With ‘Friday Five’ we shed a light on the people at OPP that contribute to making our partners and end users happy by creating a better (payment) experience. This month we’re handing over the mic to our Senior Analytics Engineer, Jie Hu!
What do you do at OPP?
I’m responsible for the end-to-end analytics processes in our organisation; improving our data foundation with the modern data stack, while also monitoring the data quality and data consumption. Basically, my goal is to leverage the data we have as efficiently and effectively as possible. By liaising with the business about what questions they have and what insights they need. Together with Wouter Peters, our Data Analyst, we also create reports and dashboards that enable them to make better decisions.
One of your goals is to create a more data-driven organisation. What does this mean?
A data-driven organisation is all about leveraging data and integrating data insights in each step of the decision-making process. While gut instinct and intuition remain valuable drivers to make decisions, we now have a multitude of data available to provide colleagues with insights that can validate their business sense or introduce a new way to gain a competitive edge. Being data-driven isn’t only about looking at the numbers. It’s a strategy that, in order to be successful, needs to be lived and breathed by every single capillary in the organisation.
What is the biggest challenge in achieving this goal?
OPP is an extremely fast-growing company that went from fifty to over a hundred employees in just the last year. This also means the needs for data are increasing and changing over time. Having one way to organise data processes is no longer sufficient to service everyone. We need to be flexible and be able to continuously adapt and iterate. That’s why we have to ensure room for experimentation to determine what works and what doesn’t. By closely monitoring results and evaluating these, we will eventually come to the most impactful solution for everyone.
Coming from one of the biggest ecommerce companies in the Netherlands, what learnings can you put into practice in your current role?
I feel bigger companies have similar challenges but just at a bigger scale. I’ve learnt that it’s not just about providing the right technical solution. It’s about delivering something that will actually be used and that delivers added value to the business. Therefore, in working with business colleagues you need to be able to communicate effectively, paint a clear picture of the possibilities and how these can contribute to doing a better job. I’ve experienced that people become more and more enthusiastic when they see the potential of data and technology. One question then leads to the next, and questions become more sophisticated and analytical. That’s when you also reach the point where the added value accelerates.
Can you elaborate on how specific roles at OPP benefit from data-driven insights?
For our compliance colleagues, data-driven insights are incremental to optimize risk assessment and management. As a fintech, we work in a highly regulated environment. Mitigating risk and fraud is therefore a top priority. Not only to be compliant, but also to ensure our partners and their end-users can trust our services.
Furthermore, our IT team can leverage data insights to monitor the performance of our platform. For instance, whenever OPP introduces a new payment method, we also measure the performance in terms of load of response times. These results are also part of the KPIs we’ve defined for the experience we want to provide to our partners.
A data-driven organisation can only thrive with a data-driven culture. How do you build such a culture?
Being truly data-driven is not simply a tick in the box by providing a couple of workshops. Creating and fostering a data-driven culture starts with trusting the data. If there’s no trust, people will not rely on the data to make decisions. A focus on data quality is key. Also, you have to ensure people have access to the data they need. Besides this, having data ambassadors within your organisation helps increase the adoption of a data-driven way of working.
In the end, the people and organisations that are able to leverage data in a smart way, will always be one step ahead. As this coincides with the innovative nature of OPP, I see lots of great opportunities ahead!