Simplify Decision Making with Data – An Interview with nurHida Yacob

At the seventh edition of CMO Asia Awards 2016, Latize Head of Product Development Nurhida Yacob was recognized as one of Asia’s 50 Women Leaders. Her place in this illustrious group honours her innovative work as she strives forward in the world of tech.

Here, we had a chat with Hida to gain personal insights as to what makes her tick and her visions on the future of data intelligence.

1. Congratulations on being recognised by CMO Asia as one of 50 Asia’s Woman Leaders! How do you feel about such an achievement?

Thank you so much. I am thankful to CMO Asia and World Brand Congress for the recognition. I am humbled by the honor of being recognized alongside such a great group of women.I am glad to have this opportunity to make my immediate and extended family proud of me as this would not have been possible without God and them. I am also very thankful to my mentors and managers throughout my career for giving me the opportunities to grow as I pursue my passion. Lastly, this would not have been possible without my incredible team. I truly appreciate being able to work with such a talented group of professionals. I hope to be able to pay it forward and mentor the next generation of leaders.

2. Could you share with us your story with Latize?

My journey with Latize started two and half years ago. I had been leading tech teams in large companies with established processes and travelling to locations around the world prior to joining Latize. Although I had been fortunate to be working on green field projects in all my previous experiences, I felt that it was time for me to challenge myself and branch out into other areas. Thus I was thrilled to be presented with the opportunity to join Latize, which was then a local tech company at the startup stage.

3. What do you do day-to-day as Head of Product Development at Latize?

At Latize, I lead multi-discipline teams including product development, solution delivery and R&D. Other than the day-to-day management of these teams, I am responsible for coming up with the overall technology and features specification of our products, formulating the product road-map release cycle and ensuring that the product architecture caters for current and future technical, performance, security and scalability needs. I guide project managers and the implementation team, overseeing turn-key projects. I am also responsible for researching new technological developments in line with Latize’s product needs.

4. Are there challenges that you face? Has there been any that stood out for you so far?

What I love about working at a small company like Latize is the challenge of wearing different hats. I am proud of building up the teams and implementing lean agile processes focusing on optimising the customer experience. Working on Linked Data, which has been around for some time but not widely implemented commercially, excites me as I see many innovative applications of this technology in the fields of intelligence, IoT and semantic web. I was especially proud of our work in delivering the Linked Data Management System to the National Library Board and gaining the accreditation from IMDA, as this established that our core product is ready for enterprise use. Now, I work closely with sales, pre-sales and marketing to realise our goal for all decisions to be made with Latize Ulysses.

5. Regarding the future of data intelligence, what do you think businesses need to be aware of?

The volume of data generated will continue to grow. There are companies who have yet to tap into the potential of the data that they are generating, while those who have embraced big data technologies often underestimate the cost of data management and the importance of enterprise knowledge management.

6. Do you foresee any upcoming challenges or trends in the realm of data intelligence?

With the advent of IoT and other streaming applications, real-time data intelligence will be prevalent across all verticals such as transport, healthcare, BFSI, etc. Analytics solutions will shift from the realm of data scientists to everyday tools. This is what Latize Ulysses aims to do by empowering non-technical users to use data to simplify their decision-making.

7. Besides devoting your time to Latize, what else do you do outside of work?

Since I was young, science and engineering have always been my passion. So I have always felt grateful because I get to do what I love at work every day. I pay it forward in my free time by helping out family and friends in their tech and educational pursuits. Other than spending time with my immediate & extended family and friends, I enjoy travelling or discovering new local places. I also pursue my passion in technology by working on my own personal pet projects. Besides maintaining my personal blog, these days I love trying out IoT kits. I hope I can inspire others to realise their ambitions, follow their passions and making an impact in ensuring a brighter future for our children.

We thank Hida for her time and for sharing her thoughts. The Latize team is extremely proud of her achievement and together with Hida, looks forward to continue working on our product capabilities to discover and extract even more meaningful insights. For more articles on data management and data intelligence, do check out our blog.