I am passionate about bridging the chasm of understanding between companies and their customers – whether consumers or developers – through data and research. My life’s mission is to try to make the world a slightly better place, even in an infinitesimal way, by advancing fact-based knowledge, promoting understanding and cooperation between communities. I have a long track record of more than 20 years of research innovation, advocating data science techniques and leading the setup of algorithm-based decision making processes and systems (such as recommendation systems) in large organisations before they were widely known or acceptable and even before ‘data science’ was a term. I have built from scratch several data teams, leading them to produce sophisticated customer and developer research that answers the ‘why’ and not just the ‘what’. I have repeatedly worked alongside senior management teams and offered recommendations on targeted marketing strategies based on segmentation, proving – always based on data! – the effectiveness of such strategies. As the Senior Director of Research, I am responsible for all SlashData’s research products and I head the analyst and product teams.