Most of the products we use every day at home and work are starting to leverage data. With the recent advances in AI and infrastructure, consumers and internal stakeholders now expect their product experience to be smarter, personalized and aware of their needs and historical context. To make this a reality, data product development practices and tools must also evolve to meet the needs of users, business stakeholders, data scientists, engineers, and designers.
In this talk, Select Star founder and CEO Shinji Kim will discuss with Founding Partner of Backbone Angels and former Head of Data at Shopify, Solmaz Shahalizadeh, about the industry shift to AI, and considerations to keep in mind for data leaders and data teams as they scale data teams and products. This fireside chat will touch on key aspects of the best practices for building data products and modern solutions for data discovery and self-service analytics for organizations.
Shinji is the Founder & CEO of Select Star, an automated data discovery platform that helps you understand your data. Previously, she was the CEO of Concord Systems, a real-time stream processing platform acquired by Akamai Technologies in 2016. She led building Akamai’s new IoT data platform for real-time messaging, log processing, and edge computing. Prior to Concord, Shinji was the first Product Manager hired at Yieldmo, where she led the Ad Format Lab, A/B testing, and yield optimization. Shinji studied Software Engineering at University of Waterloo and General Management at Stanford GSB.
Shinji is the Founder & CEO of Select Star, an automated data discovery platform that helps you understand your data. Previously, she was the CEO of Concord Systems, a real-time stream processing platform acquired by Akamai Technologies in 2016. She led building Akamai’s new IoT data platform for real-time messaging, log processing, and edge computing. Prior to Concord, Shinji was the first Product Manager hired at Yieldmo, where she led the Ad Format Lab, A/B testing, and yield optimization. Shinji studied Software Engineering at University of Waterloo and General Management at Stanford GSB.
Solmaz Shahalizadeh is an executive and advisor in data and product. She is an operating advisor at Bessemer and a founding partner of Backbone Angels, a collective devoted to financing more diverse businesses. As the Vice President and Head of Data at Shopify, Solmaz played a critical role in the company's growth from 100,000 to over 1.75 million merchants between 2013 and 2022. In this role, she spearheaded a culture of data-informed decision-making and served as the voice of data in the senior leadership team. Solmaz's contributions to Shopify's success include building the company's financial data warehouse and analytics, which played a crucial role in its successful IPO. She also initiated the growth of Shopify's data products portfolio, including the notable data products such as Shopify's order fraud detection and Shopify Capital. The latter has leveraged machine learning models to fund over 3 billion dollars in cash advances to merchants. As the leader of the data team, Solmaz scaled Shopify's data team to over 500 data scientists, engineers, and product managers. She also led the suite of merchant-facing analytical products, ensuring Shopify merchants receive the best-in-class analytical experiences. Prior to joining Shopify, Solmaz worked at Morgan Stanley and was a data scientist at McGill University. Her leadership and work in the technology field have been widely recognized, and she won the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Best Executive award in 2020 and was named one of the Forty Under 40 by the Ottawa Business Journal in 2021.
Solmaz Shahalizadeh is an executive and advisor in data and product. She is an operating advisor at Bessemer and a founding partner of Backbone Angels, a collective devoted to financing more diverse businesses. As the Vice President and Head of Data at Shopify, Solmaz played a critical role in the company's growth from 100,000 to over 1.75 million merchants between 2013 and 2022. In this role, she spearheaded a culture of data-informed decision-making and served as the voice of data in the senior leadership team. Solmaz's contributions to Shopify's success include building the company's financial data warehouse and analytics, which played a crucial role in its successful IPO. She also initiated the growth of Shopify's data products portfolio, including the notable data products such as Shopify's order fraud detection and Shopify Capital. The latter has leveraged machine learning models to fund over 3 billion dollars in cash advances to merchants. As the leader of the data team, Solmaz scaled Shopify's data team to over 500 data scientists, engineers, and product managers. She also led the suite of merchant-facing analytical products, ensuring Shopify merchants receive the best-in-class analytical experiences. Prior to joining Shopify, Solmaz worked at Morgan Stanley and was a data scientist at McGill University. Her leadership and work in the technology field have been widely recognized, and she won the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Best Executive award in 2020 and was named one of the Forty Under 40 by the Ottawa Business Journal in 2021.