Mike Doll
VP, Data
Guitar Center
Michael Doll is the VP of Data for Guitar Center. Mike has over 15 years of experience in data, analytics and strategy, with a track record of building high performing data functions at companies across multiple industries. As the VP of Data at Guitar Center, the nation's largest musical retailer, Mike leads enterprise-wide data strategy across infra, BI, analytics and ML.
Mike attended the University of Chicago where he was an all-conference hurdler, graduating with a degree in Mathematics. Mike also grew up in Chicago and still enjoys rooting for the Sox, Bears & Hawks. He settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010 and lives with his wife and three children. Mike enjoys gardening, chess and poker.
Learn more about the San Francisco CDAO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
I was fortunate at LendingTree, where I started in digital marketing, to encounter two great career mentors who sponsored my move into data and analytics leadership there. Having found my home in data, I pursued opportunities to grow my skills and experience as a senior data leader. That led me to several great years as Udacity's Head of Data, before a sabbatical break and now the chance to lead Guitar Center's efforts at upgrading its data capabilities.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Work ON the team, not "in" the team. A leader's job is to make the whole team better. Whether that is investing in talent, building better operational processes, setting the right priorities or providing the right tools; the leader gets ahead by making everyone else better, not just making an individual contribution to any given project.
For data leaders, I'd add that a key principle is to stay business-centric. We need to match priorities and build successful partnerships with the business that puts our data into action.
What is the greatest challenge data leaders face today, and how are you addressing it?
Fundamentals. While AI and ML is all the buzz, I need to overcome the core challenge of helping the business understand what is happening and why, so that we can make better decisions on what to do about it.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CDAO?
Be a humble yet rapacious learner. Learn about your team, your tools and your processes. Learn about the business and its setups. Learn about your stakeholders and their needs. Only then can you properly adapt your wealth of experience to the next context and drive value.
How do you measure success as a leader?
It differs by dimension. I use a recurring stakeholder survey to measure ongoing CSAT and other KPIs of the success my team drives, second hand across the organization. I look at my team's retention and engagement scores to measure my people leadership success, and I love unsolicited comments as an indicator of success. Finally, I look for the critical business areas and specific projects where my team is a key contributor to reflect our success at driving collaborative business value.
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