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One of the coolest analytics jobs around …
We are working with RetailMeNot in their search for a Senior Analyst, A/B Testing Analysis based in Austin, TX. RetailMeNot, Inc operates the world’s largest digital coupon marketplace. The company enables consumers across the globe seeking to save money to find hundreds of thousands of digital coupons from retailers.
RetailMeNot experienced more than 500 million visits to its websites in the last 12 months. The RetailMeNot portfolio includes RetailMeNot.com, the largest digital coupon marketplace in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk, the largest digital coupon marketplace in the United Kingdom; Deals.com in Germany; Actiepagina.nl, a leading digital coupon site in the Netherlands; Bons-de-Reduction.com and Ma-Reduc.com, leading digital coupon sites in France; Poulpeo.com, a leading digital coupon site with cash back in France; and Deals2Buy.com, a leading discount offer site in North America. RetailMeNot went public in July 2013 and is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol “SALE.”
RetailMeNot seeks a talented and experienced Senior Analyst to support its A/B testing and optimization initiatives. The Senior Analyst is responsible for delivering actionable and insightful AB testing analysis results and communicates findings to cross-functional testing group and executives. Through leveraging business and technical expertise in site optimization, usability, web analytics skills this Senior Analyst will ensure that the AB test analysis results drives next iteration of changes to product functionality, merchandising content, personalization algorithm and SEO optimization focusing on desktop, mobile web and mobile native app platforms.
The ideal candidate will be responsible for validating test hypotheses, define test analysis KPIs and execute effective and actionable test analysis with statistics rigor in methodologies and interpret test findings. This role must develop a detailed understanding of the Company’s A/B testing operations as well as a thorough knowledge of available analytics & data warehousing solutions. The Senior Analyst will be integral part of the Global A/B Testing function which is part of Global Analytics team. This Global Analytics group’s efforts are highly visible and engaged across various groups within the organization and rolls up to CFO of RetailMeNot, Inc.
- You’re curious.
- You’re naturally curious and have an inquisitive nature.
- You’re not intimidated by vast amounts of data.
The firm’s business continues to grow, consider these numbers from 2012:
- 450 million site visits
- 160 billion rows of data
- 9 million newsletter/alert subscribers
- 5 million mobile application downloads
- 2.5 million Facebook likes
- 160K Twitter followers
- 89 of Internet Retailer 100 are business partners
- 20% of total site traffic is from mobile
- 7 global sites
- 1 central Global Analytics team
HARRY’S COMMENTS: This is the first time we have worked with RetailMeNot, and we are very excited. According to this position’s hiring manager, this Senior Analyst must have solid AB testing and multivariate testing experience. Additionally, it’s highly preferred that the candidate have worked in an agile environment, working with agile teams. It doesn’t matter what kind of agile environment; Scrum or Kaizen are fine, but the new hire needs to be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with regular releases. Retail experience would be awesome, and it’s essential that the new hire understand how to pull data for themselves. Meaning, SQL capabilities are a must.
Additionally, the new hire must understand relational databases, and experience with “R” or SAS is preferred. The role will have more of a business focus, and when the new hire is doing testing, they will need to interact with other groups cross functionally, very often interacting with senior execs from multiple departments. Therefore, appeasing different stakeholders, managing conflict with a minimum of noise, managing multiple schedules and agendas, and roadmapping are essential keys to success in this role. Great presentation skills are equally critical: After all the data is collected and analyzed, the new hire can expect to present their findings and recommendations to multiple department heads.
You’ll need to be politically savvy without being a political animal.
According to this role’s hiring manager, ” This person needs to be able to say “Here’s what I recommend, and here’s the data to support it. Here’s where I think we should go, here are the risks associated with this game plan, and here is a possible return on the game plan. Here are the top 5 reasons you should go along with it …”
This Senior Analyst will not necessarily be diving into the nitty-gritty statistical analysis on every single test. However, they need to understand where the numbers come from, the methods that were used to analyze them, and what the numbers mean from a strategic standpoint. The data can come from anywhere, not just a website: eye tracking tests; focus groups; usability labs; and more. Accordingly, a cursory understanding of UI design would be helpful, at least in terms of how UI design influences design optimization. RetailMeNot’s corporate culture is extremely rigorous in terms of its usage of data. In making your recommendations, be prepared to gather and blend insights from internal data sources with external data sources such as surveys, usability studies, industry research, trends and articles, and more.
Are you right for the job?
This job is perfect for anyone with an analytical bias to the way they make decisions, who is very good at developing strong working relationships with cross functional teams, including merchandising, operations, finance, usability, engineering, and more. In order for those people to take you seriously, you will need to see the business through their eyes, and present your findings to them in a way that acknowledges their reality. Meaning, you must be persuasive, but you can’t be abrasive. Soft political skills are essential.
This role is perfect for a talented analyst who’s curious, analytically minded, and has strong data skills. The ideal candidate will have experience in different fields of study such as psychology, business, engineering, behavioral economics, and more. We want someone who is insatiably curious to learn, and eager to apply those learnings in unique and practical ways to RetailMeNot’s business. It’s the perfect job for anyone who loves to learn, experiment, and tweak. It’s an ideal role for a hacker, puzzle solver, or anyone who’s always looking for a better answer to whatever question pops into their head.
What are you going to do in this role?
Hypothesis assessment & Test results analysis (40%)
- Hypothesis validations – Participate in hypothesis generation process and clearly validate opportunities/recommend actions that can have positive improvements in the firm’s site experience and financials; help stakeholder teams to think about site opportunities in a different way by asking questions; provide feedback to stakeholders to influence test ideas that will yield the most impactful customer experience improvements on the site.
- Calculate traffic allocation – Understand traffic baselines for pages being tested, identify traffic required to achieve significance; effectively use page traffic for various concurrent tests
- Define Test KPIs – Identify conversion and engagement KPIs needed for test analysis and understand test setup and data collection standards within test environment
- Test analysis – Drive proper AB or multi-variant testing analysis with statistical rigor and perform cohort studies to answer “why?” on test result drivers. Support more complex tests from an analytical and reporting perspective.
- Leverage supporting tools – Home-grown tools (such as Beacon data collection; 3rd party tools such as Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst, Adobe Target); statistical analysis package (such as R or SAS); data query methods (using SQL or Hive; Excel Macros) and visualization tools (such as Tableau) to inform analytically-driven recommendations.
Insights & Test results communication (40%)
- Deliver insights – Objectively deliver testing insights and help create a culture of data-driven decision making.
- Tell Story – At completion of Tests, build timely, compelling, fact-based test recaps that strongly communicate the business ‘story’ behind the data and lead Test outcomes
- Communicate results – Identify successes, failures, trends and effectively communicate these findings to the organization. If test results are positive – analyze KPI improvements in pre/post AB test roll-outs; if results are negative – perform driver analysis to recommend next iteration of that test
- Summarize weekly test result findings and communicate actionable recommendations to stakeholders and executives.
Partnering & Influencing (20%)
- Establish strong working partnerships with relevant areas of the business and global teams (Marketing, Merchandising, Product Management, Engineering, UX)
- Collaborate with cross functional partners to develop clear and measurable business and testing objectives and define test KPIs (both financial and engagement metrics)
- Act as a key liaison with Global stakeholders with respect to AB test analysis framework
Experiences/Requirements:
- Minimum 3-5 years of AB testing or site optimization, usability analysis, and/or web analytics experience supporting analysis or in a related data analytics field (financial analysis, digital analysis, statistical modeling)
- Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, mathematics, economics, or in a quantitative discipline; Master’s degree preferred
- Experience with web analytics, AB testing or site optimization will be ideal
- Solid understanding of online analytics metrics and related statistical concepts. Experience with web analytics tools (such as Adobe SiteCatalyst / Omniture, Google Analytics); A/B or Multi-variant testing tools (such as Adobe Target, SiteSpect) and statistical analysis package such as R,SAS or SPSS is a must.
- High-level proficiency with SQL based query languages and relational data concepts and Microsoft Excel is a must
- Excellent analytical skills – ability to understand and interpret data within the context of the AB testing – solve problems and distill data into actionable recommendations.
- Excellent communication skills – this position requires confidence in directly working with senior leaders in the organization and will be tasked to communicate complex test results findings and recommendations persuasively, in a compelling and easy to understand manner
- Demonstrated ability to work with cross-functional teams; independently and proactively
- Intellectual and analytical curiosity – initiative to dig into the “why” of various results
- Excellent project management skills including the ability to formulate and identify key performance indicators for tests and drive detailed test results.
- Flexible and responsive, ability to prioritize multiple tasks, reprioritize as needed and work with a sense of urgency to meet deadlines in a fast-paced, dynamic work environment
- Desire to learn new technologies and grow analytical skillset
- Intellectual curiosity, passion for problem-solving, and comfort with ambiguity
- Rigorously detail-oriented with commitment to accuracy
Ideal Candidate has experience with:
- Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, mathematics, economics, or in a quantitative discipline; Master’s degree preferred
- Minimum 3 years of AB testing or site optimization, usability analysis, and/or web analytics experience supporting analysis or in a related data analytics field (financial analysis, digital analysis, statistical modeling)
- Hands-on experience in statistical analysis package such as R, SAS or SPSS; high-level proficiency with SQL based query languages; relational data concepts and Microsoft Excel is a must
- Excellent analytical & communication skills – ability to understand and interpret data within the context of the AB testing – initiative to dig into the “why” of various results; communicate complex test results findings into actionable recommendations
UPDATE: THIS SEARCH IS CLOSED.
PS – If you’re thinking about changing jobs this year (though us or anyone else), you might want to check out this post on why even TOP candidates get rejected.
