Ishango.ai Fellows develop a recommender system for tails.com

Host company: tails.com is a dog food subscription company providing tailored, unique food based on the individual dog’s characteristics and preferences.

The project: 

Tails.com took on two Ishango.ai Fellows, Sylvera Massawe and Aurelie Jodelle Kemme to work on developing a data driven system that could create targeted recommendations of suitable products to tails.com customers. For the customers, this would help them discover new products that meet their needs while for the business it would contribute to revenue growth by increasing the number of items bought by tails.com customers alongside their monthly subscription.

Over the course of two months, the fellows worked closely with the tails.com team, deep-diving into understanding the particular needs of the business, exploring the data and also getting a crash course on Western dog-ownership culture.

The outcome:

By using data analysis to explore options around product recommendations and customer segmentation, Sylvera and Aurelie were able to create a recommender system targeting products to pre-existing tails.com customers.

View their final presentation below to learn more about their solution.

“Having two smart and dedicated Ishango.ai fellows to focus solely on the project has been really helpful, it’s amazing what you can get done in 8 weeks! We’re ending the fellowship with multiple ideas on how to improve our marketing, including one in production.”

Lorna Brightmore – Lead Data Scientist at tails.com

A win-win:

Not only did the project create value for the business, it also provided a valuable learning and professional experience for the Ishango.ai fellows.

“Professionally, the program has improved my problem solving abilities and collaboration,  communication, and presentation skills. Most importantly, it has increased my understanding of dealing with a data science problem from a business needs perspective.”

Aurelie Jodelle Kemme, Ishango.ai Fellow 2021

“On a professional front, it has sharpened my communication skills, in terms of how I approach a problem, translate the problem to use math tools and deliver the results in a non technical way but understable to a business perspective. Personally, I have grown to become more comfortable and confident to approach business cases from a data science perspective. To use the analytical skills I have to derive insights and find solutions whenever applicable.”

Sylvera Massawe, Ishango.ai Fellow 2021

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