 1. What software does the company currently use? What are the key languages? How are the systems organized?
   2. How would you go about testing the company’s current technology? Is the company currently testing the software? If so, how well documented is that procedure? If not, how can you begin assembling a process plan for software testing?
   3. Are there any recommendations related to improving the software?