Empowering Data-Driven Decisions
As a graduate teaching assistant for Associate Professor Monica Tremblay, Tim Donis, MSBA ’18 contributed to the data analysis used in the recently published research paper titled “Basic Classes in Conceptual Modeling: Theory and Practical Guidelines.”
The paper, which was included in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, is the product of Dr. Tremblay and her colleagues Arturo Castellanos, Roman Lukyanenko, and Binny Samuel as they sought use conceptual modeling to improve the development of healthcare software interfaces.
This was the first project of this nature Donis worked on academically or professionally, and the lessons he learned from the semester-long process as well as from Dr. Tremblay have been vital to his success as a data analyst following graduation.
“My role was to review the transcripts of focus groups where people within the IT and data space were engaging with healthcare software and trying to convey their understanding of how it worked,” he explained. “I went in as a blank slate looking at what the focus group participants were trying to accomplish, and identifying key insights and recurring themes.”
The ambiguous nature of the research was different from any assignment Donis had as an undergraduate student. Like many real-world professional situations, he stepped into a project that was already in motion and had to quickly adapt, learn, and execute against the team’s objectives.
“These skills have proven to be very applicable because I had to catch up and understand what the goals were, what key outcomes were needed, and how the team planned to get to the end result,” he said. “At first, I was scared to ask these questions but I gained confidence over time to look for clarification or more in-depth explanations. It has helped me a lot moving forward, especially as I work with C-level executives.”
Unlocking the Inner Data Analyst
A native of Falls Church in northern Virginia, Donis first looked at William & Mary as a senior in high school.
“My parents told me that Virginia had such great in-state schools that my choices for college were to go in-state, in-state, or in-state,” he laughed. “I visited William & Mary with my mom in September of my senior year and it was the first college campus I toured where I really felt like I belonged.”
Donis enrolled with the intent of pursuing a liberal arts degree, but after taking undergraduate economics and business analytics classes at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, he pivoted and applied to the business school at the end of his Sophomore year.
“I enjoyed computer science in high school and business analytics seemed to strike the balance between the concepts of computer science and the real-world applications of coding,” he said.
Donis ultimately majored in economics and earned his undergraduate degree in 2017, but not before applying to the then newly-launched M.S. in Business Analytics (MSBA) program.
“I thought it would be a great opportunity to stay in-state and get a really great education in a field I had a growing passion in,” he explained.
Over the summer break between undergraduate and graduate school, Donis backpacked through Europe on a six-week solo trip. He learned about the teaching assistant position in the Business Analytics department one night when he checked his email following a concert in London.
“The job posting was closing in a few hours and after a quick evaluation about what I wanted to gain from my graduate school experience, I realized I needed a shift in my focus and take on projects that would keep me busy in between classes. I thought about how I wanted that shift to look and applied for the position,” he said.
Donis was awarded the job and assigned to the then-newly hired Dr. Tremblay, who moved her research project over to the Mason School when she accepted the position at William & Mary. Donis was assigned to conducting qualitative design field research for the project in addition to typical teaching assistant duties like grading completed coursework and providing technical support to students.
The transition to graduate school was smooth for Donis. He moved back to campus into the same house he had shared with friends as an undergraduate. He also kept up with extracurricular activities such as his weekly on-campus radio show during which he and several friends shared new music as it was released every Thursday night.
“One of the biggest changes for me, however, was that I wasn’t taking classes in any other department other than the business school,” he explained. “I learned from my liberal arts education to stretch my mind so I had these natural urges to explore a little more past exactly what we were learning in school. I applied a different lens to everything I was learning in the business analytics program and pushed myself to know more past the material in class.”
Driving Decision-Making with Data
A pet project that Donis worked on leveraging his newly acquired business analytics skills involved his radio show. He built a machine algorithm to predict what song somebody was going to like on Spotify and used that data to drive which music he and his colleagues played during their weekly show.
“I was able to mix what I was interested in with what I was learning in school which was amazing,” he said.
That project combined with the work he did as a research assistant for Dr. Tremblay helped Donis reinforce the lessons he was learning in class and provide him with context for real-world applications.
“I learned through my MSBA experience that data empowers people. When you can hand data to somebody that’s good, clean, and usable, people can learn from it and make better decisions. Working with Dr. Tremblay was not only amazing professionally, but personally, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do work that had a real-life implication and real-life impact,” he said.
Following graduation from the MSBA program, Donis took on a part-time consulting project where he demonstrated the value machine learning and data mining could bring to low-power applications in a government environment.
“I was able to use a lot of the technical skills I learned just a few months prior immediately and put together a presentation that was informative. It reinforced a lot of things I learned in the program and helped to propel me forward in my career,” he said.
Donis then accepted a Data Analyst position with Redbox in Chicago and quickly took charge of large-scale projects such as developing the data pipeline for an affiliate marketing program and migrating legacy software to the cloud.
“I was more than technically ready to assume the responsibilities required of me in my position at Redbox,” he said. “The exposure I had to things in the MSBA program allowed me to accomplish things that typically would have been handled by an entire team. I got to work on so many projects which helped me find myself and I am excited to pursue opportunities that are related to the actual movement and operational side of data.”
Through a referral from a fellow William & Mary alumna, Donis recently accepted a position with CapTech Venture Inc. as a Senior Consultant with a data engineering focus.
“I’m excited to expand my technical acumen but I also haven't written off the possibility of pursuing more education past my master’s,” he said. “At the end of the day, the best way to tell a story is to put the data in the hands of the people who need to make choices and let them understand it. Any additional skills or knowledge I can acquire to maximize my ability to do that effectively will be a worthwhile investment.”
To read “Basic Classes in Conceptual Modeling: Theory and Practical Guidelines” in its entirety, visit the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.
