After spending most of the year in front of a screen, at Christmas time there’s nothing I enjoy more than finally switching off my computer and relaxing with a good book. With only 10 days left until Christmas, here are my top picks for this year’s holiday break: Stakeholder Whispering by Bill Shander Data scientists are constantly told of the importance of understanding their stakeholders’ needs. Unfortunately, this advice is rarely accompanied by instructions on just how to do this. In...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
My first month in industry as a data scientist, I drafted a beautifully structured email for my boss. What he actually sent was 1/10th the length. I’ve never felt more overeducated and underprepared. Fresh from my PhD, my boss asked me to draft an email for him. I spent 4 hours crafting what I thought was the perfect message: grammatically perfect, clearly justified, with every logical step meticulously explained - exactly how I’d been trained to write at university. When he CC’d me on what...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Imagine going to buy a house and the real estate agent just hands you a floorplan - without any photos or context. You’d see the number of bedrooms and bathrooms; the size of the house. All the important features. But would you buy it? Probably not. Because floorplans show features. People buy benefits. My parents’ neighbour recently moved house after 30+ years. For her new home, she chose a single-story house. The feature? No stairs. The benefit? Continued independence as she grows old - her...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
When I was 9, I didn’t want to be a data scientist. I wanted to be a radio host. My favourite “game” involved recording episodes of my radio show using an old cassette recorder and blank audio tapes. I would bring on my family and stuffed animals for interviews, then cut to my favourite songs - sometimes sung (badly) by me. So, when I launched Value Driven Data Science three years ago, I saw it as a great way to learn from data scientists I admired, while living out my childhood dream. What I...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
“So this is Christmas and what have you done?” - John Lennon It’s that time of year again. The time when work grinds to a halt and everyone tells themselves they’ll “figure it out in the new year.” Then January hits. Nothing changes. Before you know it, another year’s over and you’re scratching your head, wondering how you got so little done. It’s not that you can’t achieve big things in a year. It’s that most people never actually start. Maybe you’ve spent years building technical skills and...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
If you think the best use of LLMs in data science is coding, then you’re missing some of the most powerful opportunities. Late last year, I had an important conversation coming up with a key stakeholder who I’d known for years. And when I say important, I mean the sort of conversation that could make or break a career. Let’s just say that this person had a very particular way of responding to situations, and I knew from experience that if I made one false step, the conversation could go...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Before any important meeting, I put myself in my stakeholders’ shoes and ask: What questions might they have? What data might they request? Then I have it ready when they ask. I started doing this in my graduate days, as a way to avoid staying back late for last-minute requests. But the career benefits soon became clear: anticipating what stakeholders need - before they ask - creates far greater impact than simply doing what you’re told. Which brings me to a question I was recently asked on...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Some of the best data science opportunities I’ve received never came through job boards. They came through LinkedIn conversations. Around three years ago, I set myself the goal of posting twice weekly on LinkedIn, after previously posting only “here and there”. Six months ago, I increased that to daily posting. The results have been transformative: I’ve received work opportunities I never would have known existed; Reconnected with valued colleagues from my past; and Networked with data...
2 months ago • 1 min read
I had a stakeholder who was excited about data and ready to champion initiatives. And I completely blew it. Back in the day, when “big data” was the latest buzzword (much like “AI” is today), I worked with a stakeholder who was captivated by the idea of harnessing our organisation’s big data. Every time we spoke, she would ask how we could utilize our big data, and then tell me about the value she could see our big data creating. The level of engagement was every data scientist’s dream. The...
2 months ago • 2 min read