Why StellarAlgo Engineers meet directly with customers

Blog

Oct 28, 2024

StellarAlgo

By: Oluwaseyi Kareem

StellarAlgo was the first place I realized Canadians can actually pronounce my name. 

On my first day, my manager said we’re going to learn how to pronounce your name and since then everybody has been able to or asked. That’s something I’ll always take with me. 

I’ve felt respected and trusted here, and I’m never bored talking about my job. It’s a work environment that brings out the best in me and has made me see the impact of sports on people’s lives.

Most recently when people ask about work, I tell them about my amazing trip to Ottawa. As a Data Engineer, I got to see how my team’s work makes a difference for customers, learn about the technical and business sides of our platform, and watch a CFL game. 

An insider look behind the Ottawa Redblacks football stadium and operations

Since I migrated our customer, the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) onto our new platform with new infrastructure, I was the technical lead on the trip. I went with my coworkers James, the Account Manager for OSEG, and Jessie, the Director of Product Impact, and my role was to answer any technical questions.

It was my first customer trip and I was amazed by the hospitality and the boost I felt seeing the impact of our product directly from customers in their daily work. 

My awe started when we arrived at the gate to the stadium. The OSEG team was so welcoming, they gave us a tour, and took us to our seats in a suite close to the football field.  

Our great seats to the Redblacks game at the stadium in Ottawa.

We learned how the group operates the Ottawa Redblacks Football Club (CFL), and the Ottawa 67’s Hockey Club (OHL), and manages and programs events in the TD Place stadium arena complex.

Seeing how my engineering work translates to business impact 

I enjoyed being part of the meetings with the analysts and executives at OSEG to see what success means to different people in different areas of the business. James and Jessie, on our StellarAlgo team, presented a season recap of their fan data and discussed with the OSEG team how they use the product day-to-day. 

As I was hearing the ideas and challenges from the business side of it, I was thinking through all the possibilities of how to solve them.

  • What metrics does each team need and what’s required to collect them? 
  • How could we make the platform even easier to use?  
  • What are the blockers if we try to implement these changes? 

It gave me an idea of what big stakeholders deal with and how our product can help. I also saw the importance of in-person communication to build relationships. We accomplished more than we could have in multiple Zoom calls by talking in person with the OSEG team, listening to how they use the product every day, and walking through their operations. 

Myself (third from the right) and my team at our ProBowl event this year.

How OSEG trusts StellarAlgo for data accuracy 

The day after the football game, one of the OSEG analysts Cailin, sent out a post-game survey to all the Redblacks fans who attended through the StellarAlgo app. It asked questions about their experience at the game like how they enjoyed it and asking for feedback. She had a prebuilt template ready to go so it was easy for her to create a dynamic segment and automatically send out the survey to people who attended the game and capture the data in one place. 

It was pretty cool to see her process because our Engineering team puts a lot of effort into data validation. The Data Management process is something we’ve improved on that customers like OSEG highly benefit from. Now we’re able to achieve higher thresholds of accuracy which increases customer confidence in our platform as it did with OSEG.

People trust the data in our app. They require it for their important daily tasks. OSEG cares about their customers and relies on the data from the StellarAlgo platform for reporting and making informed decisions on their sales. 

It’s an example of how in two days, I was able to see the whole picture and connect my engineering work to how it makes a difference for customers. I came back to work from the trip to Ottawa on a moral high seeing the impact of our work. 

The company culture brings out the best in me 

Getting the opportunity to go on this trip to Ottawa and learn about how customers use the product in their everyday work is an example of the great company culture we have. I came back to work after the trip with a motivation boost. I’m always learning at StellarAlgo and feel supported by my team. 

The work environment and conditions bring out the best in me. I’ve worked under a great manager for a long time, who’s an amazing mentor to me. 

Whether it’s a customer trip, an interesting challenge we’re working on, or a team event, I’m never bored talking about my job. It’s allowed me to see the whole picture of how the sports industry works and I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. 

See our current job opportunities at StellarAlgo here

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