For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with puzzles of all types.

In fact, during my studies at Stanford University and UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, my favorite classes all shared a common theme: high-stakes make-or-break challenges, often with conflicting priorities, that involved multiple work streams and engaged constituents with different (and often divergent) needs. I loved the challenge of uncovering and implementing the most optimal solutions, bound by constraints of time or money or both, in the pursuit of capitalizing upon the opportunity at hand. Throughout my undergrad, grad, and MBA studies, these classes were certainly the most challenging and fulfilling.

I carried this interest into my professional career, spending 25+ years in data analytics and finance, looking closely at KPIs and new metrics to track financial health. I’ve spent considerable time analyzing data at both the micro- and the macro-level to better understand customer behavior, transactional patterns, cross-sell opportunities, and pricing strategies. Also, I’ve taken these finding and put them into practice, effectuating them in the real world to attract new customers, increase revenue, and develop GTM strategies.

This perspective has been central to my years in Finance, Analytics, and Strategy, which have enabled me to ”see” the business from the holistic perspective of the Customer, the Company, the Market, and the Product. Are the company’s KPIs moving in the same direction? Are the incentivizes aligned to support growth and achieve the Company’s goals? What types of customers are most profitable for the Company, and how do we attract more of them? Which product, and specifically which features, are the most popular and how do we monetize them? What new perspectives might exist to generate new data insights, like incorporating demographic stats or traffic patterns? Understanding the breadth of questions that are available to ask, along with leveraging data to answer them, provides invaluable insights to growing revenue and developing a cogent business strategy.

In combination with ”hard skills” like finance and analytics, what I’ve come to appreciate is the value of relationships. I’ve learned that success is fostered through collaboration, teamwork, and mutual respect of each team member’s contributions, and so building solid working relationships is of utmost priority. In fact, the most valuable lessons I have ever learned were not from Accounting, Corporate Finance, or Statistics… they were from Negotiations. Through Negotiations, you learn to listen to other people’s needs, understand their positioning and motivations, and build towards a collaborative engagement. You learn how to proactively search for win-win scenarios while balancing risk and trade-offs. I incorporate these lessons into my work in building long-standing, long-term working relationships.

I’ve had the opportunity to lead projects large and small – from visualizing KPI dashboards for tech startups to modeling multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts for Fortune 500 companies. Ultimately, what drives my work is the impact towards achieving my clients’ goals and developing working relationships that persist.

—DL