Arts at the Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics offered moments of joy, connection and inspiration. And that connection felt even closer to home with Arts alumni competing on Olympic and Paralympic teams and a master’s student contributing to the Canadian Olympic Committee.

For Taran Kandhola (she/her), a student in the Master of Digital Experience Innovation (MDEI) program, the path into digital product work began not with design, but with data.

Currently working as a Digital Product Analyst with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Kandhola spends her days translating complex engagement data into insights that shape digital platforms. But her journey into this work reflects something deeper; a shift from analyzing numbers to understanding people.

“I realized I was becoming much more interested in the people behind the numbers than the numbers themselves,” she says.

Before joining the Stratford School as a part-time graduate student, Kandhola was already working in digital analytics. While she enjoyed the strategic side of her work, she found herself questioning the design of the very platforms she was analyzing. That curiosity led her to MDEI, where she set out to bridge the gap between data and design.

“I wanted to understand how to actually build those interfaces,” she explains. “Not just report on them.” That perspective quickly evolved during her first term. A defining realization came when she began to see design not as something limited to screens, but as something embedded in everyday life.

“I started noticing that everything from the curve of a car door to the way headphones fit was a deliberate choice,” she says. “I saw that the most successful products in our lives aren't just the ones that look good; they're the ones meticulously crafted to reduce our stress and make our day-to-day movements feel effortless.” This shift fundamentally changed how she approaches her work. Whether analyzing data or contributing to digital product development, Kandhola now frames her thinking around the user experience.

In her role with the Canadian Olympics Committee, that mindset shows up through storytelling and design thinking; two skills that she credits to her time in MDEI. Rather than simply presenting metrics from the games, she focuses on what those numbers mean for real people.

“Data is useless if it doesn’t tell a human story,” she says. “I’m not just sharing stats; I’m trying to move people toward a decision.”

Adapted from Waterloo News - read the full story