Mark Gerver

Background

About Mark Gerver

I am both a data scientist and a marketeer. That means I like numbers, but I want to see them grow… and if they are not growing, I find ways to turn it around. In order to get there, I am much more pragmatic than the typical data scientist. I like to develop a good statistical model, but I want it to be used in the organization. And that is where I think is usually the greatest challenge: how do we make our models practical and simple enough that the organization knows what to do with it? Many times a statistical model isn’t even necessary, and giving just a few simple insights can get this new idea rolling. Start testing, asap. Start validating whether the theoretical insight holds in practice. Where business meets intelligence is where I am at my best. I like developing insights, and putting them to work. I like to talk to the business, and work together to implement change. I am not afraid to chase the solutions I believe in, and I definitely do not give up easily. My career at online bank Knab best illustrates how I work. I started as a marketing intelligence analyst, from within the marketing department. I analyzed everything: I developed (ATL) attribution models, made churn forecasts and financial predictions. I also represented marketing with the introduction of marketing automation and personalization tools such as Selligent and Blueconic. This is when I discovered that CRO was our key opportunity to grow as a company, but also that we actually quite sucked at it. I therefore developed myself to become the CRO expert, and I chased the implementation of a smart testing tech stack. Then they made me the product owner of the new growth team Apollo… With this growth team, we were in the real front line of the agile transition of Knab, which was a great experience. We were quite successful as a team: we managed to transform a flat growth curve into a fast increasing one, up to the point that growth was no longer the real challenge. It was now about limiting growth and controlling the inflow of savings, because we were going too fast… This is also where it stopped being interesting for me: when growth is no longer the challenge, I am no longer at my best… Now I work as a freelance growth hacker, data scientist, product owner, or marketeer… whatever is needed to deliver growth and make the numbers go up. When to hire me- If your company has a (strong) growth challenge - If you are not afraid of getting the bold facts, and start to act based on those facts - I am also an experienced product owner, so I can help activate an agile testing mindset