Chicago SMB Market Radar
A complete end-to-end data engineering case study showing how to build an automated business intelligence pipeline from raw city data to actionable insights.
Project Overview
Strategic business intelligence solution for tracking small business activity across Chicago neighborhoods
Business Problem
Small business owners and economic developers need real-time visibility into where new businesses are opening and which neighborhoods are experiencing growth. Traditional methods are manual, slow, and don't provide actionable insights.
Solution
Automated pipeline that ingests Chicago Open Data, transforms it into business metrics, and delivers weekly insights through interactive dashboards and automated reports.
Architecture
Case Study Chapters
Data Discovery & Ingestion
Explore raw data sources and SODA API integration
Data Transformation Pipeline
Category mapping and business logic implementation
Data Loading & Storage
Google Sheets integration and data warehouse setup
Visualization & Insights
Looker Studio dashboards and business metrics
Automation & Operations
GitHub Actions workflow and production deployment
Results & Impact
Business outcomes and technical achievements
Key Metrics & Results
🔗 Data Sources
All data is sourced from Chicago's official open data portal
Business Licenses
New business license applications and renewals
Building Permits
Construction and renovation permits by location
CTA Boardings
Daily public transit usage by station
Ready to Explore?
Start with the data discovery chapter to see how we built this pipeline from the ground up.
Start the Case Study