Work
Overview
Constraints
- Constraint
With 50–75 interns across the company often requesting Nielsen reports and consumer data at the same time, data access was a bottleneck — even routine requests could take a day or two to come back, and access that was standard for full-time employees frequently wasn't automatically extended to interns.
- Response
I worked with my mentor to have her advocate directly for our data access when requests stalled or were initially denied, and built extra buffer time into our research timeline to account for turnaround delays.
- Constraint
As the department's business analysts, my mentors were accountable for the outcomes of what we proposed, which meant our recommendations went through multiple rounds of scrutiny and revision as the project evolved. Risk appetite for new ideas also shifted over the course of the internship as trust and context built between our team and theirs.
- Response
I learned to calibrate how I pitched ideas to where the team's confidence stood at any given point — starting with smaller, well-supported asks early on, then building toward more ambitious recommendations as that trust developed, which kept our proposals moving forward without losing momentum.
- Constraint
My two teammates brought marketing and business backgrounds to the team, complementing my more analytical/quantitative background.
- Response
I leaned into that analytical strength to lead research direction, methodology, and data work, while collaborating closely with my teammates on framing, strategy, and presentation — creating a natural division of labor that let each of us contribute where we were strongest.
- Constraint
Basic process knowledge — how to request something, who owned a given dataset, what was "allowed" for an intern versus a full-time employee — often wasn't documented or clear, requiring extra time just to identify the right person to ask.
- Response
I built out an informal network of contacts across departments early on, which cut down on repeated dead ends and made it faster to route later requests to the right person.
- Outcome
Navigating these constraints sharpened my ability to advocate for data-driven work inside a large, process-heavy organization — while still delivering a fully-formed, statistically-backed strategy and rollout plan to executive leadership by the end of the internship.