Alisa Parrett on keeping an open mind
By venturing beyond her comfort zone, Alisa Parrett discovered a love for data
Alisa Parrett joined the Dropbox Rotation Program after graduating from Stanford a year ago. She studied symbolic systems and found her way to a technical product specialist role at Dropbox, where she closes the feedback loop between users and product teams.
Where are you from?
Most of my childhood was spent in Massachusetts, but I’ve also lived in New Jersey, Seattle, and Korea.
At Stanford, you studied symbolic systems, with a concentration in cognitive science. What does that mean, and how did you get interested in the field?
I actually went into college with the intention of being a double major in music and international relations, neither of which panned out.
I was very active in the music department throughout my college experience, but I didn’t major in it. I took a couple of classes in international relations and just didn’t like it. I was sort of at a loss for what to do, so I took a computer science class.
I loved it.
It wasn’t anything I had ever thought would remotely be in my wheelhouse, but it was just something that clicked with my brain.
Symbolic systems is an interdisciplinary program that connects computer science with philosophy, linguistics, psychology, even music. My focus was on cognitive science and human-computer interaction, figuring out how humans interact with computers and how computers can be made to model human thought.
I spent a lot of time building computer models of human thought processes and learning the principles behind creating great technological experiences for users.
How did you decide to join the Dropbox Rotation Program?
I was strongly considering going to graduate school for computer science, and then one of the recruiters here at Dropbox reached out to me on LinkedIn.
She was recruiting for user operations, and because I had done a lot of study of how people interact with computers, it was something that definitely intrigued me right away.
I went through the interview process for user operations, loved the company, and got really excited about all of the people I was meeting. As a new graduate, I ended up starting in DRP.
What kinds of things did you work on during your sales rotation?
I ended up working on the account management team, which is post-sales. They are working on customer success right after sales. So I spent a lot of time building out content to help new users learn Dropbox — help center articles and best practice documents.
I picked up a lot of product and user analytics during that time too.
Was there anything that surprised you, or anything you learned about yourself as you went through the program?
So much! I had come in with a background in understanding and empathizing with users, so I thought user operations was my calling. Then I picked up analytics and discovered that I’m a data freak.
I love data!
It wasn’t something I’d had a lot of experience with. I coded in school, and I learned SQL in February. Now it’s a huge portion of what I do. I do a lot of product analytics.
I’ve worked really closely with the data science team and with different product managers to figure out how people use the product on a larger scale, rather than anecdotally, which is where I thought my strength was before.
In terms of personal development, historically I’ve been a very shy person, but I’ve learned to figure out what I’m good at and be assertive in those areas.
The people around here make it so easy too — they’re really good at picking up on that and nurturing it. That’s something I’ve really appreciated and have benefitted a lot from.
I think I’ve gained a lot of confidence being here — just navigating the work world, figuring out what I like, what I’m good at, what people need, and what I can provide.
What are you working on lately?
I am a technical product specialist on Dropbox for Business. We close the feedback loop between our customers and our product teams. We’re the guardians of user feedback, and we present it to product teams on an aggregate scale.
When the product team is making big changes, we’re also responsible for transmitting that information to the rest of the user operations team and to our user base at large.
I also work a lot on analytics, gathering data on user feedback, as well as analytics on how to make our team more efficient.
How did you find your way to that role?
I knew that I wanted to work more on the technical end of things, and I really enjoy interacting with engineers and product managers.
This was one of the placements that was open at the end of my rotation, and it felt very much like a natural fit for me. I love to understand how users are interacting with the product, and this is one way that I get to see that both on a large scale and from individual user stories.
Do you have any mentors or role models who have helped shape your path?
There are a few people who have been really significant in my decision process. When I first started, Marshall Kurtz was so crucial in helping me figure out how Dropbox worked as a company. He was always the person who would ask, “How are you really feeling?”
I was also lucky enough to have many different people from throughout the company who invested the time to really help me figure out my final placement for DRP. If I don’t know what to do, I have a lot of people to talk to.
If you could go back and give yourself advice when you were just graduating, what would it be?
My advice would just be to be more open to new things and to test the waters in something you don’t necessarily think you’ll be good at.
Learn more about the Dropbox Rotation Program for new college graduates.
