Home
>
Harvinder Atwal, Chief Data Scientist, Moneysupermarket Group

Harvinder Atwal, Chief Data Scientist, Moneysupermarket Group

What has been your path to power?

I’ve always been interested in how data can be used to improve decision-making and solve problems. After graduating, I decided to do a Masters in Operational Research (the sub-field of mathematics that deals with applying advanced analytical methods to improve decision-making) and the closest thing to data science at the time. The Master’s degree was a solid foundation for OR roles in the Government OR Service, APACS and British Airways, where I worked on diverse problems from building models to decide which aircraft to buy to coming up with fuel hedging strategies.

Unlike today, very few companies in the mid-2000s were interested in data so I decided to join one of the few that was, Lloyds Banking Group. LBG was my first experience of leading data-driven marketing and product development. My next position was at dunnhumby, pioneers of large-scale customer analytics, as insight director for Clubcard strategy using the wealth of basket and Clubcard data to drive customer loyalty for Tesco. Since leaving dunnhumby I have undertaken a variety of roles at Moneysupermarket Group that have included responsibility for data acquisition, data management, data governance, cloud and on-premise data platform management, data engineering, as well as business intelligence, product analytics, and data science.

What impact has the pandemic had on the role of data in your company/organisation?

The pandemic has further elevated the role of data within Moneysupermarket Group. During the early days of the pandemic, we were seeing weekly swings in product category performance that we would normally see over the course of years. Initially, travel insurance and life assurance did well, before customer focus shifted to savings products and energy switching as people stayed at home.

Having the right data and analytics capability meant we had a tight focus on performance. The organisation could be more agile in our in our marketing and resource allocation. We have continued to invest in data capability as we saw the benefits of increasing self-service analytics and making more data sources available.

Does data now have a seat at the table during strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get it there?

Data and data-driven decision-making is given a very high profile and importance within Moneysupermarket Group. The influence of data comes from the very top of the organisation where myself and the chief data architect sit on the company ExCo. Data underpins all our strategic pillars, efficient acquisition, retain and grow, and expand our offer. For example, performance media (predominantly Google and Microsoft paid search advertising) is the company’s largest cost after people, but it sits under my remit in data science. We continue to make large strategic investments in our data capability as part of our strategic foundations.

What are your key areas of focus for data and analytics in 2022?

2022 is an exciting year for data at Moneysupermarket Group. We will soon complete the next iteration of our GCP data platform with the move to real-time data architecture. The architecture will have deep integration with our marketing platforms and other customer-facing touchpoints enabling us to build more responsive data products. There are a wide range of objectives across all our brands. We will be working with our partners to build data products that enable them to be more competitive on our platform, increase the level of personalisation to boost engagement, undertake more experimentation, and lots of other initiatives to help our customers save money.

Tell us what leadership means to you in the context of your role as a senior data leader.

Leadership requires the ability to work across organisational boundaries, not just within your team, to make the best use of data. Data leadership requires more than a strong comprehension of data and the ability to manage data teams. Success takes a strong understanding of the business and the ability to bridge the gap between teams with different levels of data literacy and mindset to ensure data is being used effectively to reach the organisation’s objectives. It takes the ability to understand the possibilities and create a vision for what data can bring, ensure the right people build the right things in the right way and lots of resilience (and coffee) to lead.

What key skills or attributes do you consider have contributed to your success in this role?

Success requires multiple attributes. Having an analytical background with commercial focus is a major asset as is the ability to work at the strategic and detailed level. The ability to explain complex analysis and processes to a wide range of people in a language they can understand is critical for collaboration.

How did you develop – and continue to develop – these skills or attributes?

I have a strong personal interest in data. I often present at conferences and have authored a book on DataOps to share my knowledge and develop my skill for communication. In my spare time, I enjoy keeping up-to-date with all things data science, data engineering and data management, it’s my hobby as well as my job. I attend meetups and conferences, read engineering blogs and newsletters, and follow users on Twitter to keep up with the latest development.

Is the data tech you have keeping pace with your goals and requirements? Are your providers leading or lagging behind your demands?

Generally, technology is catching up fast to the demands of users and barriers to reaching goals tend to lie elsewhere. There has been heavy investment in the past decade by cloud and data technology vendors in data-specific services. Workloads that previously would have required complex and expensive technology can now be executed very easily by data scientists using cloud services. We’re heavy users of Google Cloud Platform and Google is doing a great job of rapidly evolving the analytics and data management capability of the platform. However, there is still room for improvement to be made in some areas such as MLOps capability.

Harvinder Atwal
has been included in:

100 Brands 2022 (EMEA)