Monster Swell is a Berlin/Amsterdam based data science agency that helps people work and play with large quantities of interesting data.

The services we offer can be summarized as: Analysis, Creation & Teaching.

Data Analysis

Our analysis offering is geared towards customers who need to learn what they can do with their data. We can help organizations figure out the best data strategy for them and then help them implement it across their company.

We can help you determine the role of data in your organization and work with you to identify the steps necessary to capitalize on that data to create lasting value for your business. We can produce a range of deliverables to diffuse data sensibilities through your organization.

With organizations already aware of their data needs we can work together to ensure delivery of the necessary information at the right time and place. We will support in identifying and tackling the most important and urgent data needs and in select cases we can step in to solve problems outright.

Customers we have done work for in this field include: the Dutch Ministry of the Interior, Utrechts Uitbureau, the City of Amsterdam, Waag Society, RIVM, the Province of North Holland

Creation of Products and Services

Our creation offering is geared towards customers with a need to explore what data can actually do for them when it has been rendered functional.

For customers with an acute need we can come in and build or prototype full fledged products and services built upon rich real or real-time data. We have ample experience combing through and combining datasets, enriching them with statistical inference or web APIs and using the outcomes to create functional applications in any domain. The end result can be anything from social web apps, glanceable displays, mobile applications, custom hardware solutions or anything in between.

For customers who know they have a need, but don’t know exactly what that is, we offer sketching with data and product exploration workshops. By using data to roughly sketch out functionality, we can create an explorative framework to work towards a final goal. For organizations with needs that go beyond a single dataset or app, we can work on-site to ideate a range of possible solutions and deliver them at the desired level of fidelity: brief, spec, prototype or finished product.

Customers we have done work for in this field include: the Amsterdam tourism board, the Dutch Labour Party, de Groene Amsterdammer, Sarah van Sonsbeeck and a multitude of non-disclosed and self-commissioned projects

Teaching of Insights and Skills

Our teaching is aimed at giving individuals, teams and organizations the skills and insight necessary to operate in a world of big data. Every course —subject matter and duration to be agreed upon— is attuned to the needs and knowledge level of its audience.

For managers and decision makers who may not build stuff themselves, their reliance on accurate data forces them to be on top of the data pipeline within their organization. Having a deeper knowledge of data with its technical, experiential and organizational affordances will help them make the right decisions.

Engineers and designers can benefit from more specific skills in the fields of information and experience design as well as knowledge about databases, operations and statistics to create better data-driven products and services.

We also teach data and programming skills to journalists and the general public so they will be literate in this field and better equipped to deal with an increasingly algorithmic world.

Previously we have taught students at the Willem de Kooning Academy, journalists at NOS and other Dutch public broadcasting institutions and we have taught entry-level programming in various fora.

For questions about any of the above please get in touch.