Database Reference
In-Depth Information
data-rich world we live in today. Her remarkable perspective comes through as she
shares her thoughts on
analytics pre-Internet,
her excitement at first encountering
massive data at Yahoo! and her first data set at Netflix, and her views on the
importance of culture and team in
data-centric organizations. Smallwood's interview
exudes wisdom, experience, and leadership.
Sebastian Gutierrez:
What is it like to work at Netflix?
Caitlin Smallwood:
It's been a riveting and exciting experience on many
levels. Though I feel very fortunate to have worked in a lot of great places, I've
been amazingly happy at Netflix.
Mission-wise, the company is transforming the television business. The dawn of
Internet TV is fascinating and has been a great thing to participate in. People-
wise, I love working in a culture like ours. We have this public culture document
called “Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility” that's posted on our jobs
site, which defines our core values. What's great is that the culture is actually
exactly what you read in the document. It really is. You can see it from the
moment you interview. It's powerful to be in a place that really does have so
much freedom and has amazing talent that you get to participate in. Personally
and professionally it's great to reap the benefits of working in this culture.
Data-wise, being in the world of data and working at a company like Netflix is
just outstanding because throughout the company, from the executives down,
data is prioritized so heavily. This perspective makes it a real treat to work
with any aspect of data, whether it is data engineering, analytics, or the more
hardcore mathematical modeling. It's great because you don't fight battles
about things like, “Can we capture this kind of data?” or, “Will somebody put
effort into structuring this data that we really want to do great things with?”
It's not hard to convince people that those projects are important. And then
there's so much debate and public sharing of data and results that it makes it
really exciting.
Gutierrez:
Where does your team fit into the organization?
Smallwood:
I report up through our product organization and my manager
is Neil Hunt, the chief product officer. Though I'm part of the product org, my
team works more like a centralized team that supports the whole company's
modeling needs, be it predictive modeling or other modeling. The people in
the product org are really fantastic, as each person, no matter what his or her
level, is really strong at what they do.
Companywide, the level of innovation is inspiring to be around all the time.
For example, in the product org we frequently have strategy meetings with
great agendas lined up that Neil Hunt, all theVPs, and people at all other levels
attend. At these meetings, somebody will present a new idea for the product,
backed up by data or analysis, or results from an A/B test, and everybody will
