Brad Hopper

Brad Hopper's engineering journey began in semiconductors, where he worked for AMD for eight years, eventually becoming a yield manager for memory and microprocessor devices. 

But his career took an unexpected turn when he discovered Spotfire, a visual data science software platform that allows experts in their field to find industry-specific solutions.

"I fell in love with Spotfire,” Brad recalls. “I called the CEO and the President and said, ‘you need to bring this software into the semiconductor business and I want to help you do it’. 

“Within about a week-and-a-half, I had a new job at Spotfire.”

His bold move paid off. Over the course of the ensuing 18 months, seven of the top 10 semiconductor manufacturers in the world had become customers. 

The company's influence carried on growing, with competing yield management software firms either disappearing or building their own solutions on top of Spotfire's platform.

Brad continues: "We’ve dominated that industry for a number of years, and we continue to deliver additional value and capabilities to make it even more useful for our customers.”

Cross-industry learning fuels innovation

What Brad loves most about his role is the opportunity to work across diverse industries, allowing him to continuously learn and grow professionally.

"Although I have a particular background and expertise in semiconductor manufacturing, we immediately started working as well on oil and gas exploration," he explains.

This diversity has created memorable professional experiences, including a week where he went from working in a clean suit at a Korean semiconductor manufacturer to walking among oil wells in California just days later.

Brad adds: "The opportunity to get exposed to different industries, which are making tough technical decisions among a variety of different kinds of data, is such a fantastic experience and has been for almost my entire career.”

Understanding potential

Despite the versatility of the Spotfire platform, Brad identifies his greatest challenge as helping customers understand its full potential.

"Our customers don't always know what's possible with Spotfire technology,” he notes. “This is actually one of our biggest areas of work – trying to communicate the possibilities associated with the platform."

Brad reveals customers often limit their usage to familiar applications, missing opportunities to solve additional problems with the same tool.

"They think about Spotfire as the tool we use for ‘X’ because it has been so effective there. But there's also ‘Y’, ‘Z’ and beyond, that are waiting for a better way of looking at data to help resolve those issues.”

Customer engagement drives success

Reflecting on his career, Brad emphasises the value of direct customer interaction for both professional growth and product development.

"You’ll make the most progress by speaking with your customers,” he says. “It’s about understanding their challenges but also educating them about what's possible.”

He believes working across different industries creates unique opportunities for innovation through cross-pollination of ideas and approaches.

"Big advantages come from working with a wide range of customers, especially in different industries,” he concludes. “An approach somebody takes in the oil and gas business could be relevant to someone in the high-tech manufacturing space.

“It comes back to learning things from customers and communicating also the potential.”