I focused on the marketing and analytics at Virimodo and have worked on lots of different projects with the same goal of expanding the exposure of Virimodo, promoting green living and setting up Virimodo’s data-driven decision making structure. Examples of projects that I have worked on are as follows: reviewed several analytics platforms that Virimodo uses and set framework of the reporting of the data; created marketing and traction strategy based on analysis of Virimodo’s mission, business structure, and target customers; and conducted A/B testing on website design, etc. I believe these projects fit with the organization’s mission in that Virimodo not only provides a service, but also promotes the idea of low carbon green living with the help of analytics.

My degree in marketing science has prepared me with both analytical and marketing skills and thinking. I used what I learned in market research and consumer insights to create the marketing strategy, create target customer personas, and understand the difference of traction channels and prioritized them. On the other side, I used what I learned in applied multivariate and marketing models to analyze data and set up the data flow. I used R and Excel to filter out the data I needed and used clustering to create personas. Using what I learned from marketing models, I used Googla Analytics to set up different traction channels and analyzed the results.

The types of challenges vary. I started off facing the challenge of not understanding Virimodo’s business model and the industry. A a lot of terminologies, such as carbon offsets and regulations such as local law 97 frequently appear in Virimodo’s business model, and I took time and built up my knowledge in the field. Then, I faced the challenge of not having enough data since Virimodo is a very early-stage startup. Finally, I also faced the challenge of not having more experienced people on the team and was not confident enough in the strategy I created. Overall, I think I overcame all challenges in the best way I could and learned a lot in the process.

One of the key takeaways from the experience was the importance of testing. Though there are some strategies and frameworks setup in the field, each business is still different from each other and testing is the best way to show if a strategy is effective. Another key takeaway is that there is a lot of data available and setting up the right structure for analysis is important. With data more and more important in the current business world, a lot of data-related companies also exist. However, choosing the one that is more suitable and using that platform to its fullest can actually produce the largest impact.