Eight people with entirely different skill sets gathered around a table Thursday morning with one goal. Similar to many journalistic endeavors, ideas began flowing after the first cup of coffee.
We were the innovation economy team, and began questioning what sectors of Portland’s economy were growing and shrinking. We started with a single data set composed of 130 survey responses.
But we wanted to add broader context: why does the tech industry matter to Portland’s economy? Sara Ivey, master student in regional and urban planning, broke new ground finding data from the U.S. Census Bureau which uncovered statistics of specific industries in Portland that were booming and breaking.
Our goal was to divide and conquer, so we split into two groups. One group began analyzing data. The other outlined content.
Mason Walker, Portland Business Journal’s interactive editor, took charge of the content group and began brainstorming headlines and subheads. But outliers in our data skewed the results, so the final assessment wasn’t what we originally planned.
We went back to the drawing board. We pitched ideas about what visual elements we would present with our story but the angle was still unclear. We finished night two asking if Portland was ready to keep up with its evolving economy. We started the third day brainstorming what Portland needed to do just that.
We created a flowchart that illustrated what newcomers liked about Portland. Seventy-one percent of respondents thought it was crucial to work in an area that was linked to the tech community. They also wanted to see more events and coworking spaces to watch the industry continue to expand.
Nick La Fond, entrepreneur and startup adviser, looked at data that showed new companies were emerging in the Portland area. The data that we found proved that they wanted to grow, and they had the investments to, so we graphed it.
Ethan Benatan, and Madhavi Bharadwaj, technologists, explored over 200,000 rows of data and prepared a graph that represents job growth in Portland in tech and non tech sectors. This data showed that technology jobs are growing slightly faster than other sectors in Portland’s economy.
Our presentation illustrates what Portland needs to do if it wants to keep up with the growing tech economy. There were roadblocks and the project had to be scaled back in scope. But our varying set of skills led our team to the finish line.
by Alexandria Kremer