Get to Know… Krista!

What is your role at Vovia?

I am the Senior Analytics Specialist in title, but in practice I think I would describe my job as a professional problem solver. I use data to get to the bottom of things—whether it’s day to day marketing campaign performance, consumer behaviour studies, site performance troubleshooting; you name it! My job is to help our team translate our learnings into smarter strategies and better results for our clients.

What is your favourite part of the job?

The M&Ms cupboard!!!

Just kidding. Everyone says this, but it’s true—my favourite part is our team! We have a true team of experts at Vovia and it is a pleasure to come here every day and work with such a deeply knowledgeable and passionate group of people. There is so much value that is gained from having a team of experts to consult with and collaborate with. We may not all work on the same projects, but everyone is always willing to work together and collaborate when needed. Our entire business becomes stronger by the day because of this.

What do you like to do when you’re not ‘power querying’ your pivot tables and ‘vlookup-ing’ your macros?

Skiing, snowboarding, hair-farming, knitting, and riding bikes! Three of those are loosely related…

In 2010 I watched WAY too much of the Vancouver Olympics and got a little obsessed with ski racing. I decided that I really wanted to grow long flowing hair like Lindsey Vonn, because it looked really cool under a helmet. I also decided it would probably make me ski faster and I’ve been growing my hair ever since! If I ever meet Vonn, I’ll definitely challenge her to a race to see if my theory is correct.

What’s the coolest thing that you have ever knitted?

One of my prize possessions is a cowichan sweater that I hand knitted. To make sure that it was as historically accurate as possible, my sweater has skulls and robots on it!

If you could compete in any Olympic sport, what would it be?

Realistically I’m getting too old to get to the elite level in most sports, but I could probably still make it in curling. Fantasy world, I think they should add a new combination sport in the Winter Olympics that is a triathlon of downhill skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country knitting. I think I could probably do pretty well in that, especially considering how long my hair is getting!

We heard you used to be a scientist? What’s that all about?

I actually went to school to be a molecular geneticist. For my Masters thesis project, I mapped the gene and discovered the mutation that causes DCMA (Dilated Cardiomyopathy with Ataxia) syndrome. This  was a huge achievement as this newly characterized disorder that at the time was only found in the Canadian Hutterite population.

What is your favourite metric?

Ha! That’s a trick question. I don’t have just ONE favourite. Any metric can be my fave as long as it meets the following three criteria:

1) Reliable – the metric must be an accurate indicator of the desired outcome of your efforts.
2) Measurable – data should be easily accessible in a timely manner.
3) Actionable – the metric should be able to be analyzed to such a level that is indicative of the root of any performance issues. Once identified and when interventions are undertaken to correct such performance issues, these will be reflected in the metric’s performance.

I’m also partial to anything that increases the enjoyment of M&M’s (obviously).