Stefan Rood recently joined the Infometrics Team as a Senior Analyst. Stefan is well known to us as he previously worked for MSD, one of our clients. This, coupled with Stefan's data analysis skills, gives him a unique perspective and insider advantage when in comes to improving our client's experience, and developing new economic products.

This month we sit down to chat with Stefan about what he’s working on at Infometrics.

Studied at: Victoria University of Wellington

Resides in: Upper Hutt, Wellington

Jacqui: Can you describe a typical day at work?

Stefan: My days vary but often include writing economic updates, doing economic consulting for clients, programming to make things more efficient behind the scenes, and product design with the IT team. I tend to spend around half of my time with economists and the other half with the IT team.

Jacqui: What are you currently working on?

Stefan:

• Leading the revamp of one of our existing products, the Infrastructure Pipeline Profile
• Re-plumbing some of our code behind the scene to make things as efficient as possible
• Writing regular economic updates
• Consulting projects for a range of clients with different business needs
• Ensuring the Quarterly Economic Monitor update process is as smooth as possible
• A few other bits and pieces as well

Jacqui: What has been your most rewarding work experience?

Stefan: Delivering a very well-received consulting project for a client. They didn’t have a large budget, which we completely understand. So being able to deliver a high-quality product that was on time and within a small budget that exceeded their expectations was a real highlight. If you are needing consulting work done but are worried about cost please don’t hesitate to call, you’d be surprised what solutions we can create, even with a modest budget.

I have also loved learning a bunch from the team both in the economic writing/analysis and programming space. We have an exceptional team of talent all with unique skills that really complement each other nicely so I learn so very much count my blessings every day to be able to work with such talented people.

Jacqui: What has been your most challenging work experience?

Stefan: At Infometrics we have some exceptional writers so certainly learning the best way to tell a compelling economic story in everyday language is something that I’ve been trying to work on. As Richard Feynman once said “if you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it”.

Jacqui: What is your background and how has this influenced your work at Infometrics?

Stefan: I worked in a variety of frontline roles (before getting into the data and economics space) that really informed my approach at Infometrics. I love talking to people and understanding what we can do to make their lives easier. Being so passionate about customer experience means I am always asking myself how we can make things better for our clients.

Jacqui: What do you do when not at work?

Stefan: I am a massive food and coffee enthusiast so am always trying to find the best spots for a bite to eat and where I can get my caffeine fix. Despite being extraverted I spend a lot of time on the weekends reading and spending far too much time immersing myself in Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. My fiancée and I are planning a wedding now as well so that is certainly keeping us occupied.

Jacqui: What is an intriguing fact about you?

Stefan: I am currently learning Dutch. I have Dutch ancestry, so my fiancée and I are teaching ourselves Dutch in case we decide to travel to The Netherlands one day.

Jacqui: Thank you for chatting to us Stefan. Veel geluk! We look forward to seeing more of what you do at Infometrics!