A Virtual Analytics Internship: A Culture of Community
Over the past five months, I have been a virtual intern for the ACLU’s analytics team. Joining the ACLU was a simple decision. I needed a break from Zoom University. College is already hard, and it’s even more challenging during a pandemic. So, I wanted to take some time off to decompress and reflect, particularly during this critical time period of thinking, reimagining and protecting our civil rights that we’ve found ourselves in. From police brutality to algorithm injustice (and everything in between), we need organizations like the ACLU that are actively fighting to improve the lives of individuals. I wanted (and after the past five months want to continue) to be part of this fight. Throughout my internship, I have learned tremendously about a myriad of things: the possibilities of data for good, the challenges of defining and creating measurements, and the importance of a supportive team culture, just to name a few things.
The analytics team is broken down into three pods: engagement, legal, and infrastructure. Despite each pod playing a unique role within the overall analytics team, the pods come together all the time. You’ll always find individuals working and strategizing in projects across pods. I had the great pleasure of being part of the engagement pod, which is in charge of development data (e.g., donors), A/B testing, as well as the website and other digital items. I love everyone in the analytics team, but I especially love the folks in engagement.
My first big project was around visualizing and understanding the retention of our monthly donors (known as sustainers). “Easy enough,” I thought. I was wrong. Working with data always comes with the fine print: data is imperfect. While the teams at the ACLU work tirelessly to make sure everything flows smoothly, there are always a few imperfections. For this work with sustainers, the date columns were a challenge. I found myself consistently going back and forth between different date columns in the data. Visualizing the results was equally a back-and-forth debate. A line graph displaying change over time? A pie graph focused on one period of time and what percent supporters are still giving? In these decisions, I was not alone; it was always a team effort. Everyone (from my direct supervisor to the rest of the teams) was always a Slack message away. If I needed even more clarification, “let’s hop on a quick Zoom call” was always an option.
My next major project was open ended, focused on measuring the content on our website. I, despite only being an intern, had the power to decide how to move forward and drive decision-making. This project allowed me to step a bit away from the data, and instead focus on what we are (and what we are not) doing when evaluating the content published on our website. It was a lot of research focused on evaluation, metrics, digital behavior, and intent. I did not find an answer for everything, and there is still a lot of work to do in regards to the content on our website. However, we are continuously thinking, planning, and working on providing our supporters and visitors the best possible experience.
From day one, I was made to feel part of the team. I was allowed to have an impact beyond the projects assigned to me. I was allowed to host the weekly team meetings. I was welcomed to, and even encouraged to, be part of the conversations around EDIB. I even led a session about our hiring strategy and how to better recruit. These were honest conversations about the good things in the team, but also the things that we can do better and improve upon. I always felt valued and heard, and these conversations are ongoing. So, when the option came up, I stayed beyond the initial ten-week internship.
Around this time when I decided to stay for some an extra ten weeks, one of the engagement analysts transitioned to become a data engineer with the infra team and some of our analytics leaders went on maternity leave, so I was allocated some of the analyst’s responsibilities. I became responsible for digital reporting: everything related to our website data. This allowed me to also work with (and even train) many other teams within the ACLU: affiliates, business, strategy, communications, and many of the folks in the product & technology team (P-Tech). It was a pleasure to work with these individuals, who were always very kind, welcoming, and grateful. By the nature of having more time as part of the team, I also got to help with fixing dashboards, streamlining some reporting processes, and contributing my thoughts about the future of digital reporting for the ACLU.
Even as the analytics team has been a bit short-staffed, the EDIB efforts have continued. The team more than ever has been focused on trying to avoid overworking and burnout. It speaks volumes about the team culture: everyone cares for one another. I have loved every second of my time within the analytics team. This love and respect for everyone working in the analytics team is rooted in how passionate individuals are about their work, the constant efforts to improve and make the team more equitable, and how much everyone aims to foster a sense of community.
