Springboard

With a wonderfully-planned curriculum, an extremely helpful support staff and continuous guidance from a professional mentor, I have learned so much!  And I actually had fun while learning.  Springboard has cultivated an active community of students and graduates.  I would recommend this course for anyone interested in a UX career or anyone who just wants to add UX Design to their skill set.  Ongoing mini projects help you apply what you have learned, and they add up to form a thorough capstone project.  I would recommend giving this course 2-3 months, so projects have a chance to fully form and are not rushed. Overall, a fantastic experience.

I took the Data Analytics for Business course this Fall, and it was easily the best career decision I've ever made. Nearly one month after the course ended I recieved a job offer to do data analytics at a consulting firm. Here's why I'm prepared for this job:

First off, my instructor was an analytics expert whose passion and patience is remarkable. All of the feedback I recieved was constructive, positive, and timely. Additionally, his advice on the job application/interview process made all the difference for me. 

Second, the course material is challenging, applicable to "real world" analytics work, and surprisingly fun. I found myself wanting to do even more case study work when I completed the course material. 

Finally, the Springboard team is a group of happy professionals who truly, sincerely want to see you succeed. That's awesome.

I would recommend this course to anyone looking to make a career pivot into analytics, or to those who simply want to add analytics concepts into their current position. 

I discovered Springboard through the Philly design community and it's been a great decision. I've been working as an agency designer for close to 10 years and was at a point in my career where I knew I needed to make some changes to stay relevant with the rapidly evolving industry. Grad school wasn't looking like the best option, due to its expense and timeframe. For these reasons, Springboard is an excellent alternative to a long-term degree. You get a solid understanding of the core principles of UX design, and their curriculum provides you with a good range of articles and videos from top sources. This is especially helpful since, if you just do a search of UX articles without having any real background in it, the sheer amount of information out there can be overwhelming. By curating a collection of content, Springboard makes it easier to navigate learning about UX design. It was exactly the type of program I was looking for, and I'm glad that I'm able to apply what I'm learning in my office. My student advisor, Catherina, is always pleasant, responsive, and helpful, and my student mentor, Emily, is fantastic. Super knowledgeable, friendly, and supportive. It makes a difference speaking directly to someone who knows the ropes and can provide input. So glad I enrolled!

First, let me say that this isn't an easy course. At least it shouldn't be if you're pushing yourself. It is worth your time and money if it's something you're serious about. If you're not sure, be aware of that before investing.

With that out of the way, I can say with confidence that this is a very good way to get started and branch out into the world of User Experience Design. You'll complete a couple of projects that will walk you through how to approach problems in order to solve them accurately with the added tutelage of a skilled UX professional at your side. It will teach you to fail quickly and be okay with it. You'll learn to find and interview users within a targeted demographic, synthesize patterns and solutions from the data collected, and create quick, iterative prototypes to quickly check to see if you're solving your specific problem well or not. It's a good class.

If you're a working professional in the field, consider asking your company to cover or help cover the tuition. What you learn from this course will end up helping them in return. I worked very hard in this course for four months and got a lot out of it, and by completing it you'll retain access to the material (even as it evolves and changes) for life. It's a very solid investment in yourself, you just have to be a good self-motivator in order to make it through to the end.

This was a great start to my foray into Data Science. I got acquainted with the tools and methods of the trade, and completed interesting assignments and projects. I took the course to see if Data Science was something that I wanted to pursue further, and now I'm enrolled in a Masters program. The mentorship was especially helpful, and I think Springboard was well worth the time and money.

I am currently a student of the Foundation of Data Science course. I must say, the course is excelllent! The mentor I have is an awesome person.

This is an great experience for me. I definitely recommend the course for those who are interested in becoming a data scientist. I await the job assistance is the reason for low rating at the moment. However, I am absolutely confident Springboard will place me on my dream job as a data scientist. 

 

The course was great. I learnt all the tools needed to be a good data scientist. Having a supervisor and a project to work on, makes the entire learning experience enriching and exciting. 

I really like the online course. It use multi-media which is very clear. My mentor is so nice and patient. He is very smart to guide me throng the whole design process. I also like the interaction in the student community, which allowed us to learn from each other. 

i am currently enrolled and definitely think this a great course for UX! From the curriculum that helps you learn the basics of UX to the mentor calls with someone working in UX, to the weekly office hours I have learned a lot about the UX field! It seems to be preparing me well for the UX field because I am finding that the course contact has prepared me for the UX networking that I have done so far! I am confident after I get through the course I will have a good portfolio and base for getting into the field! I would definitely recommend the course to anyone looking to see if UX is the field for them and to develop a portfolio and basic UX knowledge!

One of the best Online courses I have attended. Program structure is very good... Mentor are knowledgable, responsive. Datacamp team is very helpful through out the course. Overall a greap experience 

At my job, we noticed a big need for someone with UX Design experience to fully vet out projects and ideas prior to pushing them into development. I was granted the ability to take the UX Design course through Springboard and instantly loved the setup. I was able to log on whenever, have tons of curriculum to go through. Lessons were easy to follow along and the project I did was extremely useful in my own life. Each week I met with Dave Hawkins who is a very talented mentor and made complex items very easy to understand. I have seen an improvement in my work, my clients happiness and am able to attack problems better after completing the course. I would recommend this to anyone interested in a career in UX design. 

One of the best course with systematic flow.

The course was very relevant for my job and I was applying learnings to my work as I went with the units in the course. I think that as a test for usability, it doesn't get more usable than that.

The Data Science Intensive course at Springboard turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.  It brings together a good collection of content and exercises to allow students to adapt a technical background to current data science skills and tools. 

When I applied, I didn't appreciate how beneficial the mentoring structure is in building both knowledge and confidence.  Besides being very helpful with the technical curriculum when I get stuck, we also spend time talking about the data science industry as a whole to help prepare for my job search once I get through the rest of the course. 

The Data Analytics for Business course had :-

1)Great content- the case submission every alternate week kept me on the track. Being an analytical thinker,I read the material and jumped straight to the case assignment due.

During the weekly mentor call, I discussed my problem solutions and approach with my Mentor who was very helpful.She gave me great feedback and examples from her job which I inculcated in my final submission.

2)The weekly mentor calls kept me accountable to always be working on the course content. That is the best part about this course.

Great experience. Would highly recommend this course!

 

You might be wondering how someone with no background in tech decided to enroll in a UX design course. I was an Area Manager with Costco for 5 years, 9 years with them in total, and I just started to get desperate; looking for a way out. One of my close friends has been successful in his career, and he is now a Talent Coordinator (or something like that. it doesn't even sound like a real job). We were hanging out and I was venting about my dislike for my career choice, then he suggested that I look into UX design. We went to college together, and we both have a degree in visual arts, so he knew I had creativity in me. He even recommended Springboard. 

The more I read about UX, the more I felt like I was already doing it, in a way. I worked in an area where I was consistently redisigning the customer's shopping experience... physically. The concept came very naturally to me, and I felt confident that I could apply it to mobile and web design, so I enrolled. 

It seems that the staff at Springboard are very open and very helpful. I never had an email that went unanswered. My mentor was very positive, encouraging and understanding. Through the first half of the course, I was very motivated. I didn't fully understand the first project, a harvard design challenge, which was to "redesign the gift-giving experience." I thought to myself, "Aren't gifts supposed to be a surprise? Why would I interview someone about the gift they want?" It wasn't until I forced myself through the project that I got a clearer understanding of what to do. When I moved on to my own project idea is when the wheels started to really turn. 

There are a lot of articles to read and a lot of videos to watch; all with important information, most are very boring and monotone. I suppose it's tough to find highly skilled UX designers with a lot of charisma... Anyway, I always had questions, and I always emailed my mentor about them. He always replied with an answer, but sometimes it was better to discuss on our weekly video chat. 

The process of UX was new to me, so even though I really didn't like it, I was excited about it. There were so many new terms and unfamiliar ideas, so it was a challenge. At some points, I felt like many aspects of UX were a bit pretentious or unnecessary, but that's coming from me; a person who is new to this world. 

I've never been fully motivated to do research, conduct interviews or gather data. I have done these things in the past, but only because they were part of the job. In UX, that IS the job. Still, I went ahead and spoke with family, friends, co-workers and even posted in the Springboard Community on Google+ for help. It turned out that I enjoyed creating surveys and gathering data. I just don't like talking to people (haha). Even in the Springboard Community I felt somewhat uncomfortable because it seemed like all the members where overwhelmingly positive. It was either that, or they were faking it, and both ideas were a turn-off to me. However, I can't complain too much because many of them did participate in my surveys and things and even provided feedback. So, if I ever didn't thank you, then just let me do it now. 

My favorite part of this course was the actual designing. I enjoy sketching, and it turns out that I love the Sketch program (I paid $100 for it, one time payment, worth it). I've never used it before, but I picked it up really quick. My mentor was legitimately impressed with my first round of wireframes. This part of the course is where I put the most effort in, where I spent the most time, and somehow where I started to lose motivation. The work became very tedious and repetitive, but I suppose that is the case with most things. Again, I pushed through. I eventually had a testable wireframe flow that I uploaded to InVision. Once I started to get feedback from that, my motivation went back up. I guess it's nice to see some sort of result after putting in a lot of work. 

I designed two flows for my mobile app project, my mentor approved them, and then I moved on to create a presentation. You can view my Capstone Project here. 

Where am I now?

Well, just before I started the course I had demoted myself from my management position. I was headed that direction regardless, because I was unhappy/unfulfilled, but it would've been really tough to work a 10-hour day, come home exhausted, and focus even harder on my course work. So now I was in a position with much less stress and more energy to dedicate to the course.

Things just seemed to fall into place. In my last week with Springboard, I was brought into a new position. It wasn't exactly a promotion, but it was new and I enjoyed the work. It was an undiscovered territory for Costco, so it was up to me to figure out what the position entailed. It turns out that my newfound UX knowledge played a big part in my new position. I was creating spreadsheets, gathering data, talking to members about their needs and just doing a lot of brainstorming in general. I've been in this positions for 3 months so far, and I'm actually enjoying it. 

I was the Merchandising Manager in my warehouse, which is senior level. My annual salary was $68,500, my shift started at 2:00am, and I my days off were Wednesday and Sunday. I am now the Volume Sales Coordinator, I make $24/hour with a bi-annual bonus of $2,500, and I work Monday-Friday starting at 5:00am. I make less money, but I'm much happier.

In the end, I am glad I took this course, and I'm glad I have this experience under my belt. However, I don't see myself applying for jobs in UX. I just don't think I can be a functional part of that type of work environment. Although, I think this course would be exponentially better if it helped to get you actual experience in the field; even an unpaid part-time internship. My idea of the work environment is a total assumption. I, and most students, would benefit greatly from a real-world experience in the field without a full committment on the student's part, as well as the employer's. Regardless, the experience that I gained here is something that I hope to use if/when one of my creative endeavors come to fruition.  

 

It was only last year, when I switch from Architecture to UX Design. Although I was familiar with the concept, I didn't know anything about the tools & process when it came to the digital application of UX. I started online, reading and watching anything UX related. I signed up for different online classes and managed to learn the techniques to the point that I was able to finish my first passion UX Process.

Six month into my learning path, I found myself confused and not sure of anything I have learned. It was at that point that I realized in order to move on, I need to bridge the gap between my gained knowledge and its application in real world projects. Springboard bridged that gap for me. It gave me structure, discipline and a proven path to follow in order to materialize my visions. 

One month into my springboard journey I started working with startups, and I can't emphasize the value of having a mentor, who worked with me on specific projects in hand. My mentor not only helped me with the technical part of the projects, but also guided me through must have conversations with my clients.  

Signing up for Springboard, was one of the best decisions that I have made and as a result I got to be a cofounder of two startups, doing what I love and being confident about it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I had been interested in getting into Data Science for a while and was looking for an online course that would enable me to study at my own pace while also working full-time. I was choosing between the Springboard Data Science Intensive course and the Udacity Nanodegree...what ultimately tipped me in favour of the Springboard course was the opportunity to have weekly video calls with an industry mentor.

Overall I was very satisfied with my decision to enroll in the course and found it worthwhile and good-value-for-money.   I think I ended up taking a little longer than the 'average' amount of time to complete the course, however this was my own decision and ultimately enabled me to dedicate more time to my capstone project as well as study some extra-curricular materials under the guidance of my mentor.   Regarding the course content, I thought that the selection of materials was in general very good, especially given the attempt to squeeze such a large amount of material into a short amount of time. I particularly enjoyed the Machine Learning and Data Storytelling materials from Harvard CS 109. Probably the one area where I would have enjoyed a deeper dive is in Statistics, particularly including some Bayesian methods.   In terms of the level of skills or knowledge required, all my programming experience was self-taught, however in general I did not encounter any significant problems and was able to complete all of the course requirements without difficulty.   In summary I think the Data Science Intensive course is a great introduction to Data Science. It certainly does not 'make' you into a Data Scientist but I think it really helps to lay the foundations for understanding the Data Science landscape and beginning to work on related problems.

Perhaps more than anything, it also helped me to grow in confidence and realise that Data Science is not just necessarily for people with PhDs, but is a field that can be accessible to people from varied backgrounds. I already find myself using techniques and tools that I learned during the course to be more effective in my work.

I initially signed up for this course because I felt that while I had analytical aptitude, I lacked the opportunity to demonstrate it in my current work environment at the time.   This course turned out to be exactly what I needed to turn that situation around for me.

The case study nature of this course, along with my mentors support, gave me what felt like actual on-the-job experience.  I now feel confident on job interviews that I have valid analytical projects/experiences under my belt, both to talk to and to draw from....projects that I learned from, projects that I made mistakes on but still recovered from, projects and time-frames that were challenging yet achievable, some projects that I liked more than others, and definitely projects that I am proud of accomplishing.

Additionally, with this course, I started off thinking it was my technical skill set that I wanted/needed to build up in order to keep myself marketable in the workforce.  The best thing about this program is that it shifted my focus to developing a problem-solving mindset above all else.  Then, the technical skillset became the second nature skill that supported the objective of modelling a solution to a busines problem in order to help a business achieve a business goal important to them.

Overall, while this course does require a dedicated effort, I have no regrets whatsoever in my decision, first to enroll, then to follow through in completing the course, and now to recommend it to others.

This is the most value added course I could ever find on the web. I have learnt so many valuable skills and knowledge from the curriculum, tutors and the Springboard`s community which helps me a lot in my daily work. For those who want to learn more about data science and get a real world experience I would warmly recommmend this course!