Behind the Screens: Nina Urala

SKILLS & ROLE:

• Role: Business Lead, Media & Brand
• Core skills & strengths: Wide range of research solutions from design to statistical analyses, understanding data  with its possibilities and restrictions, making business related recommendations and decisions, team leadership, business management
• Tools: Qualitative and quantitative research methods and their combinations, SPSS and multivariate statistical methods, AI, facilitation, design thinking and 

What’s your education?

Doctor of Food Technology :) with a bunch of human, behavioural, educational and statistical sciences on top! Thank you University of Helsinki!

What kind of work tasks are your favorites?

Understanding the data and its possibilities and restrictions, identifying and connecting relevant metrics and data points to the client's business, and from time to time it is fun to run statistical analyses with raw data, especially for strategic segmentations. I also enjoy supporting the team in our daily tasks. For business, I like to monitor and strengthen our profitability.

What do you love most about your job?

I love problem solving. When a client, teammate, or colleague has a challenge and needs a solution, I might not always know it right away, but I usually know the path toward it.

What inspired you to join the team here?

I was drawn in by the fact that Digitalist covers the entire service and product development journey. We understand both end users and organizations — their structures, challenges, and people. Many organizations are still struggling with digital transformation, and not every change initiative has landed well. I wanted to be part of helping clients find a sustainable business path forward especially by utilizing data and metrics to verify the direction of change. To show that the transformation and actions are relevant!

What tips or advice would you give someone starting a new job?

Be open and do things with a smile. Treat everyone with respect and learn from everyone. Ask, listen, interview and explore. Learn what works for you, your team and/or your client, and what doesn’t — and take lessons from both. Inspire people if that’s in your nature. And always, always be one of the good ones.

Always be one of the good ones.

What would your perfect weekend look like?

Cooking for the whole family, sun, warmth, togetherness with some outdoor activities and culture included.

What’s something surprising that not many people know about you?

I’m a former professional coach in rhythmic gymnastics. Some of my juniors won Finnish Championship medals and represented the national team — yet I personally dislike group fitness classes.

I’ve lived around six months in a small fishing village in Kenya doing volunteer work, in very modest conditions. I still know at least 100 words in Swahili.

What are you passionate about?

I always have 1–5 concert tickets in my pocket. Live music is the best.

Food and cooking — meals are best when freshly made. (Though yes, I did ferment cucumbers in the cellar for Christmas.)

Watching my children take root in life has been amazing. I’m passionately devoted to both of them.

Seeing clients succeed!

What is the best thing that has happened to you this year?

Work-life balance. At work, I can truly be myself, even when things are hard. Seeing my own team grow has been incredibly rewarding.

And my chili plants — they grew like crazy this year and are still producing harvests!

How would your best friend describe you in three words?

Analytical, considerate, smart, intelligent, open-minded, loyal, warm-hearted, creative, team player, consistent, enthusiastic, structured, thorough. (This was actually the result of a quick poll among my best friends — these are all their words!)

If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why?

The ability to understand and speak every language in the world. Language carries culture.

‍

Nina brings her calm professional energy into every space and situation she is in. She's sharp only by intelligence, never with her tone. Happy to have Nina leading one of our core business areas!

‍

Curious to see what Nina and her team work with? Go check what Online Brand Experiences are all about!