The Past

I hold a bachelors degree in Information Technology from the University of Pune and a masters degree in Information Management (specializing in analytics and strategy) from the University of Maryland.

I started my career as a software developer with stints at Altizon Systems and Pershing Technologies, but I soon realized that while I was good at it, the prospect of coding for a living wasn’t something I was excited by. What I was truly passionate about was solving business problems with data. That passion was soon nurtured in Las Vegas of all places (I know!). After finishing with grad school in 2017, I moved to Vegas and started working as a digital analyst at MGM Resorts International, a $19 billion casino giant.

My work involved analyzing user data on our digital assets (websites and apps), in turn providing insights and recommendations to our leadership and product teams. Not only was I finally doing what I have always wanted to, but I was doing it at scale. My work was impacting millions of MGM customers around the world.

While I was helping product managers make data driven decisions, I was starting to get fascinated by how customer-centric their role was. I often found myself getting into the customer’s shoes and that completely changed my outlook towards the work I was doing. I soon got the right mentors, did a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification and also completed an 8 week intensive course with Product School. I was right, product was fun.

SEO at MGM kind of fell in my lap and I’m glad it did. For over a year, I was the only SEO resource working on the 15+ sites we operated. I had had very little experience in this area before and the stakes at MGM were way too high. But it all worked out in the end. Not only did I get better at SEO but MGM’s organic traffic and revenue numbers grew year-over-year. SEO was my first step towards growth. I later led the overall digital growth strategy at MGM, working closely with product, design, engineering, media and marketing to drive incremental traffic, customer and revenue growth.

That completes the trifecta – passion got me into analytics, fascination got me into product and luck got me into growth!

I moved back to India in 2020 and after a brief independent consulting stint, joined Nabler – a digital analytics consulting firm. I then led the Customer Experience and Conversion Rate Optimization practice there, directly managing a team of digital analytics consultants across multiple accounts. I grew this team from 3 to 7, establishing a high performing unit with diverse skillsets. My work involved helping clients identify, conceptualize & develop new product features (or optimize existing experiences) through research (revenue impact, addressable market, voice of customer, competitive benchmarking), analysis (quantitative, qualitative) and experimentation (A/B, multivariate, personalization). 

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohankhadilkar/