This debut edition of Prolific's Census series highlights data practitioners driving impact with Operational Analytics, specifically Jim Lumsden, the company's first data hire, who drove more impact by syncing key product analytics to Hubspot using modern tools like Census, Snowplow, and Redshift. As Data Lead at Prolific, Jim shares his journey from PhD in online research methods to building the hard data stack and hiring a data team to serve product needs. He emphasizes the importance of self-serve access to data for decision-making and showcases an impactful operational analytics use case with Hubspot, which has increased visibility and closed over 10 new big logos, allowing sales teams to work blind-free and focus on growth frontiers. Jim advises other small data teams to prioritize building Customer Behavioral Profiles early on and not trying to solve every problem at once, focusing on delivering value in one specific area rather than drowning in the demands of data.