March 11, 2019
5 Questions With…Carlos Valderrama
5 Questions with Carlos Valderrama
1. Where were you/what did you do before working at Seriously?
Before Seriously, I worked at two small mobile app-based companies (one of them in Edtech and the other a job board) as a jack of all trades within data analytics or business intelligence departments. In those roles, I would sometimes do pure data analysis and other times would work on data infrastructure tasks such as pulling data from external sources, managing a “data-warehouse” and, in the most general terms, making data usable.
2. What is your current role at Seriously?
As a company we generate tons of data in a variety of ways: from our games, external tools, advertising, etc. My main responsibility is to make that raw data usable so we can extract value from it. When data is in a digestible state, it can then be used for a variety of purposes (data analysis, data-driven marketing, game experience optimization, machine learning, etc). Also, I dedicate a portion of my time to developing web apps of data visualization and assist on data analysis tasks, whenever additional efforts are needed.
3. What’s your favorite part about your job?
One of the best parts of my job is to oversee automated processes and make sure they run like clockwork, which takes a lot of iterations to achieve. Another thing I really enjoy is seeing how the business is able to leverage data to create awesome and engaging games that millions of people enjoy. Nowadays, data is more than ever a fundamental raw material that allows for improvement of the development of a game.
4. Who is your favorite Fiend or Slug and why?
Definitely Freddie. I know that deep inside he has THE rhythm, and I love how hard he tries to find it.
5. When you are not working at Seriously or playing Best Fiends, what do you enjoy doing?
I spend a decent amount of my free time playing a variety of strategy video games, especially those that have a historical background. Other games I enjoy playing include old-school roleplaying games, like Dungeons & Dragons or Vampire with friends. Otherwise, I’ve recently discovered an interest in craft beer tasting and in (amateur) powerlifting and while those two don’t combine very well, I actively practice both as much as I can.