What I Do Know: Reflections from my fellowship at Perch
During my last blog post, I wrote about learning to be comfortable asking for help and saying “I don’t know.” Now that my fellowship at Perch has sadly come to an end, I would like to write about what I do know.
Bear with me as I go through a list of 4 skills, both hard and soft, I learned over the past eight weeks. Here we go!
- Using Microsoft Excel to create dynamic dashboards
My main project at Perch was creating dynamic sports science dashboards that could help athletic trainers easily decipher all of the data that Perch collects. The goal was to take the data and break it down into easily digestible, but still incredibly revealing, numbers and charts. The dashboards had to be intuitive, adaptable, and relatively fool proof. They had to clearly show an athlete’s progression and have just the right amount of variables so trainers are able to tailor the charts and calculations to the exact athletes, exercises, dates, weight ranges, sets, and row type desired without being overwhelmed by the amount of options. We also had to figure out what statistics are actually valuable to a trainer since there are thousands of ways to slice the collected data.
While determining what charts and stats to include in the dashboards was a long term brainstorming exercise that started prior to the introductory project meeting and continued throughout my entire internship (more on that to come), the main task was determining how to effectively use Excel tables, filters, formulas, pivot tables, chart customization, conditional formatting, and other tools.
To learn the ins and outs of Excel, I relied on a variety of online sources, as well as many of my Perch coworkers and a good amount of trial and error. If anyone needs inspiration and/or guidance creating a sports science dashboard, I highly recommend Adam Virgile’s tutorials. For more Excel tips and tricks, I also enjoyed Leila Gharani’s YouTube channel.
There will always be more Excel skills to learn, but I am confident that I know how to create a highly functional, intuitive, and dynamic dashboard on Excel.
2. Writing a simple blog after reading complex research articles
In addition to developing the sports science dashboards, I wrote three educational blogs for Perch’s website. Perch is a velocity based training product that is committed to providing education in addition to the best VBT training product on the market.
To contribute quality content to the blog, I read many research articles. It was my job to filter through these articles, determine an overall conclusion, and explain the major points in simple terms, all without the blog coming across dry.
As someone who geeks out about this kind of research and has also spent many hours of her life shortening papers after going way over the length requirements, my instincts are to include every single detail of every single article. If I find it interesting, surely everyone wants to know!
But this simply isn’t possible and general conclusions must be drawn. As I researched for and wrote more educational blogs, I became better at picking out the important information and summarizing in a blog post, all while promoting Velocity Based Training and Perch.
My blog post on muscle growth and VBT can be seen on the Perch website! The other two blogs will be posted on the same site in the coming weeks.
Now, I know how to efficiently read research articles and write a clear educational blog based on them.
3. Applying constructive criticism to a project I’m attached to
As I mentioned above, developing the Perch Sports Science Dashboards was my primary project at Perch, and I took full ownership of the task. I dove into YouTube tutorials and how-tos, learning everything I possibly could about Google Sheets and Excel. I sketched out exactly how I wanted the finished dashboard to look, and mulled over the stats and charts I should show. And then I went to work and created the dashboard on Excel over the course of about a week before formally presenting my first iteration to the rest of the business development team. I was met with very encouraging feedback, and some suggestions for improvement, as expected.
I applied the suggestions, and then we met again a few days later for the process to repeat itself:
“Wow this is amazing! This is coming along so well, but I think it would be better if you did this, this, and this.”
The cycle continued. These meetings were great brainstorming sessions, but also frustrating at times, especially as I became more attached to the product I was presenting.
I had just spent days implementing the last round of suggestions and now I need to scratch some of those charts or some of those statistics and do it all over again?
I had to remind myself that this cycle was a huge part of the product development process, especially at startups, and that I truly was bringing huge value to the company. We were all learning what statistics and charts were most important to a team athletic trainer, and the best, most intuitive way to present those. If my supervisors didn’t believe in my ability to implement the suggestions, they wouldn’t have been giving me so much responsibility on the product, or had as many ideas.
Once I realized this, and fully bought into it, I became even prouder of the dashboards I was creating. I can say with complete certainty that the final dashboard iteration is the one I’m the most proud of, and is the most useful one for our customers.
4. Startup culture is really cool
My sports science fellowship at Perch was my first exposure to a startup, and I absolutely loved the work environment. I really enjoyed the large role everyone played in the success of the company, and how close knit the teams are. Everybody is so passionate about what they’re working on, and so willing to help.
With the small number of employees, there is a minimal power imbalance between any two people. Each person has an important role and is vital to Perch’s success and future growth. With that, there is a lot of excitement and responsibility as you watch the brand go through both triumphs and rough patches. I felt a huge sense of pride working at Perch — I knew that everything I was working on would be used and help the company grow. I had a lot of autonomy, but also a great support system who I could easily approach with any question, comment, or concern.
I also enjoyed getting to know everyone that works at the company and the emphasis on community within Perch. Working with a puppy running around the office was also a huge perk, even if it meant my shoelaces were in constant danger!
Now that I have worked at a startup, I know that I would strongly consider another role at one.
In conclusion….
I loved my time at Perch, and learned so many valuable skills and lessons that I can take with me into future roles! Yes, I learned how to use Excel beyond simple math formulas and how to write educational blogs, but I also found new interests and opportunities within the sports technology industry.
I never considered data analytics and visualization as something I would find particularly invigorating, but those dashboards consumed me. I was so intent on making them the best they could possibly be, and was constantly considering better ways to tell the story of the big pile of data. I also never realized there was a way for me to combine my love of writing with my passion for sports science. I thought my journalism days were behind me, but at Perch I learned there are ample opportunities to combine sports technology with writing. My fellowship at Perch widened my horizons, and taught me that there are many places that I can see myself thriving in the sports technology industry.
So thank you, Perch, and WiST, I have a whole blog post about you coming soon!
