Leading Matters #17: Robert Moore & Jake Stein RJMetrics

Episode 17 of Leading Matters features the co-founders of RJMetrics, CEO and COO Robert Moore and Jake Stein.  Together they have built a data analytics platform used by hundreds of online retailers, and along the way have created a passionate, mission driven team that seeks to inspire data driven professionals.

This is what leadership sounds like.  Robert Moore and Jake Stein of RJMetrics know their mission, understand their purpose, and are passionate about delivering solutions that help customers achieve that purpose.  They have gone through plenty of growth since their founding in 2008, and have built an employment culture that reflects what they call a sort of ‘geek meritocracy’.

The action from this episode?  Identify the things that you are doing to help your employees, or your teams to build trust.  A trust that helps facilitate constructive conflict.  Robert and Jake have, and the rewards to date have been immeasurable. 

HIGHLIGHTS

The Foresight to Mine Structured data:  Data science and data scientists weren’t as popular in 2008 as they are today.  And yet the basics of mining data in a repeatable fashion is part of what has lead to RJ Metric’s growth.  Robert discusses the value of being able to mine structured data and the reality that most retailers have plenty of structured data that they haven’t even begun to tap into. 

On Forging an Inspirational Mission: Professionals that deal in data love data, they are inspired by data, and they want help nurturing data for impactful use.  Robert and Jake knew this first hand from their experience and they wanted to build something that empowered the data passionate.  They share the insight into that mission and why mission matters.

Growth Demands Communication:  The mission matters, but growth brings the challenge of constantly reorienting the team to that mission.  Robert and Jake share their approach for constant and effective communication. 

The holy trinity of talent acquisition: Robert rejects the idea that it is hard to find and keep world class talent outside of the traditional metro tech hubs.  The location doesn’t matter as much as an interesting problem to work on, a focused purpose that the problem addresses, and adequate compensation.  With these three things in hand, talent acquisition (and fund raising for that matters) should never be about location.

The Uber Effect:  You have something to learn, every day from nearly everyone you meet.  This is what Jake and Robert believe.  A belief reinforced whenever Robert uses the ride sharing taxi disrupter Uber to get around town.