Data-Driven Work Cultures: Maximillian Naza of PasciVite On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Pierre Brunelle

Pierre Brunelle
Authority Magazine
Published in
8 min readAug 4, 2022

Use data to improve customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is one of the most important outcomes for any company. By using data to assess customer satisfaction levels, companies can identify areas they need to improve and make changes to improve the customer experience.

As part of our series about “How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maximillan Naza of PasciVite.

Maximillian Naza is the founder of PasciVite. He started off as a freelancing engineer. Maximillian is Forbes under 30 Scholar and was previously selected as a Forbes Fellow. He started as a freelancing engineer and decided to expand into creating his own business. Once a digital marketing agency, revamped into a professional services company.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I studied Computer Science at Georgia State University. During my early years, my lack of experience prevented me from landing the internship positions I’d been pursuing. As a workaround, I decided to start freelancing, which luckily enough helped me get the experience I needed to land some internships. My endeavors as a freelancer over time slowly evolved into what PasciVite is today.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

The biggest mistake I made early on was wanting to do everything by myself. Even when I started building a team, my instinct when something came up was to just do it myself. Delegating allowed me to be more productive and efficient with my time.

Delegating has taught me how to practice trust and empower my teammates.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

The Lean Startup podcast has had the biggest impact on me because it showed me practical ways to experiment as a business owner.

It’s one of my go-to shows when I’m looking for inspiration.

Also, my podcast Digital Marketing for Humans isn’t just a teaching tool for our followers but also for me. I get to interact with professionals from all walks of life and learn so many approaches to working with others and understanding their perspectives that greatly help when working with clients.

Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?

We have a couple of projects we’re working on that the whole team is being able to contribute to. While we can’t go too much into detail, we are sure that our efforts will benefit our client and their customers.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about empowering organizations to be more “data-driven.” My work centers on the value of data visualization and data collaboration at all levels of an organization, so I’m particularly passionate about this topic. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly it means to be data-driven? On a practical level, what does it look like to use data to make decisions?

While there is no “one fits all” answer because of the specifics of the business and how they quantify data. But overall, data-driven means using data to inform your decisions instead of relying solely on intuition or gut feelings. This could involve something as simple as tracking important metrics and using them to make decisions about where to allocate resources, or it could be more complex, like using data mining and machine learning techniques to develop predictive models that can help you make decisions about what products to develop or what marketing campaigns to run.

Which companies can most benefit from tools that empower data collaboration?

Any company that relies on data to make decisions can benefit from tools that empower data collaboration. This includes companies in a variety of industries, such as healthcare, finance, retail, and manufacturing. Companies that are customer driven and want to increase their efficiency will benefit from data collection.

We’d love to hear about your experiences using data to drive decisions. In your experience, how has data analytics and data collaboration helped improve operations, processes, and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.

There are many ways that data analytics and data collaboration can help improve operations, processes, and customer experiences. Here are just a few examples:

  1. Data analytics can help identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks in operations, processes, and customer experiences.
  2. Data analytics can help improve decision-making by providing insights into customer needs and preferences.
  3. Data collaboration can help improve communication and coordination among team members, which can lead to more efficient and effective operations, processes, and customer experiences.
  4. Data analytics can help identify customer service issues and trends, which can help companies improve their customer service.
  5. Data analytics can help improve marketing efforts by providing insights into customer behavior and preferences.

In 2020, we used data engineering to help Kleiner Perkins find relevant insights and patterns from 30 years’ worth of investment data. The biggest value-add our work provided was it helped Kleiner improve communication across departments. In addition, it also enabled their team members to be more effective and efficient when going through their investment workflow.

Has the shift towards becoming more data-driven been challenging for some teams or organizations from your vantage point? What are the challenges? How can organizations solve these challenges?

I think the biggest challenge for teams and organizations when it comes to becoming more data-driven is the change in mindset that is required. It can be difficult for people who are used to making decisions based on their gut feelings or past experiences to start trusting data instead.

Another challenge is that collecting and analyzing data can be time-consuming and expensive, so it isn’t always feasible for smaller organizations. One way to solve these challenges is by starting small and gradually becoming more data-driven over time. Another solution is to partner with a firm like PasciVite or hire a data analyst who can help with collecting and analyzing data.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Effectively Leverage Data to Take It to The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.

There are many ways that companies can effectively leverage data to take themselves to the next level. Here are five ways that have been successful for companies in the past.

  1. Use data to improve customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is one of the most important outcomes for any company. By using data to assess customer satisfaction levels, companies can identify areas they need to improve and make changes to improve the customer experience.
  2. Identifying areas of inefficiency and waste. By making changes to improve operational efficiencies, companies can improve their bottom line.
  3. Use data to develop new products and services: Companies can use data to develop new products and services that are tailored to their customer base. This can be done by analyzing customer data to identify their needs and desires.
  4. Use data to improve marketing efforts: Data can be used to improve marketing efforts by identifying target markets and developing marketing campaigns that are tailored to those markets.
  5. Use data to improve financial performance: Data can be used to improve financial performance by identifying areas of waste and inefficient spending. By making changes to improve financial performance, companies can improve their bottom line.

The name of this series is “Data-Driven Work Cultures”. Changing a culture is hard. What would you suggest is needed to change a work culture to become more Data Driven?

As mentioned before, even with some of the most progressive companies, there is always room for companies to adhere more to data, and while there is no single silver bullet to change a work culture to become more data-driven. However, here are a few recommendations:

  1. Encourage a data-driven mindset: Help employees understand that data can be used to improve decision-making and drive business results.
  2. Make data accessible and easy to use: Give employees the tools and data they need to do their job effectively.
  3. Encourage data-driven experimentation: Encourage employees to try new things and experiment with data.
  4. Reward data-driven success: Recognize and reward employees who use data effectively to drive business results.

The future of work has recently become very fluid. Based on your experience, how do you think the needs for data will evolve and change over the next five years?

Data needs will continue to evolve and change as the workforce changes. Over the next five years, we will see an increase in the use of data to drive decision-making and an increase in the need for data to be easily accessible and understandable. Every aspect of our life is set to be automated; all of this requires data. From the way companies market their service to targeted demographics, or even how rates are configured on mobile apps, data will be the language of the customers.

Does your organization have any exciting goals for the near future? What challenges will you need to tackle to reach them? How do you think data analytics can best help you to achieve these goals?

Yes, PasciVite has exciting goals for the near future! We plan on expanding our reach to new markets and clients and increasing our level of customer satisfaction. We will need to tackle the challenges of meeting the needs and expectations of our growing customer base, as well as ensuring that our services are of the highest quality.

Data analytics can help us achieve these goals by providing us with insights into our customers’ behavior and preferences, as well as helping us identify areas of improvement.

How can our readers further follow your work?

Readers can follow our work by visiting our website. They can also follow us on Instagram where we share a lot of tips and insights about the various ways an organization can effectively leverage its data to make better decisions faster.

Lastly, we run a monthly podcast titled, Digital Marketing for Humans. DMFH is an interview-styled podcast aimed squarely at business owners. It’s a platform that shares the stories of business owners, which other business owners might find useful.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

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Authority Magazine
Authority Magazine

Published in Authority Magazine

In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Pierre Brunelle
Pierre Brunelle

Written by Pierre Brunelle

Pierre Brunelle is the CEO at Noteable, a collaborative notebook platform that enables teams to use and visualize data, together.

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