Practice Module for Customer Analytics

Objectives

The objective of the practice module is twofold:

• Firstly, to expose participants to real world problems so that they may practice the use of the skills they have learned during the component courses in a holistic manner.

• Secondly, to enable participants to demonstrate their proficiency across all of the skills that they have learned in the course modules and hence obtain a grade at the Graduate Certificate Level.

Intended Audience

This practice module is targeted at participants who wish to complete the certification process for the Graduate Certificate in “Customer Analytics”.

Prerequisites

Participants must have successfully obtained a competent score in all the three component courses for the Graduate Certificate in Customer Analytics as listed in the introduction to the Graduate Certificate page.

Components

There are two parts to the Practice Module.

1. Practice Project:

   Participants will need to undertake one projects as a group (3-5 members) to gain practical experience and demonstrate their understanding and mastery of the skills taught in the three component courses. The practice project will require each group member to expend an estimated 8-10 days of effort. These days are not expected to be contiguous and may stretch over many weeks. These projects are recommended to be taken as group.

2. Examination: Each participant is required to sit for an examination on a stipulated date and time.
3. The overall grade for the participant will be based on the Practice project and Examination.

      Requirements for Practice Module

1. Project proposal submission

Participants need to submit a copy of proposal preferably in ppt. format (10-12 slides), after identifying a business challenge pertaining to customer management. The participants can access data required for project from public source or data from any research article/website or company. Proposal will flash out tentative analytical plan and techniques used to address the business question (s). Team of instructors will evaluate the proposal on account of business value, design of project and demonstration of analytical understanding and provide their inputs and suggestion with the participants.

1. Presentation of project

After completion of project, participants will make a business presentation to team instructors. Team are expected to clearly articulate the analytical frameworks used, business solution and the strategy in a structured manner. Provide visibility on account of challenges and limitations encountered during project execution. Presentation will be followed by Q&A. Each group will be provided 20 mins to present. It is advisable all members of group participate during presentation.

1. Report Submission

Participant (s) are expected to submit the detailed report incorporating statistical analysis, data cleaning, data exploration, codes, final analytical solution, business recommendation made and limitations (in word or pdf format). This will be submitted post presentation after incorporating suggestions during project presentation (refer point 2).

1. Learning Journals Submission

It is submitted by every individual covering their role, contributions, learnings from the project, other group members and its journey. Submission will be in word or pdf format not more than 2 pages.

Sample of Problem Definition:

ABC is an established brick & mortar retailer that frequently conducts coupon campaigns to acquire new customers and retain existing customers. As this require heavy marketing spend outlay, it is critical to improve cost efficiency and success of campaigns through more focused targeting instead using of the current assumed a one size fits all approach for its subsequent campaigns. This means that from a retention standpoint, ABC needs to understand which of its customer segments are more valuable for marketing investment purposes and of these segments, their incentive preferences and for which product categories. This will enable ABC to customise upcoming campaigns for higher ROI. At the same time, by understanding the profile of its high value customers, ABC will be able to target similar lookalikes in its acquisition campaigns, thus raising the overall value of its customer base.

Application (For Stackable Students)

• Participants are only allowed to take the practice module after completing all courses in the Grad Cert.
• Participants who wish to take the practice module concurrently in the same semester with the courses in the same Grad Cert must write to ask-iss@nus.edu.sg citing reasons by the application deadline. Email requests received after the deadline will not be considered. Requests will be reviewed after the deadline and approved on a case-by-case basis.
• Participants who miss the application window will have to apply for the practice module in the next semester.
• Participants who do not attend the briefing will be withdrawn from the practice module.