a day in the life

Vivek analyses customer behaviour for Macy's - one of the biggest department stores in the US.

12:00 Noon - Wow! What a great start to the day - the first email reads 'Macy's same store sales is up by 6.5%', way ahead compared to its competitors. For the last year we have analysed Macy's transaction and communication information to help them reach this stage - allowing them to make customer first decisions. It feels good when you see the impact of your findings and recommendations!

12:30pm - I join our daily 20 minute stand-up meeting to discuss work plans for the day. The meeting extended into deeper discussion on our lifestyle segmentation methodology for Macy's.

1:00pm - I return to my desk and define some new conceptual dimensions, which should help us capture broad level customer behavioural traits and allow us to differentiate one group of customers from another.

3:00pm - I go into an analysis review meeting with the aim of figuring out whether Macy's are communicating with their customers too frequently, and if so, how we can find the optimal frequency without any negative impact on sales? We review the findings from the communication test we've been running over the last couple of months.

4:00pm - After a quick coffee break, I get into another meeting to review the results of a promotion that ended recently. Today's focus was on the differences in promotional behaviour between online and in-store customers?

4:30pm - I take a snack break in the cafeteria and prepare for the indoor tennis challenge (Wii) with Raj. He was already in the lead, and we end our daily dose of five games with a score of 8-3.

5:00pm - The leadership team of another client is visiting our India office this week. They are presenting some of the solutions being implemented and I join the discussion.

6:15pm - I join the daily leadership call. Folks from New York, Cincinnati, Atlanta and India join the call. I'm constantly amazed how such widely spread out teams work together to achieve the same goals. I take a coffee break before my next meeting.

6:30pm - I start putting together my dimensions results in a presentation and make my notes for discussion with the market analysts in the evening. Once I am ready, I take a coffee break before the meetings starts at 7:00pm. 

7:00pm - I send out my findings to US analysts and join the bridge to discuss them. These discussions become the breeding ground for innovative ideas!

8:00pm - We are kicking off a new work stream for Macy's regarding store assortment. I join the internal kick off call for the project.

8:45pm - Time to go home. I scan though the emails, prepare a plan for tomorrow and push off for home.

Prashant does script development for the dunnhumby Shop - dunnhumby's flagship product

10.00am - I reach the office on the 3rd floor and greet my team members.  I glance at my email box and prepare a list of the items which need to be cleared today.

10.30am - I go for a daily catch-up ('the stand up') meeting where we let each other know what we have been and are working on. It's a nice way to start the day as we are made aware of all the activities of different members of the team.

11.00am - After a small coffee break, I start running through my checklist for the day.

1.00pm - I take my lunch with the team, a fun-filled time to crack jokes at each other. The everlasting topic 'Which is better place to live Faridabad vs. Ghaziabad' is yet again discussed!

1.45pm - My phone rings; I realise it's time for our UK colleagues to arrive in the London office.  We discuss the status of a new product we're collaborating on.

2.00pm Another daily stand up - this time for the latest development of dunnhumby Shop - our flagship web-based tool. We discuss how to standardise and enhance reports for clients. It's really satisfying to see that everybody is open for suggestions and changes for the improvement of the tool I'm developing.

3.00pm - I spend some time testing the changes in our test environment.

6:00pm - An analyst asks for my assistance in a program I've been using for a couple of years that is new to him. I feel privileged and dutiful to help others who show interest in using it.

7:00pm - The day comes to an end and I am happy as I ticked-off almost all the items on my checklist.  I rush to the lift and find my cab mates waiting for me - a couple of new graduates who have recently joined and we start chatting about the world beyond work!

Sachin manages all Tesco Czech, Slovakia, Poland, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Malaysia deliveries from the India based data solutions team.

10:00am - In the elevator, I chat with a colleague who returned from UK after picking up a new client project, she is very excited and promises to walk me through her new work over a coffee some time next week. At my desk I catch-up on emails from our project counterparts across the world. and gear up for the day with a cup of tea from the kitchen.

11:00am - My team has a 'stand-up' where everyone delivers a quick update on what they are up to.

11:30am - I catch up with recruitment manager to review our recruitment plans.  Our department is going to grow by another 40% by end of financial year, which is challenging as well as exciting!

12:00am - I meet a colleague from another team to discuss opportunities for dunnhumby people to work across teams. The whole idea is to create an environment of holistic learning and present a platform for our people to gain rounded dunnhumby exposure while promoting 'collaboration'

1:00pm - I join a 'lunch & learn' session where a round of questions from various people led to an insightful debate.  It doesn't matter who you are and what level you work at, what matters is the quality of your idea and how you position it!

2:00pm - I organise a videoconference to sign-off customer profiling segmentation for a major online product deployment on Central Europe clients. We have been able to deliver this project two days ahead of schedule. This online portal is going to be showcased in a major supplier conference to be held in Prague next week - representatives from some of the world's largest manufacturing companies in attendance

4:00pm - I join a monthly call with UK based counterparts to discuss the strategy to scale up the technical leadership team in India We review the actions we agreed last month, and agree next steps.

5:30pm - I attend a design session with the aim of monitoring our quality assurance methods. Data is lifeline of everything dunnhumby does and we need to be razor sharp in our QA making sure only right stuff goes through.

7:00pm - The day ends with an intense game of Nintendo Wii with a colleague. We have indoor games like fooseball, carom and Wii where folks compete healthily while having fun. Overall, a passion and action packed productive day concludes. But I am not tired, working in a culture as fun as dunnhumby makes you ready to take on more!