Data Innovators: An Interview with Alla Ivanova - ex-Google Looker

In our latest installment of the Data Innovators, we sat down with Alla Ivanova, a seasoned leader in software engineering, data infrastructure, and AI, who has held senior positions at tech giants like Uber, Atlassian, and Google Cloud BI (Looker, Data Studio). With a rich background in data and a passion for making insights accessible to everyone, Alla has a wealth of knowledge to share on the evolving role of AI and data in business.

Our biggest takeaway from the conversation is her focus on the fourth "V" of data—value, a challenge that continues to puzzle organizations despite advancements in handling volume, velocity, and variety.

Read on to discover how Alla envisions overcoming this hurdle and unlocking the true potential of data.

Q: What’s your favorite example of data discovery across history?

Alla’s passion for discovery shines through in her response, as she highlights two powerful examples where data-driven insights revolutionized our understanding of the world. 

“The discovery of black holes fascinates me. It began with purely mathematical predictions in 1783 by John Michell, followed by Einstein’s theory of general relativity in 1915, and Schwarzschild’s solutions a year later. It wasn’t until 1971 that the existence of black holes were confirmed with Cygnus X-1.”

“Another example is Ignaz Semmelweis’s discovery of the importance of handwashing. His data analysis in maternity wards showed a dramatic drop in mortality rates, but it was only after Louis Pasteur’s germ theory that his findings were widely accepted. He was described as the savior of mothers.”

These examples showcase how data has been the backbone of groundbreaking discoveries that shape our understanding of the universe and human health.

‍Q: Can you give an example of how data impacts your personal life?

Even in her personal life, Alla is a self-described “data geek.” She’s an avid user of her Tesla app, which provides rich data on energy production and consumption. 

"Thanks to the app, I’ve learned what kWh really means—how much energy is needed for different house sizes and how much an electric car consumes. More importantly, the data helped me identify that one of my Powerwalls wasn’t functioning properly. Tesla’s customer support was initially skeptical, but I persisted, and eventually, the data led them to replace the faulty unit.”

‍Q: How did your career lead you to your current role?

Alla’s career journey is a blend of technical mastery and a people-centered leadership style.

"I started in software engineering, working on everything from electrical circuits to user experiences. My focus has always been on building efficient, reliable systems that require minimal human intervention. Over time, I realized that the real magic happens when you bring people together around a shared, inspiring goal. This realization has shaped how I lead teams and helped me grow into larger leadership roles.”

Her experience working on foundational infrastructure, coupled with her talent for connecting people and ideas, has played a critical role in her success.

‍Q: What are the biggest challenges still holding back data teams today?

For Alla, the biggest challenge is extracting value from the massive amounts of data organizations now generate. She calls it “the 4th V”.

"As humanity, we have accumulated tens of zettabytes by now and have conquered the 3 Vs of big data — Volume, Velocity, and Variety—but Value is still elusive. We can store and query huge amounts of data, but making sense of it is the hard part. We still rely on expensive tools and skilled professionals to ask the right questions and extract insights. The complexity of this task is often mistaken for poor data quality or the lack of talent, but these are just symptoms of a larger issue.”

Additionally, Alla points to the growing challenges of data privacy and compliance and the cost of capacity as major obstacles for modern data teams.

‍Q: What advancements in data excite you the most?

Alla is particularly excited about the rapid advancements in large language models (LLMs), low-latency embedding-based retrieval (similarity search), and anomaly detection in AI-powered telemetry. These innovations promise to push the boundaries of what’s possible with data-driven technologies.

“Here are my top 5

• The fast evolution of LLMs across training, inference, and eval infrastructure.
• Rise of “small” open-source language models.
• Low-latency embedding-based retrieval (EBR) at scale, as part of all major databases as well as directly utilizing GPU memory (ex: LinR). Further evolution of ANN algorithms for indexing, such as HNSW. 
• AI-powered observability and anomaly detection, applicable to traditional software products, data quality and AI-based applications themselves. What we did at Groupon 9 years ago for catching and preventing data issues in the real-time streaming pipelines can be brought to a whole new level using AI-powered capabilities today. XAI (explainable AI) plays a critical role in this problem space as well.

Q: How has AI changed your role, and how do you see it evolving?

For Alla, AI is already changing how we interact with both data and each other. 

"I envision a future where AI takes on an even more active role in our daily work. Imagine a personal AI assistant that tells you the top three things you need to focus on today, based on data and trends in your business and company life. AI will continue to change the way we prioritize and make decisions.”

She believes that AI’s ability to surface meaningful insights will only grow, further empowering professionals to work more efficiently.

‍Q: Imagine a new product could turn every employee into a data jedi—how would this transform your company? What about your team specifically?

Alla’s vision of data democratization is all about improving execution.

"This would unlock the 4th V of data - Value. My biggest hope is that rich data insights at everyone’s fingertips will solve one of the greatest challenges— optimal performance & execution towards company success. Many organizations spend a lot of time planning their actions but struggle to deliver desired outcomes. We face unpredictability and friction in business environments which hinders our ability to execute on the selected strategies. I believe that instant data insights and 'friction detection' across teams, projects and programs will transform how we prioritize tasks and make decisions to self-correct or pivot quickly when required.”

She envisions a future where companies can overcome planning paralysis and focus on achieving measurable results by leveraging data insights available to all employees.

‍Q: What advice would you give to data leaders looking to scale their efforts?

Alla stresses the importance of focusing on consolidating the business knowledge that makes consistent insights accessible across the organization.

"Too many companies struggle with extracting value from their data because they haven’t built this layer to encapsulate business- and org-wide knowledge. Leaders need to think about how to create, structure and manage this knowledge.”

She also emphasizes the importance of privacy and compliance and ensuring that companies don’t fall into the trap of using too many tools for the same job, which can lead to unmanageable complexity, especially in multi-cloud environments.

‍Conclusion

Alla’s insights reflect a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing data teams today. From the importance of building scalable, efficient systems to the exciting advancements in AI and data technologies, she’s at the forefront of shaping the future of data-driven decision-making. As businesses continue to grapple with unlocking the true value of their data, leaders like Alla are helping pave the way toward a more efficient, insightful, and AI-powered future.