Finding answers for clients through data science
Starting out in 2019 as a Business Analytics Intern, Alissa has since gone on to join the Mobiquity team full time as a Data Scientist. She talks about the importance of using and understanding data for a business. And how when utilised in the correct way, it can provide an abundance of both knowledge and opportunity.
Alissa de Bruijn: I love to find patterns in data. I have always had a strong interest in business analytics. Even from a young age, in highschool, I knew that I wanted to work in a job where I could utilise my love for economics, analytics, mathematics, and computer science. I was interested in how data could be used in a more targeted way for a business in a real setting and make a noticeable difference.
In my spare time I enjoy meeting with friends and staying active. I play volleyball with my local team VV Amsterdam, where I am part of the board acting as treasurer. I also enjoy propagating plants and would have to say one my favourite plants is the Begonia Maculata, also known as the Polka dot Begonia. The dots on the leaves of the plant almost look like they are painted on portraying the true beauty of nature.
Natural language processing
I studied a masters in Business Analytics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. One of my classmates had completed their dual programme at Mobiquity and another person I knew had worked there. Because of this I was able to get quite a good insight into what the company was like and decided to apply for an internship there. While on an exchange program in China, where I followed computer science courses for six months, I discussed with the Mobiquity team on the topic for my master thesis. Two weeks after I returned to the Netherlands I started at Mobiquity.
I wrote my thesis on natural language processing ‘Detecting offensive language using transfer learning’. For this project I developed and implemented a new model to determine whether it could identify if a twitter tweet contained offensive text. I investigated the learning process of how that model worked and how it compared to other models. This project highlighted the power of data analytics, as by simply using a model in a computer it could scan through a lot of text and get the content without requiring a person to read it.
A culture that facilitates growth and development
During my Internship I got to experience the Mobiquity culture and how the company and people work. When offered a full time position, I didn’t hesitate to accept. There is a great sense of fun among employees. Every Friday we would gather together for drinks and activities. Unfortunately, we have not been able to do this during the pandemic, but we have had some cool events via zoom, for example a cooking workshop, which really helps to keep everyone connected and keep the culture alive and strong.
Mobiquity employees are friendly, approachable, and smart people who I get to learn a lot from by working here. I want to grow and develop my career as much as I can, and Mobiquity really facilitates this. I have close contact with our HR department and they help assist me with any coaching and development needs I have.
Using data to find answers
Within my role as a data scientist, I am responsible for tagging. What does this mean? Well, in order to be able to get answers or information from data we need to apply tags. For example, I am working on a project for KIB. There are a lot of screens as Mobiquity is building an app. My role is to gather data from the app. In particular to find out what people are doing on the app, if they were onboarding, what features they used the most and if they left the app, why.
To get those answers I need to gather data from every screen and apply tags to receive the information I am looking for. This involves creating a tagging plan. From there I can visualise the information collected in dashboards for the client so they can easily digest and understand it. We also have quite a lot of data from the client’s current customers so I am working on a model that can help to predict a customer’s next move, for example if a customer is likely to extend their existing 3 month deposit. This information will help the client to understand their customers and business better, while also highlighting where there is potential to improve their product and service offerings.
Uncovering insights and frictions through analytics
What does a data scientist bring to a business? Value! Utilising data enables us to help clients understand more about their customers. We can help the client to retain customers, uncover insights about their products and services, resulting in added value for the overall business. By knowing what your customer does, how they interact with your business, what encourages them to engage or what friction they may have, will ultimately enable your business to provide better offerings. You can find out through data captured of customer interactions where to improve an application or uncover main frictions of why customers don’t like to use a particular app. Data can help to figure this out and find answers.
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Originally published at https://www.mobiquity.com.
