This month marks your one-year anniversary with Ontra! Can you share a bit about your professional journey and what led you to join Ontra last year? What have been your key priorities since you first joined the company?
I love working in data because it’s everywhere! Over my career, I have been in very large companies (like Walt Disney) as well as mid-size startups (like Cameo). Through that comparison, I learned that I prefer the responsibility, innovation, and autonomy that comes with working somewhere fast-paced. However, many high-growth companies like Ontra are, by nature, disorganized and risky. Ontra appealed to me because not only do we have an impressive technical team and vision, but also the business and legal acumen in leadership (and throughout the company) give me confidence in the thoughtful, strategic way we prioritize.
My key priorities since joining Ontra have been:
- Making data more visible and accessible to everyone at Ontra, regardless of role, and
- Building the relationships and working patterns between my team and our business partners so we’re all in the best position to drive impact and decision-making with data.
How do you use data to help Ontra make better decisions while making sure that the insights your team provides are easy for everyone to understand?
At Ontra, we practice an embedded data model where each analyst is focused on a specific function within our organization (with an emphasis on Product and Marketing). Through that partnership, data analysts develop a strong sense of the priorities within these groups and the critical questions we should answer to make the most informed decisions. It is the analyst’s job to translate these business questions into data projects – anything from modeling data to conducting an analysis to building out a dashboard. Our business partners then use these results and recommendations to inform their strategic decisions.
What is your favorite tool to use when visualizing and telling a story with data?
Ontra recently selected Sigma as our company business intelligence (BI) tool, and we are thrilled with it! It’s critical that our small (but mighty) data team’s capacity doesn’t limit our stakeholders’ ability to visualize and explore data on their own.
So, a large part of why we selected Sigma is because its user interface (UI) is spreadsheet-based, which is familiar to folks all around the business. Our analysts can create advanced visualizations in this tool, but employees with less comfort or familiarity are also encouraged to explore and self-serve, knowing that the data team is always available to assist as needed.
How would you describe a day-in-the-life in your role?
As a manager, much of my day goes to supporting my team: setting weekly priorities, providing coaching and feedback, and offering support in meetings with stakeholders all across the company. However, I also carve out time for strategic initiatives, whether at my team level or benefiting the entire company! For example, within my team, we’ve implemented engineering-inspired retros and dashboard reviews (à la code review) to make sure we’re always challenging ourselves and leveling up. Migrating to Sigma, however, was a cross-functional, company-wide effort, which I led from both a strategic and technical standpoint.
What future trends or changes do you foresee in the world of data analytics?
Data analytics is evolving with the industry, and its definition isn’t universal. At some companies, data analytics is a support-oriented role, where analysts receive direct requests from the business and write queries or build dashboards to address them. At Ontra, we take a more advanced approach; analysts are also strategic partners who influence technical and business strategy based on opportunities found in the data.
As for the future, the recent availability and affordability of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have dramatically changed the technological landscape, and data analytics is no exception. I expect that as simple querying and analysis are automated, data analysts will have to demonstrate more product and business sense, strategic thinking, and data storytelling skills in order to remain competitive.
Can you share any advice for someone looking to pursue a career in data analytics?
Data is an incredibly broad area ecosystem, and the mapping between job titles and expected skill sets isn’t widely agreed upon. I recommend an aspiring analyst seek exposure to a variety of data-related career paths, which include data engineering (data pipelines and systems), analytics engineering (data modeling and preparation), and data analytics/data science (discovering and communicating insights). Data science often overlaps with analytics but may be set apart by A/B testing or machine learning responsibilities; however, there are also numerous ML specializations, which may be their own role! Overall, I encourage those interested in data to explore the full range of skills and specialities, then study what they find most exciting. Data analytics is just one of many possibilities!
If you could have any superpower to assist in your work, what would it be and why?
How do I choose?! Our world is imperfect, thus our data is imperfect; if I could guarantee the accuracy and completeness of all our data sources, that would save a lot of time on quality checks, investigations, assumptions, and inferences. On the other hand, I’d also like to have a perfect, complete understanding of all of our business partners’ initiatives and priorities. The power of data can only be unlocked with deep business understanding, but I can only be in so many places at once!
Can you share a couple of fun facts with us?
I fell into the world of data by accident! I grew up intending to be a professional ballerina, and even went to a boarding school/conservatory for the arts in high school. However, after taking Statistics 101 in college, I knew this was the career for me. I majored in Statistical Science and haven’t looked back! Today, I’m still a huge fan of the arts (musical theater in particular), but I’m more than happy to support from the audience. Though I did try my hand at runway modeling recently…I’m 5’11”, after all!
