Written by Dorothy Alexander, senior at Birmingham-Southern College and Fall 2021 Intern at MotionMobs

In August, I started an internship with MotionMobs as part of the Data Science program at Birmingham-Southern College. As a part of the program, I completed a 12-week summer intensive program the summer prior at BSC through a partnership with Flatiron School. At the end of the course, BSC hosted a data science fair where I showcased my final project and interviewed with a variety of companies that had also partnered with the Data Science program for internships.  Through the interview process I was paired with MotionMobs. I was excited to have the opportunity to learn and grow from this company and had the opportunity to work with them for 5 months during my fall semester. 

Diving into the Deep End

Over the fall semester, I had the opportunity to work with the MotionMobs consulting team on several client projects, including a couple in the healthcare space. The healthcare clients were particularly interesting to me as they related to my Health Administration focus. 

I started out doing research on the clients that I would be working with so I was able to understand their mission and goals they were striving to achieve by working with MotionMobs. The first big project I worked on was a company that was hoping to make vaccination records more easily accessible. I was able to work one on one with this company in order to make suggestions on the user experience and opportunities for growth. 

The next client I worked with was also a healthcare-related company. This company’s goal was to consolidate the patient’s medical records into a common portal where any clinician could pull up their past medical history, creating a more streamlined access. This company also wanted to make their program visually appealing and readable for all users, including physicians, care teams, and patients. 

Motivating Users

In healthcare technology and beyond, I learned it is important to drive users to want to use the apps that companies create on a regular basis. The more people using the app means the more data the company has at their discretion. When the company can look at usage trends, they can tailor the app to be more user-friendly. This will allow for users to be able to more easily accomplish targeted actions like logging personal information, or offer new functions creating visualizations to retain users.

How to Measure Success

When looking at the data given from the app, produced by the users themselves, it is important to note what changes within the app lead to success. It is crucial to pay close attention to when features within the app change,how those changes  influence users. Sometimes companies assume a certain modification to the app  will make it easier to use, but actually cause more issues for the users, decreasing user satisfaction.

Measuring new features or changes  is imperative, whether the outcome was good or bad. The mission of the company and the app should always be focused on the users: What value does the app offer to the users and why do they choose to engage? 

The future is data-driven, and being able to analyze the data coming in from a company is an important trait to have. That data is crucial when establishing businesses. Understanding data is important to be able to measure true and unfiltered success. The data taken from companies and their users shows which next steps for development are most valuable. For example, if a company wants to focus  on their app usage and the data shows that users only get on the app for an average of 5 seconds, then the data demonstrates that there is a disconnect. This disconnect could be because users lose interest and are not finding value or understanding the app. 

Looking Ahead

My big takeaways from working on these projects with MotionMobs were how important communication skills are in conversations with one business to another. When working closely with a company the expectation was that the data would be analyzed and turned around quickly to communicate what we learned about their company. This is sometimes not an easy task, especially when it is an outcome the company is not expecting or it is not favorable for the company. 

I also learned how to use different words to explain complicated terms. The executives that hired MotionMobs, hired MotionMobs to help them understand their data and how to learn from it. It is MotionMobs’ job to explain and educate these companies as well as come up with actionable solutions to help these companies grow.  

I am graduating from Birmingham-Southern College in May 2022. I am in the process of applying to graduate school for Hospital Administration. With the application process comes an interview portion, and by working with MotionMobs I have learned to be more confident and more concise with my words. I truly believe I learned more than just data science during my time interning with MotionMobs.