We have many exceptional members here at Think Tank, but only one of them has biked across the United States and produced a podcast about the experience. We were curious about what could possibly follow that type of adventure, so we caught up with member Kerry Gross to ask!
Think Tank: What brought you to Think Tank?
Kerry Gross: I originally came to the Think Tank to finish producing a podcast called Women Who Dare. (The podcast chronicles a bike trip I took across the country in 2017 and features interviews with incredible women.) Working on the podcast was a big endeavor, occupying much of my time for two years. After I finished the last episode, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next except that I wanted to keep being my own boss.
In my life before the biking and podcast adventure, I had a career in research and have always enjoyed data visualization. So, I decided see if I could build these skills into a viable business venture on my own. When the idea still seemed good after crunching a few numbers, I launched Carn Analytics in January 2019.
TT: Tell us a little bit about what you do now
KG: Now, Carn Analytics is still in its infancy, so I spend a lot of time in meetings, listening to business and non-profit stakeholders, and figuring out how to provide useful, data-driven responses to key business questions. For some organizations, this process involves mining already existing data and for others it means putting together a data collection strategy (including web tracking, customer interaction tracking, and survey development). Once I have data in-hand, I distill it into meaningful metrics and then convey the results back to the business stakeholders.
TT: And what’s next?
KG: I’m most interested in data visualization (and that might perhaps be my biggest strength), so I’m looking to keep finding more clients who need to be able to tell a compelling data story—either in the form of static reports and infographics or through interactive data portals and other web platforms. After that, who knows! I’m just following where my interests lead.
TT: Where can people learn more?
KG: More information about Carn Analytics can be found here: http://www.carnanalytics.com/
And for more information about Women Who Dare and the podcast, people can head here: http://kerrygross.com/
