Development Program Grad Class of 2012: 10 Years Later: Ian Lindemuth

What first attracted you to 84.51° (formerly dunnhumby)?

Honestly, I knew nothing about the company until my sister told me to look into it. It had a reputation in Cincinnati for being a young company and a great place to work, and once I started looking into it – being in the retail space appealed to me.

What was your first title at 84.51° (formerly dunnhumby)?

Shelf Review Analyst

What were your primary responsibilities in your first role at 84.51° (formerly dunnhumby)?

Putting together Shelf Review assortment analyses – manually mapping products to Need States, creating Category Structures on top of that, and then reviewing and delivering the analyses to Kroger and CPG partners.

What are your primary responsibilities in your current role?

Determining the strategies and roadmap for the 84.51° Stratum front-end User Experience by engaging with internal and external stakeholders.

Describe your path to your current role. How did you get here?

I started on the Shelf Review team and during our initial grad rotation, I moved from the 'Client Lead' role to a 'Business Analyst' in the dunnhumby Global Products & Services team. From there, I progressed to a Lead Product Owner, then a Lead Product Manager, and now I'm in my current role. I spent most of my time supporting our Insights products (Shop into 84.51° Stratum), but also spent two years in Media on the Measurement team.

What has kept you at 84.51° for 10 years?

Simply put – it's a great place to work!

What are your career highlights or most memorable experiences at 84.51°?

Every SDC / Area 51 is an event to remember.

The early years as a Grad also helped me understand the breadth and depth of what this business does – having 30+ friends across the organization from the start helped create long-lasting cross-functional relationships!

Some key work items working through the 84.51° / dunnhumby split, standing up the ILD solution and release of 84.51° Stratum Workbench (internal beginnings for what became 84.51° Stratum), releasing the Prism Measurement dashboards, taking the 84.51° Stratum Queuing capability from inception to delivery, and now helping shape the vision and strategy around our Insights engines.

How do you feel the Development Program prepped you for success at 84.51°?

From the previous answer – we instantly had connections all throughout the business, so while we may not have interacted in day-to-day meetings, the conversations over coffee / lunch / drinks helped me better understand all the work we do and how all our products and services are connected.

While I don't think it's part of the process anymore, having a forced rotation to a new function / role helped me better understand what types of roles I wanted to take in the future.

Looking back when you first joined 84.51° (formerly dunnhumby) 10 years ago, is this where you thought you'd be in your career?

I was an Economics major in college and now I'm leading Software Development teams ... that's normal, right?

What advice do you have for someone starting their career at 84.51°?

Ask a TON of questions, even if they seem obvious. Setup 1:1s with people as you come across them in meetings and learn what they do, how their part of the business works, and how your work interacts with them. Take on new opportunities, but be realistic with your capacity and let people know when you think you've taken on too much.

Do you have any mentors with the company? Who? Please explain.

I've stayed in touch with my first manager, Patty Taylor, over the entire 10 years and continue to look to her for advice.

How has 84.51° changed in the 10 years you've been with the company?

Other than the name? We've definitely grown significantly in terms of number of people of who work here, but also in expectations from Kroger on what we're asked to deliver. I've seen us go from a hundred Shop clients to thousands of 84.51° Stratum contracts (with help from the Market 6 team), from a handful of loyalty coupon vehicles to what Kroger Precision Marketing and Loyalty is today, from on-prem solutions to cloud-first products. It's been exciting to be a part of and looking forward to another 10 years!