Meet Stitch Product Analytics and Data Lead Michael Wilson

1. Describe your job to a 10-year-old.

Think of a puzzle that you need to build. You have an idea of what it needs to look like when it's finished for it to be of value to someone, but all you have to start with are many pieces all over the place.

These puzzle pieces are comparable to the data I need to collect from multiple sources and combine in meaningful ways so it can help others to make sense of the bigger picture they represent more easily.

2. What excites you most about working in product and data analytics in the payments space?

It's a really fast-paced industry that is continuously evolving, with new ways to pay and get paid, which creates great opportunities to work on new and exciting things. There is also the technical aspect of solving for the huge volumes of near real-time data needed for analytics, which brings its own set of unique challenges around how to move, store, manage, model, aggregate, visualise and interact with the data.

3. What’s your approach to leveraging new technologies in your role? How have new tools and technologies impacted the way Stitch analyses data?

I'm always looking for ways to improve our existing workflows, be that through my own research or by leveraging other industry professionals. Our tooling allows us to easily test and deploy multiple times a day with no downtime, which enables us to react quickly to changing business needs. Moving from a more traditional batch process of loading data into our analytics platform to near real-time streaming will also allow for quicker insights.

Then, of course, there is the the buzz around generative AI and its potential to disrupt the analytics space by surfacing meaningful insights in a conversational style. I foresee an exciting shift in how we interact with data moving forward.

4. How does Stitch make it easier for our clients to consume payment data?

Once we have consolidated data from multiple different sources, we can build up data models that are then used to drive dashboards for clients to view and download their transactional data.

There are often bespoke client requirements where we follow a batch-like process of generating recon files and dropping these at a fixed frequency for them to pick up and consume.

5. What’s your favourite thing about working at Stitch?

The people are amazing to work with, and because the data we work with is so far-reaching, I have the chance to work with many different teams -  from engineering, to sales, customer success and support. It's great to interact with them to understand how they make use of the data we provide and the role it plays in enabling some of their work. 

Rapid fire

How do you spend your free time / what are your hobbies?

Speeding down mountains on my MTB, spending time with family, gaming on my PS5

What would your superpower be and why?

The ability to save my progress, much like in a video game. Imagine how freeing it would be to be able to try new things without worrying about potential downsides. And, if something horribly unexpected happens, you can just reload your progress and try again

What are you reading or watching at the moment?

I love keeping up to date with computer technology (specifically on the hardware side), performance cars and investing - so most of the time I'll be watching/reading something along these lines

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

You are where you are because of your abilities, character and perseverance, not as a result of some lucky coincidences

What’s your go-to lazy dinner?

Cheese burgers - love them. Can pair them with anything