Powerful Women of Proptech: Chapter 2

There can be little doubt that today the proptech industry is a male dominated sector. To bring you something a little bit different we've teamed up with the team at PRODA to bring you the perspective of some powerful women in the industry. If you missed last week's edition with prominent VC Devon Zimmerling, it's available here.

So Young Ann is a Senior Business Analyst at London based commercial real estate data company PRODA. Manisha Veja spoke to So Young about life at PRODA and her role, as well as her journey into the PropTech world.

MV: Hi So Young, tell us a little bit about your time at PRODA. How long have you been a part of the team?

SYA: Nearly 1 and a half years, with me having joined PRODA in January 2019.

MV: How did you first get into data analysis for the PropTech industry?

SYA: I was on the lookout for data analysis roles in general when I came across PRODA. Without prior knowledge of the ins and outs of PropTech at the time, I came to learn more about what PRODA were doing - they were in the process of creating something new that hadn’t previously been done in the real estate industry.  

They had an innovative and niche product offering and I was excited at the thought of being a part of it. This was my introduction into data analysis for the PropTech industry, as well as my introduction to PRODA. 

MV: What does a typical workday look like for you as our Business Analyst?

SYA: So, I kick-start my day at 9am with me going through client data, making sure data coming from PRODA is accurate. I will then answer any emails in my inbox, this includes answering queries I’ve received which can include requests for bespoke reporting within PRODA.  

For this, I would speak to our developers and once these are implemented within the app, I would test the features and get back to the client to confirm their requested reporting is available. My day also consists of client training and hosting demos. I also check the smooth running of the app, and continuously work on making it more intuitive for all of our users.

MV: What are some trends that you have noticed during your time working with data?

SYA: Over time, I have definitely noticed an increase in people using more visual analytics tools to help analyse their data. This has also made it more important for people to have clean and standardised data to ensure they are seeing accurate results in these visualisation tools.  

I have also noticed a shift towards more people wanting to implement technology for their data analysis. Now, everyone wants more intuitive products to make for less human work. whereas before, people were more willing to manually put in the effort with Excel sheets, often for hours on end.

MV: What is the best feedback you have ever received from a PRODA user?

SYA: An analyst for a large company said PRODA has helped him save a huge amount of time in his daily tasks, and it has meant less human error for them on the whole, due to the validation checks available in PRODA.

This was something he greatly appreciated, as it was not previously possible to do by simply eyeballing masses of data. It’s always nice to hear feedback on how PRODA is making life easier for someone when you have put in the work behind the scenes.

MV: Finally, what do you enjoy most about working at PRODA?

SYA: I’m very much a people person, so I enjoy working with the great data team that we have here at PRODA, alongside the other women as well as men, in our team. Another thing I love about being at PRODA, is how I am able to see the direct impact that my work is making almost immediately. Within the PRODA app I am able to see the new features that we add daily, straight away and how this helps our users. This makes my job very rewarding.

This interview first appeared on PRODA.ai