We have the data, then what?
Data Analyst First Workshop Experience
“Data is the new oil”
Do you hear this phrase often lately? It is true that data holds an important role in any organization and industry. Through data, we can make the best decisions that can help improve performance. At Tokopedia, consumers are our priority, as one of our DNA is to “Focus on Consumers”. Millions of sellers and buyers put their trust in our Super-Ecosystem where anyone can start and discover anything. Specifically, in regard to transaction behavior, we capture their diversity and preferences in choosing the goods of their needs and desires.
Big Consumers, Big Data!
As an Indonesian technology company, Tokopedia always strives to deliver high-quality experiences for our consumers. With more than 90 million monthly active users, data is one of our most valuable sources in creating a great experience for them while using our app. This will be useless if a large amount of data is not used as well as possible. One of the data that can be utilized is consumer behavior. However, there are many ways to process the data, whether it’s just profiling to modeling.
We as a data team at Tokopedia want to share how the Data Analyst team wisely turns data into something meaningful. We believe that there are a lot of potential out there, especially for professionals who are interested in the data world, in using and processing data. In addition, as the first step in our vision to ‘Transforming Data to Knowledge’ and mission to ‘Provide Intelligent Insights and Advanced Data Platforms’, we are proud to invite the entire community to study data processing at Tokopedia.
In Tokopedia, we believe that a strong analytical culture and the use of data analytics highly correlate to improved corporate performance. What we measure, how we measure it, and the insights that we could provide to our business partners, define how we first emerged as a Data Analyst team.. An interesting topic that we analyze on a day to day basis is who are our customers. How we can understand customer’s shopping habits, from their first arrival on our platform, all the way through to making the final purchase. Product launches, promotions, logistics, marketing — all of these are influenced by customer’s behavior to some extent.
For all these reasons mentioned, we conducted this workshop called ‘Understanding Your Customers’ for selected data enthusiasts to explore how to create users persona from simulated data and provide actionable recommendations based on the business need.
From hundreds of workshop registrants, 30 participants were selected to explore and learn about data with us. Most of the participants are Data Analysts, Business Intelligence, and Data Scientists from tech companies. They found out about the event through our social media or through friends and relatives. Most of them were eager to learn more about data analytics, share experiences, and network with people outside their company.
The Event!
The workshop started with a warm welcome from the Data Analytics Senior Lead of Tokopedia who appreciated the participants for their curiosity and willingness to spend the day with Tokopedia’s Data Analyst Team. The session continued with a committee briefing on the activities of the workshop, along with the context, problem statement, dataset, and gameplan for the day. The participants were also given a case study which aimed to explore how to create user persona from data.
For the workshop, the participants were divided into 10 groups of 3 participants. Each participant was provided with a laptop with some software that are already installed on it, such as SQL, Python, R, Tableau and other analytical tools that they may need. Each group got a different personal segmentation to be covered based on the dataset. We expected them to explore the data given and present the insights they got from the analysis. To maximize the workshop experience, we had Tokopedia’s Data Analyst Team ready for each group. They could ask anything about the dataset, analysis or anything regarding the task and related to Tokopedia. We also prepared one reviewer to assess their work and determine the 3 winning groups.
The participants were enthusiastic about the case study. In total, they had 4 hours to finish the case. We could see from their group discussions that the participants were trying their best to solve the case and included the mentors in the discussion. They used analytical tools provided and analytical skills to complete the case. After discussing and analyzing data for 4 hours, each group was given the time to present their work while the reviewer assessed it. Each group had different models and different settlement methods. Nevertheless, they solved the case very well and received positive insights and feedback from the reviewer.
Besides case-solving and presentations, the participants also got the chance to network with Tokopedia’s Data Analyst leaders. In this free session, they can ask anything regarding the working culture at Tokopedia, the requirements of the Data Analyst role, as well as more technical questions, such as how to use data as a tool to improve Tokopedia’s business. As one of our DNA is to ‘Make It Happen, Make It Better’, we ask the participants to rate their overall workshop experience and give us feedback.
“Overall, the event was great, it gave me valuable insight into data analytics, and allowed me to learn from other participants.”
The last session of the workshop was the ‘Awarding’ for the 3 winning groups. Below are some snapshots of the winners :)
With our first workshop, we hope participants can reap some of the following learnings from the challenging yet compelling event
- Particularly within e-commerce, the need for data and insights is certainly bigger and growing. However, the real advantages are always guided by basic business and solid strategies.
- Nowadays, we are no longer competing in terms of analytics, since many tools and algorithms are readily available. Instead, we have to compete in making analytically-informed strategies.
- Live with the truth that data and analytics help us make better decisions and dynamic plans. Make analytics your ally — not just to improve the business processes.
- In analytics, teamwork is essential, but curiosity is fundamental. The limit of your present knowledge is not the limit of your possibilities to improve.
Since we got positive feedback from participants, as below
“Nice event. Please consider holding this event in other cities too!”
“The 1-day workshop was too short. Maybe Tokopedia can extend it to 2–3 days?”
Connect with us via Meetup, Instagram @insidetokopedia, and LinkedIn to receive the latest update on our upcoming events!
