Wayfair is an enterprise obsessed with data. How do you use data to make smart decisions in your current role?
Companies so heavily based on tech and e-commerce rely on data for several reasons. Data can tell Wayfair the demographic of their top customers, their lowest spending customers, pique times for online shopping, and thousands of other factors when analyzed correctly. This data leads to company decisions on hiring, training, purchasing, marketing campaigns, and more. Discuss how you use data in your current job and how that data helps you make the best decisions. "Use Data to Find a Personalized Solution. We bring our tools and critical thinking together to efficiently find the best solution or products for our customers."
"In my current role, I use geo-data a lot. When I know the customers' location, I can figure out the most popular products in their region, allowing me to make great upselling suggestions during customer service calls. I appreciate being privy to data this specific as it enables me to be a better performer and a more helpful customer service agent."
"I tend to look through our customer demographics a lot, which helps a great deal when it comes to deciding which products to advertise and which ones on which to scale back. It's a big deal for a company to rely on data so readily, and I'm thrilled to hear that Wayfair is data-centric."
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Anonymous Answer
When I first arrived at my last role, engineering management was flying blind. We didn't have the data or systems in place to know where developer time was going. I put systems in place to collect and make every aspect of engineering management more transparent. We found that over 80% of our development time was spent on interruptions to regularly scheduled project work. I've spent much of my career reversing that trend, ultimately achieving a 20% support to project work ratio. Asking what the data says before acting is a disruptive option in some company cultures, and Wayfair's emphasis on data-driven decision-making is one I share.
Rachelle's Feedback
By sharing the results of your project innovations, you are proving to the interviewer that you are the right person for the job. Very well done!
Anonymous Answer
I tend to look through our customer viewership behavior and the funnel data a lot, which helps in deciding what content should we recommend next and what product features are not working. The product team can constantly make changes to the features to optimize the customer experience. It's a big deal for a company to rely on data so readily, and I'm thrilled to hear that Wayfair is data-centric.
Stephanie's Feedback
This is a solid start, but to strengthen your response, I suggest being a bit more specific. Is there a specific time when you've used data in your current role to make a decision? More specific details would help make this response more impactful and memorable.
Anonymous Answer
I look weekly at the article performance, we share our data in our weekly team meeting. So KPIs such as sales revenues and margin, of course, sales quantities, and sales ratio are also extremely important since we create two seasons per year. The main goal is to sell out the previous season before the new one gets delivered (of course without having to use too many incentives).
During the planning of a new season, I additionally look at which product categories brought the most sales and which sizes, to have a better overview of the target.
Before meeting with my suppliers, I prepare for them a presentation that includes, on top of their article performance, a comparison to the previous season to show how we grew together and what that means for the next season, we have a look at the delivery windows and how the products sold on a timeline.
Jaymie's Feedback
Excellent! You went into detail about the types of data you collect and how you utilize it to make suggestions and improvements.
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