Employee Spotlight: Brandon Segal Data Science and Culture
Q: What do you do at X-Mode and how does it impact the business?
A: I work as a data scientist and we help answer questions across the business about how our clients are doing, how people can better buy our data, and how we can help impact decisions that are being made across the company. We’re also working to help build the next data products that X-Mode will end up selling.
Q: What drew you to X-Mode originally?
A: The ability to work with a growing team and being able to work in a startup environment where I have more freedom to make decisions and learn more technical skills.
Q: What is your proudest achievement since joining X-Mode?
A: I think my proudest achievement would be the implementation of algorithms that we developed across the team, their deployment into production, and the effect they’ll have on our clients’ decisions.
Q: What do you think is the biggest misconception about working at a startup?
A: That the culture is homogeneous. I think that when a lot of people think of startups, they think of a bunch of guys from Stanford working in their sweatpants in bean bag chairs. We have a ton of people with a ton of different backgrounds here, which brings a lot more and better ideas than just one person would be able to contribute.
Q: How has being at X-Mode helped you grow in your career?
A: I think it’s really helped me grow into my career as a data scientist. In my role, I’ve been allowed to focus on the different pieces of data science — the analysis, learning about the domain of geospatial analytics, just being able to grow technically working in our cloud data environment and writing code every day. I think it really leads to becoming a better, well-rounded technical professional.
Q: What is your favorite memory at X-Mode?
A: A lot of times, the best moments for the data team are not great moments for other pieces of business because we’re helping explain problems that we didn’t know we had.
One great moment was when we found this issue with a new version of Android that puts [inactive] apps to sleep, which would lead to a decrease in volume [of data] for us. No one knew how much that was going to affect us and our team did an analysis where we put those results together, gathered the data, and ran the analysis. Being able to explain that to Jamie [VP of Operations] and Josh [CEO], I think that was exciting because it was immediately acted upon and they started creating a plan for what to do.
Q: What is something interesting people might not know about data science?
A: I would say that many data scientists experience imposter syndrome and that may be a result of how vague the role is. The role of data scientist came as a result of the industry needing a cross-functional employee that knew aspects of the business domain, statistical and mathematical modeling, and software engineering. With so much field to cover, it is very difficult to know everything so it’s likely to see someone else who is better than you at one of those aspects which can make you think “Do I even Data Science?”. It’s a normal part of the job and the way I have found to try to cope with it is to appreciate the work that someone had put out and try to learn from them and highlight areas I have room to grow in.
Q: What’s your favorite interesting data visualization?
A: Anything from Dueling Data, a blog by someone I worked with at Deloitte, Adam McCann. He could have a masterclass on Tableau Visualizations, but I would have to say that my favorite visualization he has made has been his work with sports visuals — but really his work with political data or educational visualizations are fantastic.
Q: What TV show are you currently binge-watching?
A: Handmaid’s Tale.
Q: Coolest place you’ve traveled so far?
A: I think it’s a toss-up between Iceland or Paris. I got engaged in Paris and there was this laundromat that was actually a bar. If you put a couple of coins into this one washing machine, when you pulled on the door of this washer, it opened up a speakeasy type of place.
Q: You’re happiest when?
A: I’m happiest when I’m with my fiancée and when we’re traveling.
Q: Secret hidden talent?
A: I brew beer but I also did rugby and gymnastics in college.
Q: Favorite office snack?
A: Those veggie straws — I always steal one on the way out.
Q: Last thoughts about working at X-Mode?
A: Just that I really love working at X-Mode and being a part of the data team, and that I’m excited to see where the company goes!
By: Steven Vu
