Hi there! My name is Elizabeth, but everyone calls me Roody. I’ve worked in research and technology since 2006. I love building data platforms, products, and teams.
Duolingo (2021-2022)
I led the Data Science function, scaling the team from 6 to 15 while sharpening goal-setting, hiring practices, and comms. I also developed the company’s vision and roadmap for building a data platform that integrates business intelligence, experimentation, ETLT, orchestration, ingestion, and reverse ETL.
Blue Apron (2016-2018)
I built the centralized Analytics function from the ground up to support analysis, insights, and operational reporting post-IPO. I oversaw four teams covering forecasting, metric management, digital and physical product analytics, supply chain & fulfillment operations, pricing, and new business lines.
Founder (2018-2021)
I started my own company, Vivar, in 2018. I wanted to help people make better purchasing decisions by providing real-time recommendations through a “magic shopping list.” It was inspired by my PhD research at the University of Pennsylvania, which explored willingness-to-pay for socially conscious products.
I bootstrapped a consumer-facing website to test the idea, powered by a knowledge graph of 450k CPG products scraped from retailer websites. The website failed (miserably), but the knowledge graph had value. Vivar’s IP was acquired by a larger start-up, which I joined as VP Data and helped launch two DTC brands before the company pivoted to SaaS.
Google & YouTube (2012-2016)
I worked at Google and YouTube as an individual contributor in a variety of roles. My first role was managing multi-language customer surveys to understand AdWords SMBs by combining attitudinal and behavioral data. Later, I analyzed viewer trends to align the YouTube Sponsorships team’s strategy with content verticals (e.g. gaming, music, beauty, sports) while managing a $1M research budget. My favorite project was analyzing data for the YouTube UXR team for an innovative study that combined surveys, diaries, and app data to understand user needs.
Odd Jobs
My first full-time job title was “web assistant.” I hard-coded HTML emails, built an interactive research tool with Excel and Adobe Flash, and posted articles to the company’s website. During grad school, I interned at Google and a seed-stage start-up called Curalate, which was acquired by BazaarVoice in 2021.
Over the years, I’ve held a variety of odd jobs, from dog-walking to fashion retail to teaching kids how to build websites. These experiences informed my curiosity about human beings, which is core to being a successful data scientist.