What Ewa Taught Us About Solving the Puzzle of Life — and Winning in the Business World
“I love doing puzzles in my free time. I think I like puzzles because they symbolize life in a way. Looking back at my life, I don’t wish for anything different. I have no regrets. If I were to create a story for myself, I think everything that happened is a piece of the puzzle. All the elements combine to create the full picture,” states Ewa.
Now our Business Analytics Team Leader at OLX Group, Ewa has many lessons to teach us — not only about puzzles but also about how to solve the puzzle of life and work. We recently sat down with Ewa to talk about life, work, the business world, and puzzles. Below, we’ll tell you the four key insights she gave us during our discussion.
Insight #1: Find where the heart beats
We’ve all done puzzles before. There’s a period where you struggle to see how the pieces connect. Then, you find that one piece that seemingly connects everything together. It’s like finding the heart.
Ewa’s career journey has been similar to piecing together a puzzle. Personally, Ewa’s always been intent on finding the thing that she wants to do, on following her heart. Within her work, Ewa has emphasized understanding what’s at the heart of what they’re doing.
Tell us about your career path and your time spent teaching.
“I always wanted to be a math teacher, so I spent time doing that while studying. In the fourth year of my studies, I did a student exchange in Sweden. At this time, I started to look at mathematics from a different perspective. Back in Poland during my final tests, we were looking at math in connection to business. This was something that inspired me to apply mathematical knowledge in new ways. I started my second specialty in Informatics and Economics and graduated from my PhD at the University of Economics,” details Ewa.
“So, I stayed there teaching during my PhD and I spent 5+ years working as a teacher. After 5 years at the university, I started to want to apply my PhD knowledge in business and real life.”
What did you do after teaching?
“I worked as a business analyst at a FMCG company and was responsible for supporting decisions regarding which products we should buy and sell. I worked in the purchase department but everything centered around the data. My work was connected to stocks, rotations, margins, and payments.
“During my PhD studies, I was teaching monetary policy to undergraduate and masters students. I decided that maybe I would work at a bank as that sort of organization was related to my PhD thesis — using Applied Mathematics in monetary policy. What I realized while working at the bank was that it wasn’t about monetary policy but more about managing the customers. I learned a lot of things about customer management that I use currently.”
How did you get to OLX Group?
“During my 1.5 years at the bank, I realized what I wanted to do. I wanted to be close to the business and customers. I didn’t want to be the person working in the background, because you don’t get to see how your work affects people. In the end, I was creating new processes for the bank but I didn’t have a connection to the people using the products.
“I realized that Each business has a heart. When you’re close to the customers, you know what’s important. You see how you solve real customer pain points. You know what makes the business beat. As analysts, you have to know what makes the business beat.
“That was why I decided to look for different options, and OLX Group seemed like a great fit. The first position I had at OLX Group was in the business unit of Otomoto. At Otomoto, I’ve been responsible for private consumers.
“During my work, I used my knowledge from previous years. We started to think about pricing and strategy, looking at how customers behave. This led me more to strategic projects. The main project was for car financing and insurance for customers,” describes Ewa.
“It’s been a long journey. My career has been about following my heart, as well as finding what’s at the heart of a company, project, task, etc. That’s how you complete the puzzle!”
Want to see what it’s like to work at OLX? Read our article on why you join OLX now!
Insight #2: Listen & Look for the Clues
Ewa has had quite the career at OLX Group. She’s gone from an individual contributor and became a people manager. She credits OLX’s culture of enabling team members to shape their own career. Or, to describe it in Ewa’s style: To put the pieces of your career puzzle together the way you wish.
“I transitioned from an individual contributor to a people manager. As an individual contributor, I had a lot of time to do things on my own. I was relying on myself. Now, I need to carefully listen to what the people are telling me. They are my eyes and they are my hands. They help me put the puzzle together,” exclaims Ewa!
Was your work at OLX Group a good path from the bank?
“Yes. My work at the bank prepared me for my roles at OLX, which align with what I’ve always wanted to do. Coming to OLX, I knew how to calculate interest rates and analyze credit and all that, but on the other hand, I needed to learn about financing with cars. I already knew a lot, but there were specifics to learn. Plus, I had the opportunity to create new products here.” states Ewa.
“So, we had two projects: financing and insurance. What was exciting was that this was my first chance to build things from scratch. Previously, I hadn’t been given that opportunity. I had colleagues who had learned the business from scratch on their own, which was helpful. They had knowledge of the business and experience in different markets.”
How have things changed for you as a manager, especially during COVID?
“You have to listen and look for clues from your team. You have to put the story together so that you know what’s most important. You can’t do that if you’re not getting feedback and having teammates ask questions.
Extra note: Jakub, who’s Head of Strategy and Data Motors Europe and on the same team as Ewa, echoes similar thoughts about the role of business intelligence. He says we must ask the ‘So what?’ question with every project we do.
“When I work with BI and data people, we make dashboards and charts, but we need to answer the ‘So what?’ question. What does it mean for the business? For the operations? What’s the conclusion? If you don’t have a conclusion, then you’re unprepared. When we analyze data, we also want to answer the question, ‘What’s your hypothesis?’ You must have something to prove. What will happen if the hypothesis is proven? What will we do if the hypothesis is proven wrong? When we have these answers, then we can talk about implementing strategies and tasks for the business.”
“On the BI team, it’s about connecting all the pieces of the puzzle. We have to create the one big picture,” adds Ewa.
What is your team responsible for now?
“We’re responsible for understanding the customer — for those purchasing the cars and for private sellers. We are fully concentrated on private customers, buyers and sellers.
“Currently, we’re trying to understand the most demanding part of the business. We have to understand a customer with whom we didn’t have a dialogue before. On the team, we have product and business analysts, so we have a well-rounded perspective. We understand what products we should offer and which categories we should support. My team is supporting OLX Group Motors vertical brands in Europe (Otomoto in Poland, Autovit in Romania, Otomoto Klik in Poland, Standvirtual in Portugal to name a few). Then there’s OLX Horizontal (OLX in Poland, Portugal and Romania). The scope is massive!
“We’re building the private customer unit. It’s about taking all these new pieces of the puzzle, learning about them, and figuring out how we can serve them best.”
Like Ewa says, OLX’s scope is big! Did you know we have over 300 million users? Learn more things you didn’t know about OLX here.
Insight #3: There are many stories to tell
Look at this article on the 14 most challenging puzzles.
The 5000 Colors Jigsaw Puzzle by Clemens Habicht
The Amsterdam with Red Bike Puzzle from Educa
The size and complexity of these puzzles mean there can be infinite ways to solve them. You can create the puzzle, or the story, through the methods you see best.
As Business Analytics Team Leader, Ewa has a similar approach to change management. After all, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to quite a lot of changes. There are current challenges to the auto market, especially supply issues and chip shortages. COVID-19 has also pushed the car buying journey more online.
Ewa and her team have stayed nimble, understanding there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to work during the pandemic. It’s about understanding what’s happening and making analytical, proactive decisions.
What have you learned about the customer during COVID?
“There are different types of customers. Some customers want and looking for a car near their neighborhood. Others are okay looking for cars to buy from anywhere. Customers now want to learn about the car before they go and see it. With COVID, we have had to accelerate what we do online as the shopper has moved there.”
“With all this said, I want to reiterate: The crisis creates more opportunities. We have to identify and execute on those opportunities. ”
What’s one new solution/product you’ve launched recently?
“We’ve launched Otomoto Klik so customers can fully buy a car online. After receiving the car, customers have 14 days to give back the car if they’re not fully satisfied. COVID created challenges but also the chance to bring digital ideas and strategies to life. This is what I like about Motors. There are a lot of stories to tell. Once our analysts spot trends and new stories, we work with UX and design to tell these stories and speak to our customers better.”
Extra note: Speaking of Data teams collaborating with UX and Design, Matylda, Lead Product Researcher at OLX Group, notes that design should meet the needs of the customer journey. Thinking of the customer journey as a story, she cites this great quote from The Little Prince (one of her favorite books). It relates to how business analytics can use data to tell a story.
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
Insight #4: Don’t follow cooking recipes 100%
Ewa likes cooking and baking during her free time. In a way, using recipes is like using data for her.
“You have the recipe to follow. But sometimes, you have the feeling that you can make something better. In the beginning, I try to follow the recipe but I also see the ability to cook something tastier. It’s the same way with analytics. We shouldn’t see analyses from two people that are exactly the same. That would be strange,” notes Ewa.
“In baking, it’s a mixture of tastes, influences, and experiences that impact what is the final recipe. In analysis, it’s a mixture of influences, experiences, and challenges that impact the final analysis.”
Final question! What’s something you’ve heard, seen, and read recently?
“Cool question! Let’s see. One thing I’ve seen…I like being close to nature. Last time I went out in nature I saw a woodpecker. That was amazing. You don’t see that in the city. It was nice to see that and peaceful to watch the bird,” describes Ewa.
“As far as something I’ve read…I recently read a book about breathing. It was super insightful. Breathing is life. It’s something we should give attention to from time to time.”
“And something I’ve heard…There’s this Polish song that refers to the 80s and 90s when I was growing up. Listening to it, I can go back to the era and it connects with me on a personal level. It’s typical of what I’ve experienced, and it makes me think about how all my experiences connect to form the puzzle or story of my life. In the song there is a sentence that I like a lot…’I give you my word, everything was for something’…..”
Put together your puzzle
Life is a puzzle. It’s how we put the pieces together that counts. As we learned from Ewa from our conversation with her, there are many ways the story can go. Follow your heart, work well with others, find new solutions, and enjoy the journey. You’ll create something great!
