Rocky Le

The Building Years

Graduated with a software engineering diploma. Became a web developer. Built websites. Broke websites. Fixed websites. The usual.

Then someone had the idea to try game development. We tested whether the company could pivot into games. Spoiler: we couldn't. The project failed. But I learned more from that failure than from the websites that worked. Turns out, building something people don't want teaches you faster than building something they do.

Also learned that I liked the "figuring out what to build" part more than the "building it" part. This would become important later.

The Data Awakening

Joined a Singapore-based company. Shifted from building things to understanding things. Led a small data team. Reduced billing errors by 25% — which sounds boring until you realize billing errors make customers very angry.

Discovered that data isn't about numbers. It's about asking better questions. Started developing an allergy to assumptions. This allergy has never gone away.

The Analytics Years

Data analyst at a fintech. Learned to read numbers properly. More importantly, learned that numbers lie if you ask the wrong questions.

Achieved a 65% increase in lead conversion rates. Sounds impressive. Mostly it meant I finally understood which questions to ask before touching the spreadsheet.

Spent a lot of time in meetings where people confused activity with progress. Started questioning everything. This was either the beginning of wisdom or the beginning of being annoying in meetings. Possibly both.

The Retail & Transformation Chapter

Customer Analytics at a retail corporation. Built dashboards. Led projects. Discovered that giving people data doesn't mean they'll use it.

Simultaneously got pulled into digital transformation work — helping coffee shops and convenience stores figure out what actually needed to be digital versus what just needed better processes. Achieved 20% cost reduction. Most of it came from not building technology.

Key lesson: The best digital transformation is often less digital than people expect. Sometimes you just need a checklist.

The Product Chapter

Product Manager at a major F&B tech company. Owned digital products for a coffee chain you've probably heard of.

Built features. Killed features. Learned that the best product decisions often involve saying no to good ideas because you're chasing great ones.

Key lesson: Users don't want more features. They want fewer problems.