In our latest employee spotlight, you can get to know Megan Livadas, one of Dufrain’s Heads of BI & Analytics. Megan has been with us for four years, during which time she’s had the opportunity to coach other Dufrainians and help them to develop their skills and careers in BI and Analytics.
1. Tell us a little bit about what you do?
I’m Head of BI & Analytics at Dufrain, a role I share with Colin Gresham, and together we run the BI Practice. We define this as anything that comes after the data lake, such as data modelling, BI Engineering, and the implementation, governance and optimisation of all things BI. While we’re technology agnostic at Dufrain, I specialise in Microsoft Stack – particularly Power BI and Fabric.
As well as delivering for our clients, I get to support our BI Consultants with technical help and career advice, work on our go-to-market offering and propositions, and support commercial conversations with our new and existing clients. I joined Dufrain in 2020 as a Consultant and now four years and two promotions later, it’s been an invaluable journey!
2. What do you enjoy most about your job?
I love the variety of consulting. This summer, I’ve been working across three clients simultaneously: a global insurance group, a leading high-street retailer, and a global travel operator. Being able to connect industry standards in Power BI across three very different organisations is really rewarding. My ideal way to work is when we embed ourselves within a client team, and transfer knowledge and skills back to the business. I love guiding someone on a journey from being a data analyst or business subject matter expert to becoming a Power BI Guru.
3. What does a typical day look like for you?
I have some dedicated days for certain clients, and other days I’m overseeing or delivering with a wider Dufrain team. Each day usually kicks off with a stand-up meeting to catch up with my client or Dufrain teams and discuss progress on our initiatives and what’s needed from me. I try to keep mornings free to progress deliverables. For me, this could be a Power BI Platform Audit, where I compile insights for a client on the management of assets in their platform and the usage of their capacity, and advise on new features or tenant settings to be considered, and conduct QA on strategic assets.
One client has an “Ask Megan” tag on their DevOps board, and will tag me into items for modelling or governance input, so I’ll work through these. Once a week, I’ll meet with the BI Practice over lunch to progress our internal initiatives. Afternoons are typically where I’ll meet with client stakeholders for weekly updates or workshop sessions. Friday afternoons are for one-to-ones, where I catch up with my coachees about their projects and career development.
4. Which of our company values resonate with you the most?
“Do the right thing”. At Dufrain, we strive to be data partners for our clients, and with this comes the responsibility of not just delivering value and progress, but giving our clients a steer in the right direction where it’s needed. To me, this also means doing the right thing for other Dufrainians, lending a hand, and making sure work is planned in a way that doesn’t put pressure on people and ensures a healthy work-life balance.
5. What would you say has been your most significant achievement or the one you are most proud of whilst working at Dufrain?
Last summer, I coached a team of Dufrainians working to deliver our Power BI Governance & Adoption framework. The team took on research projects, some researching completely new topics to them, and delivered an industry-leading framework that I am so proud to deliver for our clients.
The team researched custom Power BI monitoring via REST APIs and Python, as well as deployment pipelines with Git integration, and service setup options, such as which Gateways to choose. All of this research has enabled us to deliver value for our clients in much more accelerated timelines than would have been possible working on our own, but also enabled me to coach other Dufrainians through advanced Power BI topics so they could become subject matter experts.
6. Who inspires you the most within Dufrain?
I’ve been lucky to have the same people coach since I joined, which has been Sean Kenny, who is an inspiring leader. In four years, we’ve gone from a Manager and a Consultant, to an Associate Director and a Manager, and I couldn’t have done this without his support. As well as always championing me and setting a great example, Sean has taught me how to not say yes to everything and channel my energy into the right things!
I find Jen Cunningham, our Head of People Experience, an inspirational woman to work with. Having coaching from Jen during my transition to a people coach was a great experience and I aspire to have an impact like Jen’s. I also admire that Sutha knows every Dufrainian – their name, their skillset and experience – personally.
7. Which work benefit or perk is your favourite and why?
We get Perkbox flexipoints every month, which I convert to a Starbucks card. Coffee always tastes better when it’s free! My order, if you’re wondering, is a decaf pumpkin spice latte at this time of year.
8. What’s the best advice you can give to someone who wants to work for us?
We say “Dufrainian” to describe ourselves, because there’s a commonality to be seen in our mindsets, which makes me really proud to be a part of the team. It’s a mindset of leaning on each other’s strengths, being proactive and taking initiative, and adapting to change. My advice to a new Dufrainian would be to take time to network outside of your local office or your initial practice, and then you’ll always have a Dufrainian to lean on when you need it.
9. What skill do you think everyone should learn?
I think the ability to understand requirements should be a core skill for any data professional. “Requirement gathering” can often be seen as a job for a Business Analyst, but I believe any role will be performed better by those with a knack for understanding the “why” of their work.
Whether you’re a BI developer or an engineer, if you can get past the technical requirements to really understand the role of your end user – what their day-to-day looks like, what decisions they’ll make from this data, why that’s important – then you’ll be able to fill in so many gaps. A client can only ask you for what they know they need, but taking time to understand why they need it will help you to deliver what they didn’t know they needed yet, and realise the true value of your expertise.
10. What advice would you give to someone who would like to start speaking at more industry events?
I love getting the opportunity to speak at events in Power BI and the wider data community. It all starts with attending, whether you can make it in person or catch up virtually. There are some really great speakers in the Power BI community – and the Power BI Manchester User Group are kind enough to upload their sessions to YouTube for you to review later.
When it comes to speaking, my advice is to choose a subject you’re passionate about, and then not to practise too much! The more you rehearse, the less natural you’ll be, and the more likely it is that you’ll get tripped up if something changes on the day. If you’re in consulting, presenting and training on topics you love is part of the day job, so don’t let a stage and a larger room of people spook you. Finally, avoid having too much caffeine on the day of the event to keep nerves at bay!
11. What are some of your favourite things to do outside of work?
I moved from Glasgow to London two years ago, so I like to make the most of it by going to the theatre as much as I can with my sister. I’m also a keen skier, but most evenings after work you’ll find me curled up on the couch with a fantasy novel.
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