What’s new at Peak?

? Viva Las Vegas! After going virtual last year due to lockdown restrictions, AWS re:Invent was back in person – and back with a bang! 11 members of the Peak team made the trip to the fabulous Las Vegas for what was the 10th anniversary industry-leading expo – the stand-out date in the AWS calendar. Here are a number of our key takeaways from re:Invent, curated by our Senior Engineering Manager, Michael Pearce.

? There was also cause for celebration for the team while we were in Vegas (and no, we’re not talking about an outrageous Blackjack win.) At the annual AWS Partner Summit, we were over the moon to have been named the AWS Independent Software Vendor (ISV) APN Partner of the Year 2021 for the UK and Ireland! This prestigious award recognizes leaders in the UK&I playing a key role in helping customers to drive innovation and build solutions on AWS Cloud. Great job, team! Learn more here.

? Richard Potter chats to theCUBE! While we were at re:Invent, Richard Potter caught up with SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE for an exclusive interview! Broadcast live from the Venetian Conference Center, our CEO and co-founder chatted to Lisa Martin and Dave Nicholson. He discussed what’s been happening at Peak since our last appearance on theCUBE in 2019, and delved deeper into the potential that Decision Intelligence carries for businesses. You can now watch the full clip on demand via our website! Watch it now

? Making great decisions with AI. How can Decision Intelligence empower businesses to make great decisions across sales and marketing, demand planning and the supply chain? Find out in this short interview between Peak’s Martin Sutton (Customer Development Director) and Ronald van Loon! Ronald is a Top Global AI & IoT Influencer, AWS Partner and the CEO at Intelligent World – make sure you check out this insightful conversation here!

? Community spirit! Peak’s brand new data community, launched at AltitudeX Manchester in November, is now well and truly up and running! This month we hosted our first community Ensemble event (now available to stream on demand) while our team pulled together some amazing blog posts…

We’ve shared some tips for data scientists when dealing with difficult stakeholders, looked at the wide-ranging roles within data science and the skills you need for each and found out how one of our recent DS graduates is getting on since joining Peak. If you’re keen on more of this type of content, join our community here!

? How have the effects of the past two years changed the world of talent acquisition? Read some words of wisdom from our Head of Talent, Lorenzo Spina, in this blog, as he looks at ways we can redefine talent strategies during times of adversity.

? Catch all of the talks you missed at AltitudeX on demand today and relive this unmissable event! There are 15 keynotes and conversations now available to stream – head over to the AltitudeX website to check them out!

?‍? Our Head of Data Science Operations, Amy Sharif, wrote this great piece as part of the #DiversityinSTEM2021 initiative! See what she had to say in this feature for New Scientist x Mediaplanet via this link!

Customer and partner update 

? 750,000 children and families in the UK will be supported by our friends FareShare this Christmas. No one should be hungry at this time of year – please donate what you can to help. 

? Check out how PepsiCo are helping those in need by expanding their food aid programme worldwide! 

“Polypipe gets in line to help environmental charity.” Check out how our friends at Polypipe are doing their bit towards helping the environment!

What’s new at Peak

Amongst all of the AltitudeX hype and delight, there were still many other things keeping us busy (maybe not the day after ?), take a look:

?? Just a few hours before he took to the AltitudeX stage in Manchester; our CEO, Richard Potter, was in Lisbon for Web Summit 2021, talking about “Advancing AI with Decision Intelligence”. Take a look at the key takeaways from his talk on the growth stage in our blog. There is an on demand video link to the whole talk as well! 

? Our CIO and Co-Founder, Dave Leitch, caught up with TNW to discuss why Manchester is the place to be for UK tech businesses. Check it out

? We also announced the opening of our new office in Pune ?? Check out the roles we have available in our new office and become a Peak superhuman today!

? In November you also had the chance to be introduced to our Engineering Manager, Kuldeepak Singh, as he sat down with us and spoke about his career so far, why he chose Peak and how he motivates his team to be the best! Read all about it… 

?‍? Take a look at one of our Data Science Team Leads, Sorcha Gilroy, smashing it with another blog. This time she discussed “How to plan a commercial data science project”, so go and change the way your teams work with tips from a pro! 

? We have also released all new and juicy stats for you to ponder from our continued work with Marshalls. Learn how Decision Intelligence optimized inventories, minimized costs and maximized profits for one of the UK’s leading paving manufacturers now! 

Volunteering   

? This month we also embarked on our first company wide volunteering programme. Together with FareShare Greater Manchester, we have allowed Peakers the opportunity to take one day during November and December in order to help out in the day to day life of a FareShare volunteer. This is the start of a thriving relationship between Peak and the local community, as we hope to use Decision Intelligence in order to help reach more and more people across the UK! ?

Customer Update

The team over at Superdry are leading the way in the retail sector as they announced a sustainable clothing partnership with Versarien. Superdry will be using Versarien’s technology in order to produce garments with an extended lifespan and at a  lower environmental cost. See how today ?

? Tired of waiting in drive thru queues at KFC? Well, you no longer have to (in the US). Our customers KFC have introduced quick pick-up ordering on their app and website to bring you even faster, fast food! ?

? Well done to the team at JSW steel for being selected in the S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the Emerging Markets for 2021. This is the gold standard for corporate sustainability and the company has seen an improvement in the three domains Environment, Social and Governance. Well done guys, read more here… ?

? AWS reInvent started on the 29 November and continues through to the 3 December in… Viva Las Vegas! ? Check out all the cool stuff happening across the 4 days and if you’re there, pop by and say hello to the Peak team; they’re a friendly bunch, we promise! ?

AltitudeX is here! ?

? The big day is nearly upon us! Next week, on Thursday 4 November, we’re taking over the iconic Depot Mayfield in Manchester for the launch of AltitudeX. Our inaugural open summit will feature a star-studded line-up of guest speakers, including Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, best-selling author Matthew Syed and former BBC One Controller Lorraine Heggessey. Throw into the mix some technical workshops, networking and wellness activities, exciting Peak news and fantastic food and drink, and it’s shaping up to be an event like no other. So, all you decision makers, engineers, data scientists – let’s talk AI. ?

? Ready for some more cool news? AWS AND Intel are officially proud sponsors of AltitudeX! We’re also very, very excited to be welcoming AWS’s Dimitri French, Principal, AI&ML, to Manchester as one of our speakers – he’ll be chatting to Intel’s Vladimir Brenner about ‘a single source of truth: lakes, ponds, warehouses and removing silos of data.’ ?

Grab a ticket (be quick!)

What’s new at Peak?

? Read up on Decision Intelligence in the WSJ. This month saw Peak make our debut appearance in the one and only Wall Street Journal! ? Our article explains why Decision Intelligence represents the future of commercial decision making, and why – in a time when every decision matters – they need to be fast, consistent, connected and intelligent. Read it now! 

?‍? Championing women in tech ? October called for a double women in data science celebration at Peak! Earlier in the month we wrote five brilliant blogs for our own Women in Data Science Week, championing the role of women in the sector, and the steps we can all take to help build gender-diverse teams. Then, a few days later, we celebrated Ada Lovelace Day. Ada was a renowned mathematician, the first computer programmer and the inspiration behind our Ada Lovelace meeting room at Peak HQ! Read our blogs…

? Showing racism the red card – This month Team Peak showed our support for Show Racism the Red Card. #WearRedDay is a national day of action which encourages schools, businesses and individuals to wear red and donate to help fund the anti-racism educational charity for young people and adults across the UK. Whether we were in Manchester, Jaipur or working from home, we all got behind this important message ? Donate here.

? Our Chief People Officer, Robert Bainbridge, recently spoke at Insider Media‘s Scaling Ambition conference to talk about Peak’s recruitment, culture and shared values ? You can read more insight from Rob or watch the event on demand via this link…

?? ?? ??? ??????! ?? We’re on the lookout for some more brilliant minds to join Team Peak as we continue to expand in the US! Ready for your next challenge? Head to our careers page for all the info ?

? Decision Intelligence is here ? Great to see Decision Intelligence named as a Gartner top strategic technology trend for 2022 ?

? This month we also attended Retail Week Live 2021! There were booths, talks and our Retail Director, Tom Summerfield, featured on the retail exchange podcast LIVE! Catch on-demand content on their website and take a look what they have in store for 2022…

? Listen to our Lead Product Manager, Chris Billingham, take part in the “How AI Built This,” podcast, where he talks all things Peak, our culture and provides a sneak peak at what you can expect at AltitudeX ?

Events

? AWS Partner Wise 2021: Getting to know UK&I APN partners better. We’re looking forward to joining AWS for our upcoming Partner Wise session on Friday 12 November (14:00-15:00 GMT). Peak’s Robbie Vigers (Head of Business Development) and Gerry McAuley (Partnership Manager) will be introducing Team AWS to Peak, our business, our AWS practices and credentials and talking you through our focus areas and case studies!

? Counting down to AWS re:Invent 2021! We’re super excited to be heading over to Las Vegas next month to see you all at re:Invent 2021! As the event takes over strip, come to booth #1872 at The Venetian Exhibition Hall to say hello. Beat the crowds and book a COVID-safe one-on-one meeting with us. We’d be happy to walk you through our customer success stories in more detail, how we achieved 113% growth with our Retail Competency status, or introduce you to our cutting edge Decision Intelligence platform. See you there!

Customer update

?Speedy Hire to light up COP26 with sustainable lighting system! Check out how our friends at Speedy were selected to light up the perimeter of the COP26 climate summit – which is expected to save an estimated 6,200 litres of diesel and 16 tonnes of CO2

? AO has expanded its logistics networks even further as it opened a new depot in Leeds this month! The 35,000 sq ft lot is part of a recent boom in expansion nationwide which has seen AO’s capacity increase by 80% – creating over 1,500 jobs! ?

? PrettyLittleThing has teamed up with CoppaFeel for Breast Cancer Awareness month to help educate young people on the importance of being breast aware and how regular checks could one day save your life! Head over to the CoppaFeel website to check out their work ?

? AWS has been given a contract by British spy agencies in an aim to boost the use of data analytics and AI in espionage! Keep an eye on this, a very close eye… ?

What’s new at Peak? 

? We’re just five weeks away from taking over Manchester’s iconic Depot Mayfield for AltitudeX! Sensational speakers and technical workshops are on the menu, with the likes of Matthew Syed, Nicky Moffat and Priya Lakhani on hand to guide us through topics including transformational change, leadership, connecting silos and balancing profitability with sustainability. Don’t miss out and grab a discounted ticket with the code ALTX20. Click here to save your spot ?

? One thing we’re very proud of is the recent introduction of our first-ever Data Science Graduate Scheme here at Peak! This month we welcomed eight amazing DS graduates to the team – read all about why we launched the scheme, the hiring process and what they’ll get out of it here! ?

? This month we introduced the world to Product Explorer, a brand new merchandiser knowledge center that displays key product metrics – giving retailers a consolidated view of how stock is performing, so you know what will stock out and what will stockpile each week. Built by working closely with our retail customers, say hello to Product Explorer and goodbye to spreadsheet headaches! Explore here! ?

The Modern Milkman is on a mission to reduce waste and bring feel-good to the doorstep! We’re sitting down with John Hughes, CIO at the community and sustainability-focused business for a special webinar exploring the ways they delight their customers through the power of AI. John will be joined by Peak’s Retail Director, Tom Summerfield and Scott Langdoc, retail guru for our good friends Amazon Web Services. Join us on Thursday 7 October! Sign up here ??

?‍? Our upcoming Peak Ensemble webinar is a Women in DS special – and we can’t wait! ? Join us for an insightful panel discussion, exploring topics such as the importance of women in the industry and the steps we need to take to get more women from varied backgrounds into technical roles. We’ve got a great guest speaker lined up too, welcoming Imperial College London’s Statistics Lecturer, Dr Ciara Pike-Burke, for a talk on statistical ML and multi-armed bandits. Plus, Ensemble attendees will also score a free ticket to AltitudeX, too – winner winner! Learn more ?

? Our latest retail thought leadership whitepaper went LIVE this month! Be sure to take a look to discover why we’re in ‘the Year of Demand.’ We cover the ways retail is changing and why an accurate view of demand is driving the future of retail customer experience! Find out why nailing demand is the secret to modern retail success and download the guide here… ?

? After a couple of years off due to the pandemic, the annual Peak summer BBQ was back and better than ever! We took over East Didsbury sports ground and sprinkled it with some Peak magic! After a tough 18 months, we decided to celebrate our successes by coming together and enjoying some sun, games, drinks and great food! Keep an eye on our socials for a behind-the-scenes look at what we got up to on the day!

? We were delighted to hear that we are now one of just six partners featured on the AWS Partners Network landing page! This is a huge achievement for us as a partner, and a testament to the amazing relationship we’re building with the good people at AWS. Take a look now ?

? We’ve also got some more great career opportunities for you to take a look at! Watch this video to hear from our Senior Engineering Manager, Michael Pearce, as he talks you through our culture, the tech that empowers our team and why being at Peak is like being at a theme park (…in a good way)! Watch the video here!

Awards

? We were delighted to be shortlisted at the Prolific North Tech Awards for Innovation of the Year alongside some stellar competition. The awards will be announced in October so keep your eyes peeled ? Take a look at the shortlist here.

?Another shortlist for Team Peak was at the Building Innovation Awards! This time we are up for Best Technology Partner for our work with CMOStores.com – these results will be announced in November so stay tuned ? See who we’re up against here!  

?And lastly, some good news for one of our partners! Our friends at Manchester SEO specialist First Internet were recognized at the Prolific North Champions Awards and won Web Development Project of the Year for their work on our website. If you want to take a look at an award-winning website then click he– oh, wait, you’re already on one! ?

Customer update

?Our friends over at PepsiCo have just completed the upgrade of their distribution center in Leicester, increasing capacity by 29%! But, more importantly, it will improve efficiency and take all-important miles off the road, reducing their carbon footprint! Read more now

? Marshalls have paired up with SigmaRock PLC to develop ultra-low carbon products for the concrete building materials sector! This signals a new era for the construction, manufacturing and building materials industries – read the article here!  ?

Our partners at Snowflake have announced their first industry-specific data cloud, with a focus on helping the financial services industry! Find out more today ?

? Our customers Superdry have announced a new partnership with the charity Oxfam, in an effort to get shoppers to donate more pre-loved clothes to charity. Customers will be offered give back boxes and when you have donated items you are then entered into a prize draw for a £100 Superdry voucher! Get donating people and read on now

Whats new at Peak?

? A-level results day came and went, with a record number of students earning themselves a place on Computer Science degree courses across the UK. With the number of female students studying Computer Science A-levels increasing by more than 350% since 2015, Computerworld chatted to our Head of Data Science Operations, Amy Sharif, who shared her thoughts on what this means for the future of women in the tech industry. Take a look at what Amy had to say here. 

? Our Retail Director, Tom Summerfield, sat down with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to chat all things AI in retail and how we’re helping our customers beat the competition with Decision Intelligence. Read everything that was discussed here. 

Speaking of AWS and retail, you can now watch our webinar with them on demand! It stars Tom Summerfield, AWS’s Global Head of General Merchandise Retail, Steve Gurney, and Ben Hodson, Marketing Director from our customer CMOStores.com! Watch it at your leisure here.

? Check out the thoughts of our very own Chinmayi Sahu! In her interview with India’s Deccan Chronicle, she talks us through her 13 years of experience in the IT sector to date and gives us all an insight into the world of Software Engineering. Read the interview here. 

? Get to know more members of the Peak India team as both Astha Sharma and Parul Goyal reveal all in our very own Women in Tech interviews. They each take you through their careers and their journeys to Peak. If you’re interested in Customer Success, Astha’s blog can be found here. If Software Engineering is more your thing, Parul’s interview can be explored here. 

? If these blogs are of interest to you, then you will love our next update…COME AND JOIN US AT PEAK! We have 35 new job roles available across the globe (UK, USA and India). Check them out on our careers page now and see if Peak is the right fit for you!

??‍ Speaking of recruitment, Peak’s team of superhumans has already been growing again in August after our inaugural Pune digital hiring event. Take a look at how it all went!

?? More great news in India, as our team had plenty to celebrate. We wished all of our colleagues, partners, customers and everyone else a Happy Independence Day in India, as well as a very Happy Raksha Bhandan!

Events updates

? AltitudeX is ramping up, with speaker announcements coming very soon – so watch this space ?! If you need a reminder, AltitudeX is an inclusive technology event for business leaders, commercial teams, engineers and data scientists happening in Manchester on 4 November. You can find out everything you need to know here and sign up NOW! ??

? We also have our Freshers Hiring event day in India on the 20 & 21 September, providing an incredible opportunity for candidates to join our superhuman Software Engineering team.

? Viva Las Vegas! Catch Peak at the Smart Retail Tech Expo in Vegas, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, on 1 & 2 September at stand 2155 – and be sure to watch our talk at 14:55 PDT in Theatre 13!

Customer news

? On 11 August, our customer KFC opened a new chicken-themed hotel! Take a look at the hotel here… but beware of that ‘click for chicken’ button… it could be very dangerous! ?

?? AWS are not only working with Peak, but with Greece, too. That’s right – the country, Greece! They are going to help the nation build a National Space Industry to educate and train professionals in the Greek aerospace community! Find out everything you need to know here. 

Meanwhile over at AO, they have successfully recycled over 2 million refrigerators (lined up that is over 2000 miles of fridges – the distance from Edinburgh to the North Pole!) This figure is up 68% on the previous year – you guys are the best! Read about their unbelievable efforts here.

Hey Marlee! Tell us a bit about the work you do at Peak

Hi! I’m the Events Executive at Peak, running all external-facing events as part of our marketing team. That includes events around demand generation, team culture, customers, as well as our own Peak events Ensemble and Devbase, for data science and engineering respectively. I also run our partnership events for the likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Intel – you name it, I’ll be planning an event for it!

Lots to oversee, then! How long have you been at Peak now?

I’ve been at Peak for over two and a half years now, which is crazy to think about! I started as Richard’s [Richard Potter, Peak CEO and co-founder] PA in admin, and moved over to the marketing team in April 2019. 

How did you find the move over to the marketing team?

I loved it! I found it extremely challenging as I’ve never been in marketing previously, but was reassured by Richard and several other members of the team that I was fit for the role. Hopefully I’ve proved that over time!

What’s the thing you most enjoy about your events role at Peak?

I’m an organizer! I love organizing things and the strategy behind our events, the cadence and the metrics behind them – I find it extremely fascinating. I’ve also loved the aspect of scaling our events presence as we grow as a company. That’s equal to the thrill you get on event day; it’s the nervousness of people not showing up and the swan-like mentality to keep focused – I thrive off that. There is some of that today, actually, because it’s event week!

Is there a link between your favorite parts of the role and the parts you find most challenging? 

Yeah, I think the most challenging part for me is being quite agile in our strategy in being innovative. We don’t want to be like every other tech business, so there’s a constant challenge to think outside of the box, thinking “would Peak do it like that?” And if not, how would we change that structure of what another company has done to make it more like Peak? I find that most challenging because I love strategy and being really organized, so thinking outside the box has often been more difficult for me. But, I have found a lot of joy in working with other members of the marketing team to help with that aspect. 

Are marketing a close-knit team, then? Do you like helping each other out?

Absolutely! I’m quite lucky to be in a team that’s very supportive. We have a great culture and camaraderie. Even though I’m the only events specialist in the business, other members of the team are always available and willing to help me out with setting up and so on, which is a great team-first mentality. 

That’s great! Before Peak, though, what were you doing?

I actually owned my own business! I was an environmental auditor, and did consulting and auditing for different manufacturers in the United States, building CRM systems for them and all that jazz!

People reading may not know, but you are originally from the US – where specifically? 

I am! Originally I’m from outside of Dallas, Texas. I say Dallas because it’s the closest major point on the map – my actual town only has about 20,000 people in it. So yeah, I’m from a very, very small town.

How does it differ to living in Manchester? 

I don’t actually live in Manchester – I live in the country for a reason! I moved over to the UK eight years ago to North Wales for university. If you wanted a polar opposite to Texas then it would definitely be North Wales – both the weather and it being very mountainous spring to mind! I moved here just after my 18th birthday and knew nobody. You learn so much about yourself, and doing that at an early age is a great way to develop your character. 

I bet it was quite scary coming over as an 18 year old?

It was terrifying! My parents came for three days and then left, but I was used to my dad travelling for work all over the world. That’s why I came to the UK to study, because I wanted to see as much as I could before I settled down! The closest university I was looking at back home was an eight hour drive away anyway, so it didn’t make much difference to my parents.

How does a Texas girl come to pick North Wales as a university option in the first place?

Part of it was wanting to learn a different culture, but not thinking I would settle down here! Secondly, I studied marine biology in my undergrad and postgrad, and I have a Master’s in Environmental Protection. At the time, Bangor University was 12th best in the world for marine biology. This made the move across the pond less of a gamble, knowing I would be getting a good standard of education.

Sounds great! So, how did you end up working in Manchester?

My husband’s family is from Cheshire, so we moved to be closer to them. I was then looking for jobs in admin, and eventually found myself here at Peak – and the rest is history!

Do you feel like you would want to go back into something more related to your degree later on?

No, I wanted to do academia after uni, but there were complications and now I’m so far from academia I wouldn’t want to go back! Mainly because I found such a passion for event planning and event organizing – I can’t see it not in my life now!

Well, that’s good news for us! So, what are your main hobbies outside of work?

I LOVE calligraphy! Anyone who knows me has seen my book and knows that I do calligraphy every day. I probably spend 30 minutes at night journaling and try to practise whenever I’m writing notes for work – I absolutely love it, it’s just so relaxing for me! Other than that, I’ve got a little rambunctious husky who loves to go hiking and camping, so me and my husband do a lot of that.

How old is Prince now? (Note: Prince is Marlee’s husky, not Marlee’s husband!)

He’s three-and-a-half! He’s actually got an ear infection at the moment, so he’s feeling very sorry for himself!

(Here is a picture of Prince in full health!) Here is a link to the rescue center Prince is from, please pay it a visit if you want!

Tell us one (more thing) that our readers won’t know about you?

Well, I did ballet for 13 years from the age of two, and competed internationally! This kind of contributed to my move, because I sustained a bad injury and couldn’t dance anymore. I have also had a couple of snorkeling lessons and love to free dive!

Amazing! What international competitions were you a part of?

I competed in New York, Missouri, Florida and loads more! I competed in ballet, jazz, hip hop, street and was a lieutenant of my dance troop. There are some great Facebook videos you could probably find! 

Last question, not many Americans leave their home shores because everything is on your doorstep. But obviously you have (a lot!) – so where is your favourite holiday destination?

I’ve been extremely lucky to travel to many, many different places. But if you’re wanting adventure, backpacking etc, then I’d say South Korea, definitely. I cannot recommend it enough! We spent two weeks backpacking there about four years ago now. On the other end of the stick, for a beach destination out in the sticks, then go to Puerto Rico – it’s an amazing island and my parents are going to retire there! 

Well, hopefully you can start going there a lot more often very soon then! Thank you very much for your time Marlee, it’s been a pleasure as always!

P.S. – Marlee did not let us include a link to any ballet videos!

If you want to meet more of the Peak Team, then take a look at the other profiles we’ve done on the gang!

Hi Parul, thanks for taking a bit of time out of your day to join us! Tell us about your role at Peak?

Hi! I’m a Software Engineer, currently working on our Decision Intelligence system, CODI, and leading the CODI Studio team. Our team is mainly responsible for managing the Studio part of the CODI, which includes features like image management, Workflows, web apps and model management.

For those who don’t fully know what that is, could you elaborate on what that means?

Workflows is a Kubernetes-based platform to execute tasks for data transformations, model training and output data exportation, things like that. This, along with custom docker image builders, web apps and model management, supports our data scientists and helps them function effectively on customer data – and, ultimately, assists our customers to help grow their businesses. In short, we provide an efficient platform for our data science team to then achieve whatever the customer wants to with Decision Intelligence!

Sounds awesome! You’ve been at Peak just over a year, right?

Yeah, it’s been a crazy first year! I joined Peak in June 2019 and it has been an incredible journey since then; there’s been a lot of learning on my side. I spend most of my time with the engineering team but I feel very connected with Peak because of our strong company culture. One of the good things about the team here is that everybody is very helpful, open minded and appreciative. I feel there is a high level of commitment to continuous improvement along all business dimensions. So, yes, it’s been a really great year and I’m looking forward to many more!

Lovely! What were you doing before Peak, Parul?

For about two years I was working with a startup, Smartprix, based in Noida near the capital – about five hours north east of Jaipur. Originally, I was a software engineering intern with them whilst I was at college, but eventually I secured a permanent role as a software engineer. It was a good experience for my first job.

Cool! So, what brought you to Jaipur and Peak?

Well, I was born and brought up in Jaipur, and finished off my education in the city itself. I then left for two years to work in Noida, and I was glad to have been coming back home. I have always been interested in emerging trends of artificial intelligence and machine learning, which is why Peak, being a product-based AI company, stood out to me. Everything else really fell into place with the interview process, where the scope of my learnings resonated really well with my interests.

What university did you go to in Jaipur?

I went to MNIT for my Bachelors in Computer Science. It’s a pretty renowned property, established in 1963 with the name as Malaviya Regional Engineering College, initially as a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Rajasthan. The Institute is fully funded by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. It has produced some great graduates since its establishment…including myself, haha!

Obviously India is such an amazing place, but have you got any favorite areas you’d recommend?

Well to start with let’s say, I haven’t explored India the way I would have liked yet – and, clearly, there were some travel plans I had for 2020 and we all know what happened to them! But, choosing a favorite place from my brief travelling experience is a cake walk.

I happened to be in Himachal Pradesh a couple of years ago. It was an impromptu trip with my friends, and ended up being one of the most amazing and memorable holidays of my life. We went on a trek to McLeodganj, which is the Promised Land for those who dream of visiting hill stations. Located in the suburbs of Dharamshala, in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, this one of the popular tourist attractions that offers mesmerizing views of the mountains. I’d also like to give a special mention of a trip I had with my family to some parts of Maharashtra like Nashik, Shirdi, Mumbai. It was fun.

Have you travelled outside of India yet? If not, what’s on your list?

No not yet, but given a chance, I would definitely love to go to France – simply because no matter how aimlessly you wander in that country, the chances are you’ll end up somewhere magical. Imagine! To me, it’s beauty at its best. I have also heard that Manchester isn’t too bad either?! But, on a serious note, I do wish to visit the Peak headquarters someday!

That would be great! So, tell us about your hobbies outside of work?

I don’t have too many hobbies really, I am open to everything. In my free time, I like to read articles, go for walks, things like that! To be honest, I’m a bit of an introvert at heart, so I like to be in my own space, read my own stuff and watch a good series on Netflix, that sort of thing. Surprising for some people, I’d never watched Friends before, so that’s what I’m into at the moment.

Wow, you’re in for a treat! Thanks for chatting to us today Parul, and we’ll hopefully see you at Peak HQ before too long!

If you enjoyed this blog and getting to know Parul, then feel free to meet other members of the team below ?

Hi Dom! Tell us a bit about yourself and the work you do at Peak

I’ve been at Peak for almost four years now, after doing a Master’s in data science at Lancaster University. I joined a very small company as Peak’s first data scientist, and I’ve seen us grow from nothing to a team of 30+ data scientists now! The work I do mainly specialises in Customer Intelligence, with a main focus on our B2B customers; helping businesses increase revenues by predicting their great customers, predicting churn, building recommendation systems and things like that. 

Was it scary being the first data scientist at a new startup? How did you find it?

It was a little intimidating, but I’m always up for a challenge! Back then, we came up with the solutions as we were going along, building them out until, eventually, they’ve become the solutions we’re offering customers now. So, it’s nice to have sort of guided the solutions and products we are building from day one. It was a massive challenge, but overall the work has been really rewarding – and I’ve not regretted my decision to join Peak once!  

How different is Peak as a company and the data science team now compared to when you first started?

The dynamic has definitely changed, from me and Stu sat in an office going through the problems we were solving, to now. We’ve got a structured team and set solutions, so it’s all very scalable. You can tell it’s really come on, things are looking great now and the future is really exciting, too. It’s completely changed – but changed for the better!

Looking back, how did you actually get into data science to start with?

I initially wanted to go into stats. My Bachelor’s degree was in maths and I wanted to do a stats Master’s. But, Lancaster started to offer a data science Master’s for the first time. Because it’s more applicable to real life problems (stats is a little bit more theoretical) I thought it sounded perfect for me. It’s obviously a very new field, so I read a lot about it and saw it had been labelled “the sexiest job of the 21st century” which sounded good to me! I had been using a lot of the methods already so when I started diving deeper into it, it was quite natural and I loved doing it. So, the thought of doing data science for a job was really exciting. 

So did you pick data science for career aspirations, a genuine interest, or a bit of both? 

When I was doing my Bachelor’s, I was doing things like linear regression which is fairly basic stuff – for some ? – but that’s the stuff that really interested me. You could really see the reward and the actual result of the solutions that you’re providing. So, I think it was a bit of both; I knew that there would be a job in the future but it would be a job that I would love to do. 

Any words of advice for someone starting out in data science?

For someone choosing data science at university who has a passion for maths, I’d recommend playing around with things like predicting house prices – because that’s some of the simplest stuff you can do. If you look at a house price, it can be predicted based on where it is, the size of it, how many rooms it has and so on. So, if that sort of thing interests you, I’d say pursue data science. Or, if you wanted to help advance technologies of the future like driverless cars, robots and cool AI applications like that, I would definitely recommend going into data science!  

More recently, it’s been tough times for everyone and lots of people are now working from home. How have you found the transition?

Awesome to be honest! I feel more productive when I’m at home because you get time to really focus, whereas in the office there’s distractions and it can be quite loud. There are definitely benefits to office life, but I’ve found my most productive work has been while I’m at home, and I’ve got into a really focused mind set and smashed some work out. When I’ve been in the office and I’ve had those focused mind sets it’s been very easy for people to come up to me, poke me on the shoulder and get me out of that –  but when you’re at home you can put ‘do not disturb’ on and no one will bother you, so that’s a big benefit. But, I have definitely missed the social aspect of seeing everyone in the office. You can obviously have video calls with people, but it’s different than being there in person and having general chit chat about weekend plans and talking rubbish with your mates in the office. 

Did you enjoy the company event a few weeks ago then? Was it nice being able to see colleagues again?

Yeah! Just meeting people and talking in person, it was so nice to just see people’s faces after so long. Obviously we got lucky with the weather as well, and had a nice walk to a pub in the middle of nowhere in Trafford Park – in the middle of an industrial estate – where we saw some interesting things…! It was definitely one of the best social events we’ve done. It was tiring though – we walked 16 miles, or something like that, which I don’t do that often! 

Do you think you’ve found working from home easier given that data scientists often work individually?

Yes, our data scientists usually work individually on projects with one other supporting data scientist if they require it. So, I’d say the office dynamic compared to working at home has probably been the same. One thing that has changed is how we’ve interacted and been closer as a pod. Internally, in the data science team, we have three major teams and then specialised pods which are smaller teams within them. We’ve started collaborating as a pod which is something we didn’t do that much in the office. Now we’re working from home, we have our morning meetings, development meetings and we help each other a lot. It’s been really beneficial to me and I’m sure my other pod members would agree as well. 

During lockdown, there have been rumours you’ve been getting withdrawal symptoms from the gym? 

Yeah, I’m very excited for it to be open again tomorrow (laughs). The gym I go to will open at 08:00 and I’m going to be outside those doors at 07:59 ensuring that I get in there. I can’t really work out from home, a lot of people do it and do it well, but I like the social aspect of working out in the gym and you just get more motivation from it I think. So yeah, I’m definitely excited for it to open!

What are some of your other hobbies away from being a data scientist at Peak? Being Peak’s very own DJ Dome comes to mind!

Yeah I like to DJ! A few of us at Peak are into it, and we all did a set after the social event a few weeks ago which was fun, I think we all enjoyed it. It was pretty cool to get everyone involved!

Is that the first time you had DJ’d during lockdown, or have you been practising?

I practise every week or so, from time to time. But it’s nice to get to play in front of some people and let other people enjoy your music, so it was really quite fun. 

Do you do any sets outside of work, or is it more of just a hobby?

Yeah, in front of friends, at house parties and small events. I like it when people appreciate the tunes I have to play…even though they are quite select tunes sometimes!

A little bit more on you, where are you from originally?

I was born in Bolton, and raised in Wigan, so spent my younger years in Wigan and spent my university years at Lancaster. Now I’ve moved to Manchester, currently living in Didsbury. So I haven’t moved far from the north west but it’s where home is!

How did you enjoy university life?

It was great! It was probably the first time I’d been away from my parents for a prolonged period of time and it made me grow up very quickly, which I definitely appreciated. It’s good that I found a subject that I’m really interested in, because I know a lot of people go to university and they make a wrong decision; they don’t like the subject they’ve picked and it doesn’t interest them that much. I feel quite lucky all of that fell into place for me. 

Any fun facts that none of our readers would know about you?

I’m now a powerlifter and signed up to my first competition in April! That obviously got cancelled due to COVID-19, but that was a big thing for me. I was really ready for it and stayed very well behaved in maintaining my body weight; I wasn’t drinking alcohol for six months, and all of that hard work kind of went out of the window! It was a shame but I’m sure when everything gets back to normal I can sign back up again – we’ll see how the legs are feeling after not being worked in a while!

Brill! That’s all we’ve got time for, thanks for all your time Dom, and keep lifting when you can finally get back in the gym!

– Before we leave you, here’s our very own DJ Dome in full swing… ? ? ?

Enjoyed getting to know Dom? Meet some more of the Peak team here ?

In light of current circumstances and the hardship faced by many across the region, we thought there was no better time than the present to try and help this amazing organisation. We set ourselves a goal of raising £5,000 for the charity to help in its day-to-day operations. We’re delighted to announce that, at the time of writing, we’ve managed to raise an astounding £6,510! 

We each set off in small teams of colleagues, adhering to social distancing guidelines, and worked out our own routes to ensure we got  mileage in. However, it was not just the Peak team that contributed to our total, with our friends and families also getting involved – as well as a few little helpers that were more than happy to contribute!

The distance itself was reached by various forms of exercise; some walking, others cycling and a few runners (who were maybe looking to get to the pit stops slightly earlier perhaps?) 

Once we’d collectively hit our distance target, it was time to celebrate! We organised an evening of live online DJ sets featuring legends such as DJ Dome, DJ Ricky P and The Dark Knight. It was a great way for us all to get together and celebrate as a team – and the tunes were ?!

It was the first time since the lockdown period that the Peak team had reunited in small groups, and the first time we were able to socialise with our colleagues for almost four months! The fact this was for such a worthy cause made a great day all the more sweet, and a quarterly team event that will not be forgotten any time soon. 

We would like to reiterate our thanks to those who donated and managed to get us past our target – your support is highly appreciated and will go towards helping FareShare make a real difference to the lives of the local community. If you are interested in any other work FareShare does across the UK, you can find out more here. 

Thank you, from Team Peak! 

Check out some more great pics from an amazing day! ?