Back in 2015, in looking to break into data analytics as a career, I look a course from Springboard called Foundations of Data Science. The course involved weekly check-ins with my data science mentor as well as a capstone project to put my skills to the test.

For the capstone project, I used publicly available NFL data to analyze the effectiveness of certain play types. For context about American football, a team has four opportunities (“downs”) to move the ball 10 yards. If a team does not obtain those yards within three plays, they will usually use the fourth down to return the ball to the other team in worse field position. For this reason, third down is extremely important. I looked at the effectiveness of two broad play types – passing and rushing – and their relative effectiveness in obtaining a first down.

This post covers my career prior to Springboard, my motivation for joining the course, and how it helped me in my journey. Big thanks to Julia and the entire Springboard team for spotlighting my story.

Interested in reading more? The full post can be found here.