As Director of Data and Analytics, Colm O’Grada works across the company, leading and coaching teams to "make better decisions and make decisions better." Read on to learn more about Colm, including his favorite things about working at Tines, what he gets up to outside of work, and his advice for new employees and Tines users.
Can you tell us a little more about yourself and what you like to do in your free time?
Most of my free time goes to family stuff. I have two young kids - we live just outside of Dublin, in a small town in North Wicklow. We spend a lot of our free time here. It’s a really nice place to be; we have lots of friends and neighbors.
Outside of that, the rest of my free time goes to photography and trying to maintain some semblance of fitness. Apart from going to the gym regularly, I also do Brazilian jiu-jitsu and go for the odd sea swim, as cliche as that is here in Ireland.
What does a typical workday or week look like for you at Tines?
I’m sure others have said the same thing, but there’s no typical workweek when you’re leading a small data team at a growing company. That’s a good thing, for me. Working across literally every single team keeps things really interesting.
My work involves some of the run-of-the-mill stuff, like reporting and analytics. But my main focus is on understanding the needs and challenges of our teams, and helping them find the right solutions in the data. Given how many new things are happening all the time at Tines, I spend a lot of time with different teams, helping them figure out how to make better decisions.
My favorite part about managing my team is helping people round out their skill set. Some people are very good at specific things, but they also have a lot of opportunity to grow in other areas. Of course, it helps to have your specialty, but it also helps to strengthen several different areas if you want to be successful in data.
It’s cool to see people grow and the independence and confidence they get from that process.
What's the coolest thing you've worked on to date?
One thing that was somewhat challenging but worthwhile was thinking deeply about our pricing and packaging. I talked to every type of person at the company, from frontline sales to engineering to leadership. And I also listened to what our customers love (and don’t love) about Tines.
I talked to anywhere from 50 to 60 people. The challenge of processing all those different opinions and cutting through them to find something that’s not just an awkward average was super interesting.
The goal was to try to come up with something that worked for our customers and also helped us grow as a company. That process took an enormous amount of time for a company like ours - about nine months.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out at Tines?
Talk to as many people as possible. The company will never be this small again, so take advantage of that. If you can get one thing out of those conversations, it’s learning how to figure out what work is the most worthwhile.
What's your favorite thing about the Tines platform? Any tips?
One of my favorite things about Tines is how quickly you can go from an idea to something that works, sometimes within minutes, which is amazing. There’s so much built in - you don’t have to worry about monitoring or managing all the different integrations. It just works.
My main tip to builders is to get stuck in. If you have an idea, go for it. And leverage the community - there’s a growing community here at Tines that can help you.
There’s a lot of cool stuff on our website and in our library that can help you take your creative idea and make it a working, functioning thing.
Anything else to add?
I joined Tines from a very large company. At that point, Tines was a thousand times smaller than the company I left. Our company values are speed, simplicity, and soundness. I think they’re very fitting for the work we do and our company culture.
What I enjoy most about working at Tines is the creative freedom. If you’re someone who wants to build things and watch them grow, very few people will get in your way.
Tines is hiring! Find out more about our open roles in the US and Ireland.