If you are a Product Analyst/Data Scientist, why should you join a SAAS company NOW?

When we build our career, we choose a company. Inevitably, we choose an industry. Choosing right, we can continue building a successful career for many years to come, becoming a leader whose expertise is sought after not only by today’s businesses, but also by the companies to flourish in the future. Choosing wrong, we can be the most successful leader in a doomed industry, risk of being obsolete and forced to start all over again. 

The trick is to detect such industrial trend earlier. Just like investing, when everyone knows about a stock, it is “too late”. How do the world’s most successful and visionary investors see before everyone else does? They don’t make wild bets. Their mental model can guide our career choices too. 

And I think a career in SAAS product analytics can start NOW. 

First, the timing is right. History has shown again and again: the first or even second products introduced to the market often failed. They are too early. The market is yet tuned to embrace the new. As consumer ourselves, we have been living with intelligent and delightful digital consumer product designs for decades. These designs are powered by the most advanced product data science. We will no longer tolerate bad product experience; even as a company employee who uses a SAAS product. The SAAS product makers must meet such higher expectations. They can’t do so without data. 

Second, the timing is still right. Especially for those who want to be pioneers and innovators, SAAS product analytics is largely a green patch. It reminded me of my days at eBay building marketing analytics when Google just launched their SEO and SEM. In a few years, we moved from not having the data, not knowing how to measure, not having any algorithms, to power the US’s largest online marketing spend at the time. We helped to set the industry standard. We built many “firsts” ourselves and kick started many MarTech companies by being their first customer. Many of my eBay alumnus have since brought that experience to leading some of the most successful B2C businesses. Now in my second year at the world’s leading CRM company, I can see the history is about to repeat in SAAS. 

Third, the fundamental demand ensures sustained growth. Established SAAS companies are lagging significantly behind their B2C counterparts in their understanding of customers. They face pressure from customers’ higher expectations, as well as competition from SAAS startups built upon a modern technical and data science stack. Investment started to pouring into data and analytical functions. The industry is in desperate need for data and analytical talents, especially those who “have done it before”, who can apply the B2C learning to innovating the SAAS industry. 

Fourth, the scale is amazing. In B2C, the fruit of our labor delights customers, create value for the business. In B2B, the value we create for our customers in turn create values for theirs. Think of Tableau as an example. We help to make Tableau products better. Its customers - hundreds of thousands companies, big or small, get more value and in turn create more value for their customers. Value multiplies. Our impact ripples through the SAAS ecosystem. 

BUT, building a product analytics career in SAAS is NOT easy. We will be the people who lay the first wooden tracks so one day the high speed rail can race cross the tunnels we dug through the mountains of obstacles. The data is missing. The data infrastructure needs update. Executives don’t understand nor speak the data language yet. Product Managers don’t consider data a default input for their decisions. Our peers may scratch their heads on our choices of joining an “old fashioned” company. Why not chasing opportunities that are more understood and seem to be more profitable (metaverse, NFTs)?

For some of us, we are always attracted to the path less traveled. We want to be among the first group of people solving hard problems. I look forward to seeing some of you down this path!