Meeting Title: Brainforge Interview w- Amber Date: 2026-03-12 Meeting participants: Jovanne Saldierna, Amber Lin
WEBVTT
1 00:09:29.290 ⇒ 00:09:30.579 Amber Lin: There, how you doing?
2 00:09:30.600 ⇒ 00:09:34.510 Jovanne Saldierna: Hi, Amber, how are you? I’m doing well. How about yourself?
3 00:09:34.510 ⇒ 00:09:40.250 Amber Lin: I’m good. How is your audio? It felt a little bit choppy, can you try again?
4 00:09:40.250 ⇒ 00:09:43.209 Jovanne Saldierna: Yes, ma’am. What about now? Can you hear me?
5 00:09:43.210 ⇒ 00:09:44.230 Amber Lin: Yeah, this is good.
6 00:09:44.230 ⇒ 00:09:47.000 Jovanne Saldierna: Okay, perfect. I’m sorry about that.
7 00:09:47.000 ⇒ 00:09:47.369 Amber Lin: Oh, good!
8 00:09:48.300 ⇒ 00:09:49.280 Amber Lin: So…
9 00:09:49.340 ⇒ 00:10:09.100 Amber Lin: quick overview of this interview. So, we have about 25-30 minutes. We’re gonna start off with a quick introduction about yourself, about me, and then I’ll have some questions I wanted to ask you, and then at the end, I’ll leave space for you to also ask questions about us.
10 00:10:09.100 ⇒ 00:10:09.850 Amber Lin: Awesome.
11 00:10:09.990 ⇒ 00:10:10.790 Amber Lin: Sounds great.
12 00:10:11.580 ⇒ 00:10:17.389 Amber Lin: Alright, so if you can give me a quick 30-second, 1-minute intro of yourself, that would be great to start off.
13 00:10:17.710 ⇒ 00:10:27.860 Jovanne Saldierna: Yes, ma’am, of course. So, my name is Giovanni Saldierna. I’m currently a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst at HCA Healthcare, where I support enterprise analytics across
14 00:10:27.910 ⇒ 00:10:40.069 Jovanne Saldierna: more than 180 healthcare facilities during large-scale system deployments, such as Meditech Expanse. My work focuses on building governed single data models and reporting systems at leadership.
15 00:10:40.170 ⇒ 00:10:58.900 Jovanne Saldierna: used to monitor operational performance, and then identify risk early. In parallel, I’ve also been architecting a portfolio-level analytics platform for an acquisition group, where I designed a cloud data warehouse in BigQuery that integrated both financial, CRM, as well as operational systems all into one.
16 00:10:59.040 ⇒ 00:11:08.649 Jovanne Saldierna: That platform standardizes KPIs across companies and provides leadership with real-time visibility, as well as, forecasting needs.
17 00:11:08.860 ⇒ 00:11:28.850 Jovanne Saldierna: Earlier in my career at Dell, I worked as a technical business analyst, building CRM integrated reporting models that improved pipeline visibility and forecasting. Across these roles, the common theme has been my work is translating ambiguous business problems into structured analytic systems that help teams make better decisions.
18 00:11:30.570 ⇒ 00:11:50.279 Amber Lin: Gotcha. Okay, sounds good. So quick intro about me. My name is Amber. I joined Brainforge about a year ago, and started on the project management side, because we didn’t have any project managers back then, and I transitioned to work on the strategy team, so right now.
19 00:11:50.340 ⇒ 00:12:07.589 Amber Lin: We have 3 branches in the company. We have strategy, we have data, and then we have AI. Data supports both strategy and AI, and I work on the strategy team, which includes reporting, analytics, and more of the consulting-style recommendations.
20 00:12:07.730 ⇒ 00:12:16.329 Amber Lin: So, to start off with my questions about you, I saw your video that you submitted, and I also waved through
21 00:12:16.510 ⇒ 00:12:23.730 Amber Lin: your LinkedIn, and I think my first question I have for you is, how come you’re on the market right now? Why are you looking…
22 00:12:23.760 ⇒ 00:12:34.160 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, of course. So, I’ve learned a lot in my current role with HCA, especially when it comes to working on enterprise analytics, supporting large-scale system deployments.
23 00:12:34.310 ⇒ 00:12:42.240 Jovanne Saldierna: It’s given me a lot of experience building governed data models and reporting systems that leadership use to monitor operational performance.
24 00:12:42.380 ⇒ 00:12:54.669 Jovanne Saldierna: But what I’m excited about now is expanding the scope of problems I get to work on. I really enjoy translating ambiguous business issues and then structuring analytic systems that
25 00:12:54.770 ⇒ 00:13:05.980 Jovanne Saldierna: can provide a solution or more clarity. I’m interested more so in applying that skill set across different industries and clear environments, or client environments, my apologies.
26 00:13:06.200 ⇒ 00:13:22.420 Jovanne Saldierna: And then Brainforge stood out to me because the work focuses on helping companies actually operationalize this data that they have in AI in practical ways. The combination of both real business impact as well as exposure to different problem spaces and environments is…
27 00:13:22.740 ⇒ 00:13:26.920 Jovanne Saldierna: Exactly the kind of work I’d love to do and grow with.
28 00:13:28.250 ⇒ 00:13:31.969 Amber Lin: Gotcha. Okay, so you’re still working at ACA right now?
29 00:13:31.970 ⇒ 00:13:32.919 Jovanne Saldierna: Yes, ma’am.
30 00:13:32.920 ⇒ 00:13:34.720 Amber Lin: Okay, sounds fitted.
31 00:13:37.380 ⇒ 00:13:42.199 Amber Lin: Cool. I think my next question is…
32 00:13:42.360 ⇒ 00:13:52.149 Amber Lin: more on the type of clients or type of work that you’ve been doing, I see that most of you have been working with really, really big companies.
33 00:13:52.190 ⇒ 00:14:02.770 Amber Lin: Have you had experience working with, say, smaller clients, mid-scale clients, or, say, working as a consultant?
34 00:14:02.990 ⇒ 00:14:06.530 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, so, funny enough, I…
35 00:14:06.870 ⇒ 00:14:24.049 Jovanne Saldierna: was tackled, or I guess I was presented the opportunity to build a portfolio-level, like, data architecture for a merger and acquisition company that started about a year or two years ago. They’re called M&A. Essentially, I was given a problem that they had, and…
36 00:14:24.060 ⇒ 00:14:31.879 Jovanne Saldierna: It was that they have no centralized data warehouse, they have no access to analytics. Currently, they’re using just Excel.
37 00:14:31.930 ⇒ 00:14:38.159 Jovanne Saldierna: For everything. Payroll, when they’re acquiring companies, it’s all messy. They’re acquiring companies with…
38 00:14:38.240 ⇒ 00:14:41.950 Jovanne Saldierna: Zero analysts on their side, zero dashboards, and…
39 00:14:42.140 ⇒ 00:14:46.729 Jovanne Saldierna: making blind business assumptions based off of Excel, and…
40 00:14:47.290 ⇒ 00:15:01.429 Jovanne Saldierna: they have no, I guess, experience with data. They know it’s important, they have their own, kind of, like, contract where they’re slowly managing it. However, he wanted a product that was both scalable, so they could incorporate
41 00:15:01.930 ⇒ 00:15:10.779 Jovanne Saldierna: the companies that they’re acquiring, however, also use it for their own company. And with that, it was pretty broad, as you can imagine.
42 00:15:10.940 ⇒ 00:15:21.699 Jovanne Saldierna: the guy’s extremely smart, he’s a lawyer, however, when it came to data and technology, it was just up in the air. And so that’s kind of where I came in and met with him.
43 00:15:22.310 ⇒ 00:15:31.310 Jovanne Saldierna: I knew they needed help, however, essentially, the question was there. What kind of data do you have? And then, how is it sourced?
44 00:15:31.540 ⇒ 00:15:45.629 Jovanne Saldierna: And then what kind of problems are you facing currently, and then what kind of solutions would you like? And it’s a very open-ended question, however, consulting with him, it gave me a broader example of the kind of work I wanted to do.
45 00:15:46.790 ⇒ 00:15:54.660 Jovanne Saldierna: took a lot of confidence, of course, because a lot of this data is different kind of data that I haven’t worked with specifically. However, it was pretty neat to…
46 00:15:54.800 ⇒ 00:16:00.189 Jovanne Saldierna: Be able to give him advice, as well as produce a product that he’s able to use, and now…
47 00:16:00.380 ⇒ 00:16:04.080 Jovanne Saldierna: I keep getting messages from him for next projects.
48 00:16:04.690 ⇒ 00:16:12.300 Amber Lin: Awesome, great, great to hear that. Let’s see… my next question is more on the…
49 00:16:13.090 ⇒ 00:16:26.389 Amber Lin: type of technical work that you’ve been doing? Because I know you mentioned you did reporting at ACA. You also worked on the setting up the architecture.
50 00:16:26.390 ⇒ 00:16:33.560 Amber Lin: So I would like to understand, like, what your skills cover, and what you think you’re the best at.
51 00:16:34.300 ⇒ 00:16:49.589 Jovanne Saldierna: Of course. So, I feel like I’m a jack-of-all-trades in many ways. I feel like you really don’t get into this kind of work unless you like to continuously learn. And that’s the beauty with coding and with analytics, is that there’s always a software that can do another thing.
52 00:16:49.780 ⇒ 00:16:55.519 Jovanne Saldierna: So you always have to be open to learning new things, and just kind of critically think your way through it, and…
53 00:16:55.820 ⇒ 00:17:11.459 Jovanne Saldierna: I’ve been exposed, and I’ve used Power BI, SQL, SSRS, Visual Studio. I use SQL every single day. I’m creating reports, I’m creating analytics through it, I’m powering my Power BI dashboards with it, and that takes a lot of data and a lot of…
54 00:17:12.180 ⇒ 00:17:21.220 Jovanne Saldierna: let’s just say, advanced SQL queries, which I love to do, don’t get me wrong. And then I’ve also been introduced to BigQuery, AI,
55 00:17:21.940 ⇒ 00:17:31.409 Jovanne Saldierna: Google Cloud Platform, everything that that entitles, such as the software, or not the software, I’m sorry, the storage, the automation, and then with
56 00:17:32.200 ⇒ 00:17:37.290 Jovanne Saldierna: Google Apps Scripts, I’ve been… Exposed to Python as well.
57 00:17:37.440 ⇒ 00:17:41.020 Jovanne Saldierna: And then… Let me think of everything else.
58 00:17:41.170 ⇒ 00:17:50.119 Jovanne Saldierna: Python, Tableau, Microsoft, everything that incorporates, Google, everything that incorporates, Power BI, SQL,
59 00:17:51.490 ⇒ 00:17:57.309 Jovanne Saldierna: And I feel like those are, like, the big ones at the moment that I can think of. Salesforce, of course, if you want to get into all of that, but ServiceNow.
60 00:17:59.320 ⇒ 00:18:00.580 Amber Lin: Gotcha, okay.
61 00:18:00.730 ⇒ 00:18:02.350 Amber Lin: That…
62 00:18:02.360 ⇒ 00:18:15.140 Amber Lin: we work with different softwares depending on the client that we’re working with, so I think you will be exposed to a lot of different tools. We’re also always exploring new tools that
63 00:18:15.140 ⇒ 00:18:24.990 Amber Lin: for example, that have more AI features, that have more advanced reporting, so I think if you like exploring more stuff, you’ll have a fun time. I love that.
64 00:18:24.990 ⇒ 00:18:25.590 Jovanne Saldierna: that.
65 00:18:25.590 ⇒ 00:18:36.549 Amber Lin: And… I think my… my other question is… More on the consulting strategy.
66 00:18:36.810 ⇒ 00:18:55.010 Amber Lin: extracting inside site. So, I want to hear an example of, you created all these dashboards, you created all this reporting. Have you had an example where you had to explain or find an opportunity to explain to an executive or a leadership?
67 00:18:55.950 ⇒ 00:19:01.060 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, so I feel like that’s more so the consensus of my job at the moment.
68 00:19:01.060 ⇒ 00:19:02.060 Amber Lin: It’s…
69 00:19:03.630 ⇒ 00:19:19.469 Jovanne Saldierna: they understand that reporting needs are very broad, and with that, it’s… we’re providing these reports that nurses, surgeons use, and then on top of that, they have me also doing the operational side, so I’m providing all of these
70 00:19:19.840 ⇒ 00:19:29.320 Jovanne Saldierna: dashboards to the executives that run this company. And with that, I’ve been exposed to working with both non-technical and technical stakeholders.
71 00:19:29.670 ⇒ 00:19:35.119 Jovanne Saldierna: And an example, I guess, that came to mind with that was, as I was building a dashboard.
72 00:19:35.690 ⇒ 00:19:43.050 Jovanne Saldierna: For the cutover, which… cutover is the day that we switched from the old legacy system into the new system that they use in hospitals.
73 00:19:44.090 ⇒ 00:19:46.590 Jovanne Saldierna: Originally, it’s a 5-year project, and…
74 00:19:46.740 ⇒ 00:19:58.269 Jovanne Saldierna: we’re on the second year of it, but the first two go-lives that we had, the first two cutovers, all the insights were given manually. They were found manually. Every single…
75 00:19:59.900 ⇒ 00:20:08.700 Jovanne Saldierna: industry, so lab, pharmacy, meds, they all had their own way of getting these analytics, and they had to manually
76 00:20:09.230 ⇒ 00:20:15.730 Jovanne Saldierna: say it. It was extremely broad, and all this information wasn’t given to execs.
77 00:20:15.750 ⇒ 00:20:30.810 Jovanne Saldierna: until cutover. Or maybe it was given through an email a couple days before, but it wasn’t automatic, and the executives didn’t have access to it whenever they needed it. And this is important information that gives them insights on how we’re doing before we switch
78 00:20:31.070 ⇒ 00:20:34.200 Jovanne Saldierna: From the old legacy system to the new system.
79 00:20:34.490 ⇒ 00:20:46.889 Jovanne Saldierna: Extremely important information, and I was actually tasked with trying to consolidate all of that into a dashboard, and then find issues. Or, is everything working out good?
80 00:20:46.990 ⇒ 00:21:00.710 Jovanne Saldierna: And I ran into a bigger problem as I was doing that, integrating all these data sources and getting away from all the actual technical stuff. The… when I was able to produce analysis from it, I saw that there’s a huge bottleneck when it came to the automation team.
81 00:21:01.000 ⇒ 00:21:06.189 Jovanne Saldierna: The pharmacy automation team, their issue was that the order sets weren’t
82 00:21:06.700 ⇒ 00:21:15.190 Jovanne Saldierna: Producing at the same rate as other companies, or, sorry, as other industries, so it was slowing down the whole process of cutover.
83 00:21:15.590 ⇒ 00:21:24.780 Jovanne Saldierna: And I was able to kind of figure that out by comparing all the different metrics across all the different teams, and I saw that they had
84 00:21:25.230 ⇒ 00:21:42.410 Jovanne Saldierna: the highest, like, time, and essentially what had to solve that was they had to deploy new workforces. They had to allocate more resources for that specific team, because what they’re doing isn’t easy work. However, if we were to continue with that process, the issue was going to be that
85 00:21:42.660 ⇒ 00:21:50.140 Jovanne Saldierna: for future cutovers, when we only have 3 weeks in between go-lives, it’s just… it’s not pl… it’s not plausible. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not gonna be…
86 00:21:51.130 ⇒ 00:21:58.679 Jovanne Saldierna: it’s just gonna put us behind. So I was able to give that insight to them through this dashboard, and funny enough, they actually went through with it.
87 00:22:01.100 ⇒ 00:22:03.270 Amber Lin: Gotcha, okay. So…
88 00:22:04.580 ⇒ 00:22:14.319 Amber Lin: Have you had experiences working, say, outside of delivering dashboards to an exec, or would you also have to
89 00:22:14.320 ⇒ 00:22:29.969 Amber Lin: wrap up your findings and, say, present to, your stakeholders. I think what I’m trying to ask is, what did your, say, management and reporting structure look like? Did you report to someone?
90 00:22:30.360 ⇒ 00:22:33.639 Amber Lin: Or were you the one, like, doing the reporting?
91 00:22:33.940 ⇒ 00:22:35.830 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, so a little bit of both, so…
92 00:22:36.200 ⇒ 00:22:43.839 Jovanne Saldierna: when… with that, now that I understand, I create it, and then I report it. So I speak on it, and…
93 00:22:43.940 ⇒ 00:23:02.709 Jovanne Saldierna: with working with so many metric definitions, I have to be there in person to give this information to them, because I have to explain it in terms… because they see numbers, however, with their dashboards, the way they wanted it was numbers with no explanation. So, like, you know, you could give insights on the dashboard, but they didn’t want that. They wanted me there to explain it, because there’s always questions.
94 00:23:02.710 ⇒ 00:23:12.189 Jovanne Saldierna: that arise from it, as to why are we seeing this number, or sometimes they try to go against, and they don’t believe that the number’s correct, so I have to explain
95 00:23:12.520 ⇒ 00:23:17.649 Jovanne Saldierna: What was behind the scenes of it all, so the data that was needed, the querying,
96 00:23:17.990 ⇒ 00:23:21.690 Jovanne Saldierna: To them in a way that they’d understand, and that’s kind of the fun part.
97 00:23:21.920 ⇒ 00:23:33.890 Jovanne Saldierna: Because at the end of the day, analytics is a language for all, but the coding can just be a little hard. It’s just trying to find the right words for it, but yeah, so cutover, I have to be there for it, to report it to them.
98 00:23:34.260 ⇒ 00:23:42.560 Amber Lin: Gotcha, okay. Did you have anyone that was reporting to you, or, what was the team structure like?
99 00:23:42.560 ⇒ 00:23:44.850 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, so the team structure, there’s…
100 00:23:45.080 ⇒ 00:23:52.650 Jovanne Saldierna: three of us analysts on the reporting side, and I did not have anybody reporting to me, let’s say, however…
101 00:23:52.990 ⇒ 00:23:54.870 Jovanne Saldierna: I was in charge of…
102 00:23:54.980 ⇒ 00:24:01.670 Jovanne Saldierna: training the other two, if that made sense. So the other two kind of just learned from me, and I had to…
103 00:24:01.890 ⇒ 00:24:07.759 Jovanne Saldierna: In a way, manage their workloads, so knowing that their workloads were kind of my workloads, because
104 00:24:08.010 ⇒ 00:24:13.779 Jovanne Saldierna: work that we’re doing in the healthcare industry. It’s a lot of tables, a lot of data, and
105 00:24:14.000 ⇒ 00:24:17.880 Jovanne Saldierna: there are a lot of people to reach out to. Not everything, there’s…
106 00:24:18.200 ⇒ 00:24:34.969 Jovanne Saldierna: over a thousand employees, so if you want a question answered, it’s not the easiest thing, sadly, just because communication can get lost very quickly, and it’s hard to find the resource you need. So, they kind of just look at me as their lead, and I help lead them through everything. And that kind of just came from…
107 00:24:35.080 ⇒ 00:24:39.309 Jovanne Saldierna: My manager telling me, like, hey, That is your job.
108 00:24:39.680 ⇒ 00:24:43.780 Jovanne Saldierna: And I absolutely love it, because you learn more when you teach other people.
109 00:24:44.810 ⇒ 00:24:59.830 Amber Lin: Gotcha, okay. I hear you on a team structure. Can you tell me more about, your manager? I think my question on that is, say, if I was… were to contact your manager and ask, hey,
110 00:25:00.020 ⇒ 00:25:02.620 Amber Lin: What was your experience like working with him?
111 00:25:02.930 ⇒ 00:25:09.720 Amber Lin: What would you say he would rate you from a scale of 1 to 10?
112 00:25:10.370 ⇒ 00:25:12.170 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, I think he would give me a tent.
113 00:25:12.280 ⇒ 00:25:13.960 Jovanne Saldierna: to be honest with you, I think.
114 00:25:14.610 ⇒ 00:25:17.530 Jovanne Saldierna: My manager, he has… we have a very open…
115 00:25:17.830 ⇒ 00:25:22.050 Jovanne Saldierna: relationship in the sense of… I tell him exactly how things are.
116 00:25:22.270 ⇒ 00:25:24.990 Jovanne Saldierna: And we get very personal.
117 00:25:25.320 ⇒ 00:25:27.649 Jovanne Saldierna: He’s always complimented me for my work, and…
118 00:25:27.950 ⇒ 00:25:32.429 Jovanne Saldierna: he’s always kind of just… we’re big appreciation. That’s kind of how I am. I, you know…
119 00:25:32.600 ⇒ 00:25:41.910 Jovanne Saldierna: I appreciate everything he does for me, and he appreciates everything that I hope him do, and I feel like something he’s always seen in me is my ability to…
120 00:25:42.570 ⇒ 00:25:44.549 Jovanne Saldierna: Go out of my comfort box.
121 00:25:44.710 ⇒ 00:25:49.100 Jovanne Saldierna: And do it. So… or my comfort zone, I should say, if that makes more sense, but…
122 00:25:49.200 ⇒ 00:25:57.819 Jovanne Saldierna: he’s always appreciated the fact that any initiative that there may be, if I’m not comfortable with it, I’m going to do it. If I’m not sure what it is, I’m going to figure it out.
123 00:25:57.890 ⇒ 00:26:11.470 Jovanne Saldierna: and any ambiguous problems, such as the dashboard, I… he knew that there’s a bunch of messy systems in it, but he trusted me to build practical solutions from it. So I think when it comes to high stakes and
124 00:26:11.970 ⇒ 00:26:17.829 Jovanne Saldierna: high needs, he’s… I’m his go-to guy for that, so I believe he’d speak highly of me.
125 00:26:18.640 ⇒ 00:26:27.879 Amber Lin: Gotcha. Okay. I know I took up the majority of the time, so I want to make sure the last 10 minutes you have chances to ask me questions as well.
126 00:26:28.270 ⇒ 00:26:31.140 Jovanne Saldierna: No, no worries at all, I… thank you, but…
127 00:26:31.300 ⇒ 00:26:40.459 Jovanne Saldierna: I guess one of the questions that I had was, what type of client problems do you guys tend to create, or what type of client problems tend to create the most impact?
128 00:26:40.750 ⇒ 00:26:43.430 Jovanne Saldierna: In the first 30 to 60 days of an engagement.
129 00:26:44.410 ⇒ 00:26:59.700 Amber Lin: Gotcha. I think to answer that question, I should explain our client structure and work structure to you. So, we are a consulting company, so different from an internal company, we’re all client-project-based.
130 00:26:59.770 ⇒ 00:27:07.819 Amber Lin: So, that… the work… type of work in industry depends on what clients we work with. We currently have
131 00:27:08.250 ⇒ 00:27:10.239 Amber Lin: Clients from…
132 00:27:10.430 ⇒ 00:27:19.589 Amber Lin: healthcare, which is more on the pharmacy, e-com, healthcare side. We have CPG companies, which is consumer…
133 00:27:19.590 ⇒ 00:27:31.270 Amber Lin: packaged goods consumer product companies. We also have some SaaS companies and some service companies. So, each of them come to us with different needs.
134 00:27:31.280 ⇒ 00:27:35.839 Amber Lin: Usually, it will start out with a data need.
135 00:27:36.190 ⇒ 00:27:40.879 Amber Lin: Which is what you described of, hey, I want to set up the…
136 00:27:41.120 ⇒ 00:27:48.470 Amber Lin: data infrastructure for better reporting. So that includes some…
137 00:27:48.880 ⇒ 00:27:58.380 Amber Lin: architecting, connecting the data, modeling the data, which usually takes quite a while, and finally, the reporting structure. And after that.
138 00:27:58.470 ⇒ 00:28:10.170 Amber Lin: We have the strategy team come in and say, hey, these are the insights we can find, or we have the AI team come in to say, hey, we’ve done all of that, this is what we can automate.
139 00:28:10.440 ⇒ 00:28:15.870 Amber Lin: So… I think to answer your question of what type of
140 00:28:16.020 ⇒ 00:28:20.149 Amber Lin: Client problems would deliver the most impact.
141 00:28:21.810 ⇒ 00:28:27.930 Amber Lin: I think the client will say that to you directly, because each client has their own set of problems.
142 00:28:28.480 ⇒ 00:28:34.759 Amber Lin: And as we have won the contract, we will know that specific problem for a client.
143 00:28:35.190 ⇒ 00:28:39.179 Amber Lin: Would it be helpful if I gave you an example? I felt like that was a very generic.
144 00:28:39.180 ⇒ 00:28:47.069 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, no, I would love an example. Yes, please. I was going through your guys’, actually, your case studies.
145 00:28:48.320 ⇒ 00:28:50.110 Jovanne Saldierna: But yeah, no, I would love an example.
146 00:28:50.360 ⇒ 00:28:55.280 Amber Lin: Okay, let’s see, I think… In terms of…
147 00:28:56.620 ⇒ 00:29:00.199 Amber Lin: Alright, so one of the clients we worked on was…
148 00:29:00.630 ⇒ 00:29:07.570 Amber Lin: a very modeling-heavy client. So, their need was that
149 00:29:07.720 ⇒ 00:29:23.239 Amber Lin: They have data in different reporting or metric definitions, for, say, the returns on special holidays, how they dealt with bundling, etc, and how do we…
150 00:29:23.460 ⇒ 00:29:31.830 Amber Lin: Standardized their reports, reduce the time that people spend creating their own little reports.
151 00:29:31.980 ⇒ 00:29:40.079 Amber Lin: So, actually, the most dire need for the first 30 or 90 days, even, was to
152 00:29:40.290 ⇒ 00:29:49.999 Amber Lin: go in with the different stakeholders and say, okay, I need you to write out what you need. And of course, they don’t know how, so…
153 00:29:50.530 ⇒ 00:29:57.999 Amber Lin: Our role was to have a lot of calls for them, and work on them side-by-side to put it down into a standardized structure.
154 00:29:58.170 ⇒ 00:30:05.939 Amber Lin: at the same time, having people, getting ready to model, getting all the data connected. So, in that case.
155 00:30:06.140 ⇒ 00:30:08.659 Amber Lin: The first goal is to have that.
156 00:30:08.830 ⇒ 00:30:18.490 Amber Lin: intense preparation so that we can move really fast after that period. And I think that just captures a snapshot of
157 00:30:18.590 ⇒ 00:30:29.240 Amber Lin: the whole timeline of the project, I think priorities shift as you complete things, so, like, hopefully that gives you a sense of, like, what it’s like to work on
158 00:30:29.400 ⇒ 00:30:30.500 Amber Lin: a…
159 00:30:31.440 ⇒ 00:30:40.420 Amber Lin: work at a startup consulting company that works with a lot of different clients. The requirements are ebbs and flows that change pretty quickly.
160 00:30:40.860 ⇒ 00:30:51.029 Jovanne Saldierna: Oh, of course, no, thank you for that. It’s funny enough, I… my experience with doing M&As, like Data Warehouse, I fell in love with how quickly he wanted things done, because
161 00:30:51.150 ⇒ 00:31:03.940 Jovanne Saldierna: that’s how I move. So, I mean, I wasn’t… I was working all night, and, you know, I’m a full-time… I have a full-time job, so, like, as soon as I got off work, it was… that’s what I was doing. And then I was… wouldn’t go to bed, I was staying in every single weekend, because he expected
162 00:31:04.170 ⇒ 00:31:10.100 Jovanne Saldierna: He expected it to be quick, and then I got… I fell in love with just that adrenaline rush of, like, hey, let’s go.
163 00:31:10.280 ⇒ 00:31:15.759 Jovanne Saldierna: But, no, that’s awesome. That makes a lot of sense, and of course, with working with different industries and…
164 00:31:16.030 ⇒ 00:31:19.370 Jovanne Saldierna: companies, and I’m sure you get a lot of different personalities as well.
165 00:31:22.160 ⇒ 00:31:24.520 Amber Lin: Cool. Any other questions you have for me?
166 00:31:24.860 ⇒ 00:31:35.020 Jovanne Saldierna: I guess what differentiates… this approach at Brainforge from traditional analytics, like consulting firms.
167 00:31:36.730 ⇒ 00:31:41.050 Amber Lin: How would you define a traditional analytics consulting firm?
168 00:31:41.050 ⇒ 00:31:44.820 Jovanne Saldierna: I guess, what is differentiating this company from
169 00:31:45.420 ⇒ 00:31:55.950 Jovanne Saldierna: another company that’s producing… that’s also consulting? What is, like, your guys’ approach to trying to stand out in the market that we have now for it?
170 00:31:56.240 ⇒ 00:32:03.390 Amber Lin: I see. I think it comes from a few aspects. One is our values and our principles.
171 00:32:03.880 ⇒ 00:32:15.340 Amber Lin: Two is how our company is structured uniquely to enable us to do different things, and three, I’ll talk about the way we work. So first, I think we…
172 00:32:16.070 ⇒ 00:32:30.380 Amber Lin: are different in that we care more about the clients. Of course, that’s a subjective judgment, but in what I’ve seen working at the company is we care more about the client’s benefit
173 00:32:30.740 ⇒ 00:32:38.310 Amber Lin: At our hearts, which means we might structure the deal differently to say, hey, clients, if you don’t benefit, we don’t benefit.
174 00:32:38.360 ⇒ 00:32:48.570 Amber Lin: And I do think that’s very different from traditional consulting firms, or ones I’ve worked in the past, of you pay us money, we…
175 00:32:48.600 ⇒ 00:33:01.269 Amber Lin: delivered the bare minimum we can do, based on our contract, to win, the amount of money that’s on the table. So, I think at our core, we treat business differently.
176 00:33:01.350 ⇒ 00:33:04.810 Amber Lin: Two, I think, for…
177 00:33:06.360 ⇒ 00:33:16.270 Amber Lin: our company’s structure, we have data, and then we have strategy, or AI. This enables us to do more…
178 00:33:16.530 ⇒ 00:33:25.110 Amber Lin: work based… more than just reporting. There’s always another layer of, why are we doing this?
179 00:33:25.220 ⇒ 00:33:37.639 Amber Lin: Because we might structure and reorganize the data so that they can have more opportunities to earn more money, save more money. That’s for the strategy side. We dig deeper.
180 00:33:37.860 ⇒ 00:33:43.950 Amber Lin: Or, we might say, we set up all this amazing infrastructure, now it’s time to automate.
181 00:33:44.330 ⇒ 00:33:56.579 Amber Lin: This now is time to save your employees more time and enable everybody. So, I think there’s always a why aspect, and our company structure enables us to dig deeper.
182 00:33:57.390 ⇒ 00:34:14.949 Amber Lin: Lastly, that will be all the AI enablement stuff that you see on our website, see on our post. It’s a really integrated process of our daily lives, so, if we get the chance to talk further down the round, I think, we’ll be able to show you or
183 00:34:14.949 ⇒ 00:34:18.590 Amber Lin: Have you try out the stuff that we use internally?
184 00:34:20.190 ⇒ 00:34:23.219 Jovanne Saldierna: Awesome. No, I absolutely love that. Thank you so much.
185 00:34:24.300 ⇒ 00:34:30.420 Amber Lin: Of course. I think… To wrap everything up, my last question is.
186 00:34:30.929 ⇒ 00:34:48.159 Amber Lin: for you, would you say, because I know internally we’re hiring for, currently, a very, very senior, analyst position. For the other, say, mid-level, junior, I don’t… I don’t think we’re…
187 00:34:48.520 ⇒ 00:35:05.500 Amber Lin: in dire need of that. We’re still interviewing and hiring, but our most urgent need right now is a very, very senior, analyst. Would you think that you would fit that role? Because that’s my main concern right now.
188 00:35:05.580 ⇒ 00:35:10.919 Amber Lin: So I wanted to be upfront with you to see if you can help me address that concern.
189 00:35:11.180 ⇒ 00:35:17.229 Jovanne Saldierna: Yeah, no, of course. Thank you for bringing that up. I 100% think that I fit that role of…
190 00:35:17.580 ⇒ 00:35:29.580 Jovanne Saldierna: someone that you guys can trust more so when it comes to the senior lead, and that all just stems from not only my experience, however, my ability to act quick on my feet,
191 00:35:29.720 ⇒ 00:35:35.300 Jovanne Saldierna: I’ve been exposed to Every single kind of business when it comes to a…
192 00:35:35.520 ⇒ 00:35:38.000 Jovanne Saldierna: corporate business and see how they…
193 00:35:38.180 ⇒ 00:35:43.800 Jovanne Saldierna: Run their processes when it comes to data, and as well as learn from some of the best
194 00:35:44.410 ⇒ 00:35:53.670 Jovanne Saldierna: data managers that there are. And when it comes to implementing in 180-plus facilities and implementing their new software and building that, it’s…
195 00:35:53.920 ⇒ 00:35:55.269 Jovanne Saldierna: Not something that…
196 00:35:55.930 ⇒ 00:36:10.090 Jovanne Saldierna: is lightly done, and I believe that my experience there, my experience with Dell as well, and working with that kind of data, facing clients and speaking to them about analysis, and then my work with consulting outside of it, that
197 00:36:10.190 ⇒ 00:36:16.520 Jovanne Saldierna: Points all to a senior data analyst that would attribute… contribute to your company.
198 00:36:18.790 ⇒ 00:36:33.529 Amber Lin: Gotcha, okay. Thank you for the answer. I… so the next steps would be, I’ll send my notes to our internal team, and our operations and HR will get back to you no matter what our decision is within, I would say, one week or two.
199 00:36:33.850 ⇒ 00:36:37.180 Jovanne Saldierna: Of course, awesome. Thank you so much, it was really nice to meet you.
200 00:36:37.430 ⇒ 00:36:39.650 Amber Lin: Yeah, thank you for taking the time today.
201 00:36:39.810 ⇒ 00:36:42.240 Jovanne Saldierna: Thank you. No, of course. Have a great one.
202 00:36:42.240 ⇒ 00:36:43.770 Amber Lin: Yeah, you too. Bye. Bye.