Adam Joe, MMA’25

Adam Joe was a few months into the Smith Master of Management Analytics (MMA) program when the full value of what he’d been learning clicked. He was sitting in a meeting with his team at Apption Software, the boutique data and AI consultancy at which he’d been working for nearly three years, brainstorming potential solutions to a sticky client problem. Suddenly, his mind locked in on an alternative data model he’d learned about during class only the night before. He raised his hand and pitched it as a fix. “I looked around the table and all I could see were nodding heads,” he says. “It is extremely cool to understand a concept you didn’t know a week ago. It’s even cooler to be able to apply it to your work.”

Adam’s decision to enroll in the MMA came from a desire to get ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing field. He’d spent the better part of a decade working in manufacturing automation, applying both his expertise as a mechanical engineer and his interest in digital transformation to modernize production lines. As the projects he worked on became more sophisticated, and as he transitioned into a role bridging technical and business imperatives, he began to pay close attention to the critical—and increasing—role of data in his team’s efficacy. What he found was fascinating. “Data analytics is a bit of a science and a bit of an art. You never know what trends you’re going to see once you get everything connected and start monitoring,” he says. “You can see how a change that improves an operation’s efficiency by one percent can compound over time. It can be billions of dollars in saved costs.”

He had long intended to pursue a business degree of some sort, and for years, an MBA seemed the natural choice. But once he learned about the Smith MMA, his plans changed. “The world of data and AI was—and is—changing so quickly. It’s not easy to keep on top of what’s happening on your own, or even at work,” he says. “When I discovered the MMA, I thought ‘OK, this is compelling.’ It struck me as a way to both stay updated and to get some of the formal business education I’d always wanted.”

From the moment Adam’s MMA cohort kicked off their program of study in 2024, it was clear to him that he’d made the right call. He was particularly impressed with the technological currency of the curriculum—especially the ways in which it leveraged Generative AI tools like ChatGPT. “We were able to spend less time on lower-level basic syntax, and more time making higher-level model architecture decisions,” he says. “That wouldn’t have been possible even two years earlier.”

It was also clear from the start just how much work he’d be doing—on top of his demanding day job. “It was, obviously, very busy,” he recalls. “But I believe that work expands or contracts to fill the amount of time you have. You just have to trust that you can do it.”

Furthermore, the people Adam was cramming with on nights and weekends made it all feel manageable. All of his classmates were also juggling professional and academic demands, and none of them were interested in wasting the opportunity. “Everyone was very motivated and truly wanted to be there—so much so that they were making time to do it outside of work,” he reflects. “Those are the kind of people you want to surround yourself with.” He was further energized by the diverse vocational backgrounds of his peers, which injected each lesson and assignment with fresh perspectives and approaches to problem-solving. “We were all able to pull in insights and examples from our work during class discussions,” he says. “That added a lot to the learning experience.” Outside of the classroom, Adam took up every opportunity to connect that he could, attending speaker events, organizing socials, and joining the cohort’s executive team. “When I signed up for the program, it didn’t even cross my mind that I would make friends,” he reflects. “But I’ve built some relationships I think will last for life.”

Midway through the program, Adam was promoted to become Apption’s Chief Product Officer. In his expanded mandate, he has a chance to flex his new data analytics expertise every day, as he oversees both customer projects and internal pilots. “I get to wear a lot of hats,” he explains. And thanks to his work with classmates from other industries, he’s also gained a more nuanced understanding of the requirements of clients in non-technical fields, like finance, legal, and insurance—a definite asset in his line of work. “I took a bit of a risk in enrolling,” he says. “But my belief is that you never regret investing in education, whether it pays off immediately or decades from now. So, I went for it, and it has been a very personally fulfilling thing to do.”