Proactivity and getting out of the comfort zone: how an expert in processes Irina Piliavskaia organizes the work of product analysts.
Contrary to popular opinion that an analyst is a calculator and an ordinary task performer, soft skills and the desire for proactivity are of great importance in the work of a product analyst. Irina Piliavskaia, the Head of Analytics at a large bank, that won five «Bank of the Year» awards last year, told how to organize the work of analysts so that they work effectively.
Last fall you made a presentation at the Podlodka conference, the speakers of which were experts and digital technology directors of ManyChat and the Koshelek App. You talked about how to bring a product analyst to a proactive position. Let's start with how do you see a product analyst?
In my understanding, a product analyst is a person who studies and explores the audience, its behavior and scenarios together with his product team. He studies data and necessarily has a product vision and validates management decisions. The main thing that distinguishes a product analyst from a data analyst is focusing on business values, not on the complexity of solving problems.
Irina, what is the specifics of your work?
The main function of any manager is primarily to help. They are obliged to help their team works better, and the company to cover its needs. The specifics of my job are that I work with an analytics team and help them to cope with difficulties on a daily basis. I build development plans and roadmaps. That is, I need to make the analysts comfortable and motivated. At the peak, I had 11 people in my team, and everyone needed to be given time and attention.
What are your responsibilities as the Head of Analytics?
I am responsible for how the analytical infrastructure works, which includes data, storage, dashboards and notebooks. My task is to ensure that the needs of analysts in these tools and the quality of their work are covered. Of course, my responsibilities also include providing business with timely answers to questions so that analytics helps its grow and achieve its goals. To do this, I need to understand how we can help him, and build a strategy for the development of analytics in the company. I form a plan for hiring a team, connecting new tools and developing an analytical skillset, as well as participating in business strategy planning and using data to help the company choose the most profitable course.
You work in a leading position and had a team of 11 analysts under your command. Over these few years, they have led to the proactivity of many colleagues. From the point of view of your experience, what prevents an analyst from being a productive assistant to his manager and makes him an ordinary task performer?
The analyst-performer inefficiently realizes his potential. Most often, he does not understand why he is solving a task and what benefits it will bring. He is given a task that he performs without delving into its essence and result. This leads to the fact that formally the task can be done, but the issues will not be solved. All the value of effort and the benefits of work in this case are canceled. The focus of such an analyst is aimed only at closing the task and not at helping the business. There is a large flow of Ad-hoc tasks and a huge amount of communication around such a specialist. Because of this, the analyst loses the opportunity to take initiative and think creatively, which, of course, adversely affects the work. With this approach to the organization of work, the analyst is in a comfort zone and ceases to generate ideas.
What actions can you, as an expert, suggest to avoid such organization of the workflow?
The first thing to do is to set up processes. I prefer scrum, so for me what you need to start with is a board with tasks for the week. With this approach, the analyst determines the number of tasks that he can take, while the priorities are determined by the manager. Thus, there is a sense of control and discipline and management of the sprint and what gets into it. Next, we can add other automation routines to this weekly task flow. We take out frequent questions to the data in dashboards, automate typical uploads through them or through notebooks, and we take out questions to analysts in a public channel. With such organization of processes and communication we free up space for research and take away the analyst's comfort zone.
In 2016, you won a Hackathon at the Koshelek App, tell us more about your idea for it.
I took part in a Hackathon in which employees were given the opportunity to develop and offer a new product or feature within two days. My idea was to create a user-friendly functionality. That is, so that when registering a new user, the application automatically detects the existence of plastic loyalty cards of partners through a search in their CRM systems and transfers their virtual analogue to the Koshelek App. As a result, my project was chosen as the best, and the functionality is still being used. It allowed us to significantly increase the retention of new users after the first session.
Do you think that such contests contribute to the development of proactivity among analysts?
Absolutely, Hackathons help both analysts and managers. Analysts are motivated to think creatively and benefit the business, and managers see what the analytical team is capable of. Consequently, we move away from routine tasks and come to more interesting ones.
In your speeches at top conferences, you often talk about the importance of initiative. Why do you think it is necessary to give the analyst space and freedom of thought?
When an analyst is given a step-by-step task, it deprives him of the desire to think. The analyst must generate the solution of the problems himself, because this is his job. As a specialist, he is able to come up with a solution to the problem better than a manager. This issue is solved by the template of the task description, in which it is precisely indicated what the analyst is doing.
How to sell an analyst a new model of behavior in which he will be proactive?
In this case, you need to work not only with analysts, but also with the entire team, including managers. So that everyone's vision of a product analyst is being rebuilt at the same time. The first thing I usually do is hold demo - regular meetings to demonstrate the results. On them, managers see all the possibilities of what an analyst can do. Then daily - daily meetings with the team of analysts in order to understand how the analyst sees the task, whether he understands what it is needed for. Through these mechanisms, a new model of behavior and organization of processes is assimilated. As the analyst grows, they must become more independent and effective in order to benefit the business. For this to work, it is better to fix it in a document or a competence matrix.
You have implemented processes in two major projects: the Koshelek App and a large bank. In the Koshelek App, you have also developed a marketplace recommendation system that has improved the issuance of discount cards by 20%. Do you think a specialist needs to know something besides analytics?
Sure. In order for an analyst to be proactive, they also need to understand the applied field in which he works. If an analyst is engaged in a product, they must develop a product vision for themself, look at competitors and new approaches. It used to help me to listen to the manager's reasoning in order to understand what happens to the result of the solved task next. You can arrange weekly meetings where analysts and managers would discuss goals and indicators.
And then how do you see the difference between a Product Analyst and a Product Manager as a specialist in analytics and processes?
In my opinion, the analyst is researching the product and looking for growth points. The difference is that the product manager should not investigate, but determine the product strategy, gather a team and direct it in the right direction in order to achieve indicators and goals.
At the beginning of your cooperation with Russia's third largest bank in terms of the number of retail active clients, literally six months later you were offered the position of a Revenue Manager. Why do you think you were given such an opportunity so soon?
As an analyst with a lot of experience, I always try to go from the top goal. Therefore, when I came to the bank, I immediately asked to show me the PnL of my business department and began to offer ideas on how to improve business performance through the product. In fact, I already had everything for this position: an understanding of the product and business, the ability to see growth points behind the data, and a strong desire to try different scenarios to improve the business and user experience. Six months after starting work, the management noticed that I was actively showing myself, and began to offer me this position, because I would be ideally suited for it. But it was important for me to first adjust the situation in analytics and not lose focus. After another six months, I accepted the offer and started running experiments. To that day, I have managed to grow one of the key financial metrics twice, and I also continue to combine this position with the role of Head of Analytics.
What are you striving for in your work?
Over the past few years, I have been actively studying business performance analytics, so now I want to delve deeper into this topic. Of course, I will continue to develop analytical communities and expand people's understanding of analysts and the tasks assigned to them, at the same time.
