Principal Consultant, Analytics Engineering
CurrentTamalpais Group merged with phData in December of 2021. This was a struggle for me because I was so personally attached to the identity of a "Data Mercenary" and being part of a small company where you can count employees on one hand. Like Mick taught us, "You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find, You get what you need." Going further, you often don't even know what you want.In terms of innovation, I'm what they call a "late adopter". I'm the last to own a new technology or try a new service. It took me over 18 months to change this entry from "[Redacted]" to "phData". The truth is that I am so proud to be a member of this hugely talented team that I can no longer keep it to myself.phData's core values of Grit, Community, Curiosity and Psychological Safety have changed me as a person. I've had to question everything I thought I knew about my approach to analytics, working with a large team and most importantly, being vulnerable enough to trust them.My first project with phData was the polar opposite of what I'd done for the last seven years. Instead of being a small, scrappy team doing whatever it took to get the analytic result, we were multiple teams across several workstreams engaged with the corporate machinery of one of the largest solution and staffing organizations in the world. It was a deeply educational and humbling experience to learn how to scale and work within the constraints of a highly governed project. It was a great success in many ways.I still identify as a "Data Mercenary" who is there for the client when no one else can help, but now I have an army of the greatest data and analytics minds ever assembled to back me up.