How SKOOT’s Data Analyst Stays Motivated in an Intense Start-Up Environment
This week we were lucky enough to speak to our Data Analyst Christelle about what keeps her motivated when working and analysing copious amounts of data. Let me just stop myself right there. Let’s first chat more about what a data analyst actually does (there was a lot for me to learn).
Data Analysts have a significant role at SKOOT as they are the gatekeepers for organising information. This means they have the responsibility of organising and optimising how we gather data and then making sure the data can be analysed quickly and is accurate. Data analysis allows the product team to compare how people use the SKOOT app. They get insight into what people struggle with, see how satisfied they are with the app, if the app is being used as intended, and helps them understand how SKOOT could become more user friendly. The meaningful results they pull from raw data help the SKOOT team make important decisions by identifying various facts and trends.
When speaking to Christelle we wanted to understand how she stays motivated when working through extensive and never-ending data tasks. Christelle pointed out to us that Monday and Tuesday are when she finds herself most productive. She says her productivity tends to dip on Wednesday but that by Thursday and Friday, it seems to pick back up again. Must be that looking forward to the weekend boost of energy. We get you, Christelle!
Christelle told us when she tries to maintain focus and motivation, she looks at her small victories throughout the day to help her appreciate how much work she has actually completed. She also stated that it helps to know that her work is going towards something that will help the company with bigger decisions and provides valuable insight into how to improve the app. Sourcing through data allows her to give us advice on how the SKOOT user behaves and what developments could improve the overall experience.
It can be hard to get up in the morning but Christelle feels that drinking a cup of coffee isn’t always the healthiest of choices to start your day so she decided to give up caffeine and now does a 15-minute ab workout or stretches to wake up instead. Christelle does intermittent fasting, so skipping dinner helps her sleep better as she feels hungrier in the morning so when she eats it helps wake her body up too!
During the day, Christelle often has extensive tasks that can be hard to focus on for such a long period of time. She pointed out that sometimes she struggles to be motivated when it comes to “documenty stuff” and longer pieces of writing, as it doesn’t come as naturally to her. So she developed a way to tackle this! Christelle finds writing to-do lists helps her break down tasks into more manageable chunks and helps her notice small wins. Christelle feels that if you stay positive and set yourself a goal then you will be more inclined to get your tasks done. She goes with the mentality of “the quicker I get this done, the quicker I can get to do more fun things!”
Christelle loves to exercise as it really helps her function and helps her prepare for her day. She likes to do 1–1.5 hours a day of more intense exercises for example running 10K, capoeira, or swimming, and half an hour of lighter work throughout the day like yoga and stretching. Christelle also loves to do meditation for 15 minutes every day and she likes having a playlist near for every mood or occasion. Maybe we will have Christelle’s motivation too if we did as much for our mental and physical health! You’re doing great, sweetie.
We love to hear about what motivates everyone in the team so next week we will be talking to Andżelika who is the Lead Product Designer at SKOOT. She will be telling us how to stay motivated and focus when designing new screens for the app!
