We talked about:

Liesbeth’s background What is design? The importance of interaction in design Design as a process (Double Diamond technique) How long does it take to go from an idea to finishing the second diamond? Design thinking (Google’s PAIR) What is a Design Sprint and who should participate in it? Why should data specialists care about design? Challenging your task-giver (asking “why”) How to avoid the “Chinese whisper game” (reiterating the problem) Defining the roadmap for data science teams What is innovation? Bringing innovation to your management Task force-team approach to solving problems Innovation, resource management issues, and using data to back your ideas Words of advice for those interested in design and innovation

Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liesbeth-dingemans/ Medium posts on design, innovation, art and AI: https://medium.com/@liesbethmd

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

kDimensions Being self-employed Visual engineering Constrain yourself to get creative Coming up with ideas Visualising difficult concepts The process of creating visuals Creating visuals Learning to create visuals for engineers Consuming with intention to create Learning by breaking code Earning with visuals Adding visuals to blog posts Meor’s book: visual introduction to deep learning

Links:  

A Visual Introduction to Deep Learning by Meor Amer: https://gumroad.com/a/63231091 kDimensions website: https://kdimensions.com/ Book to learn about Figma: https://figmabook.com/ Jack Butcher's approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azhqc4K-GAE 

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Valerii’s background Who goes through an ML system design interview System design VS ML System design Preparing for ML system design interviews Machine learning project checklist The importance of defining a goal and ways of measuring it What to do after you set a goal Typical components of an ML system Applying ML systems to real-world problems System design and coding in interviews for new graduates Humans in the validation of model performance

Links:

Valerii's telegram channel (in Russian): t.me/cryptovalerii

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We don't have a new episode this week, but we have an amazing conversation with Sejal Vaidya from August

We talked about

Sejal's background Why transitioning to ML engineering Three phases of development of a project Why data engineers should get involved in ML Technologies Tips for people who want to transition Soft skills and understanding requirements Helpful resources

Resources:

ML checklist (https://twolodzko.github.io/ml-checklist.html) Machine Learning Bookcamp (https://mlbookcamp.com/) Made with ML course (https://madewithml.com) Full-stack deep learning (https://fullstackdeeplearning.com) Newsletters: mlinproduction, huyenchip.com, jeremyjordan.me, mihaileric.com Sejal's "Production ML" twitter list (https://twitter.com/i/lists/1212819218959351809)

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Mariano’s background Typical day of a manager Becoming a manager Preparing for the transition Balancing projects and assumptions Search and recommendations Dealing with unfamiliar domains Structuring projects Connecting product and data science Rules of Machine Learning CRISP-DM and deployment Giving feedback Dealing with people leaving the team Doing technical work as a manager Dealing with bad hires Keeping up with the industry

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Ivan’s role at Personio Ivan’s background Studying technical management Managing a software team NLP teams NLP engineers Becoming an NLP engineer Computer vision NLP engineer vs ML engineer Conversational designers Linguistics outside of chatbots When does a team need an NLP engineer or a linguist? The future of NLP NLP pipelines GPT-3 Problems of GPT-3 Does GPT-3 make everything obsolete? What NLP actually is? Does NLP solve problems better than humans? State of language translation NLP Pandect

Links:

https://github.com/ivan-bilan/The-NLP-Pandect https://github.com/ivan-bilan/The-Engineering-Manager-Pandect https://github.com/ivan-bilan/The-Microservices-Pandect Ivan's presentation about NLP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRur3xey31s

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about

Geo’s background Technical Product Manager Building ML platform Working on internal projects Prioritizing the backlog Defining the problems Observability metrics Avoiding jumping into “solution mode” Breaking down the problem Important skills for product managers The importance of a technical background Data Lead vs Staff Data Scientist vs Data PM Approvals and rollout Engineering/platform teams Data scientists’ role in the engineering team Scrum and Agile in data science Transitioning from Data Scientist to Technical PM Books to read for the transition Transitioning for non-technical people Doing user research Quality assurance in ML Advice for supporting an ML team as a Scrum master

Links:

Geo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geojolly/ Product School community: https://productschool.com/ http://theleanstartup.com/  Netflix CPO Medium blog: https://gibsonbiddle.medium.com/ Glovo is hiring: https://jobs.glovoapp.com/en/?d=4040726002

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

CJ’s background Evolutionary biology Learning machine learning Learning on the job and being honest with what you don’t know Convincing that you will be useful CJ’s first interview Transitioning to industry Tailoring your CV Data science courses Moving to Berlin Being selective vs ‘spray and pray’ Moving on to new jobs Plan for transitioning to industry Requirements for getting hired Publications, portfolios and pet projects Adjusting to industry Bad habits from academia Topics with long-term value CJ’s textbook

Links:

CJ's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-jenkins/ Positions for master students: one two

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Sara’s background Product designer’s responsibilities Data product manager’s responsibilities Planning with the team Design thinking and product design Data PMs vs regular PMs Skill requirements for Data PMs Going from a product designer to a data product manager Case studies Resources for learning about product management Data PM’s biggest challenge Multitasking and context switching Insights from user interviews Using new, unfamiliar tools Documentation Idea generation Do Data PMs need to know ML?

Links:

Product Management Courses: https://www.lennyrachitsky.com/course and https://www.reforge.com/mastering-product-management Product Management Reading: https://svpg.com/inspired-how-to-create-products-customers-love/ and https://steveblank.com/category/customer-development/ Data Engineering for Noobs: https://www.datacamp.com/

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Rishabh's background Rishabh’s experience  as a sales engineer Prescriptive analytics vs predictive analytics The problem with the term ‘data science’ Is machine learning a part of analytics? Day-to-day of people that work with ML Rule-based systems to machine learning The role of analysts in rule-based systems and in data teams Do data analysts know data better than data scientists? Data analysts’ documentation and recommendations Iterative work - data scientists/ML vs data analysts Analyzing results of experiments Overlaps between machine learning and analytics Using tools to bridge the gap between ML and analytics Do companies overinvest in ML and underinvest in analystics? Do companies hire data scientists while forgetting to hire data analysts? The difficulty of finding senior data analysts Is data science sexier than data analytics? Should ML and data analytics teams work together or independently? Building data teams Rishabh’s newsletter – MLOpsRoundup

Links:

https://mlopsroundup.substack.com/ https://twitter.com/rish_bhargava

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Tammy’s background Being the chief of data First projects as the first data person in a company Initial resistance Expanding the team Role of business analyst Platanomelon’s stack Order for growing the data team Demand forecasting Should analysts know machine learning Qualifications for the first data person in a company Providing accurate results Receiving insights in a timely manner Providing useful insights Giving ownership to the team Starting as the first data person in a company Data For Future podcast Supporting team members that are stuck Finding Tammy online

Links: 

Tammy's podcast: https://dataforfuture.org/

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Mihail’s background NLP and self-driving vehicles Transitioning from academia to the industry Machine learning researchers Finding open-ended problems Machine learning engineers Is data science more engineering or research? What can engineers and researchers learn from one another? Bridging the disconnect between researchers and engineers Breaking down silos Fluid roles Full-stack data scientists Advice to machine learning researchers Advice to machine learning engineers Reading papers Choosing between engineering or research if you’re just starting Confetti.ai

Links:

https://twitter.com/mihail_eric http://confetti.ai/

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Marianna’s background Being the only data scientist What should already be in the company How much experience do you need Identifying problems Prioritization What should the company already know? First week First month First quarter Managing expectations Solving problems without ML Project timelines Finding the best solution Evaluating performance Getting stuck Communicating with analysts Transitioning from engineering to data science Growing the team Stopping projects Questions for the company From research to production Wrapping up

Links:

Marianna's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianna-diachuk-53ba60116/

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Mikio’s background What Mikio helps with Moving from a full-time job to freelancing Finding clients and importance of a strong network Building a network Initial meetings with clients Understanding what clients need Template for the offer (Million dollar consulting) Deciding on rate type: hourly, daily, per project Taking vacations (and paying twice for them) Avoiding overworking Specializing: consulting as a product Working full-time as a principal vs being a consultant Is the overhead worth it? Getting a new client when you already have a project After freelancing: what’s next? Output of Mikio’s work Learning new things Lessons learned after finding clients Registering as a freelancer in Germany Personal liability of a freelancer Effect of globalization and remote work on consulting Advice for people who want to start freelancing Woking full-time and freelancing at the same time

Books: 

Million Dollar Consulting  by Alan Weiss Built to Sell by John Warrillow

Links:

Mikio's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikiobraun Mikio's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikiobraun/

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Carmine’s background Carmine’s startup FreshFlow Doing user research Design thinking Entrepreneur first Finding co-founders: the “expertise edges” framework The structure of the EF program Coming up with the idea How important is going through a startup accelerator? Finding your first client Finding investors Consequences of having a bad investor Splitting responsibilities between co-founders Hiring The importance of delegating Making work attractive to hires Plans for the future Just-in-time supply chain What would you have done differently? Advice for people starting a startup Don’t focus on skills only Getting motivation Am I ready for a startup? Importance of a business school Advice on finding a co-founder Do I need EF if I already have an idea? Having a prototype before the pitch

Books:

The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick Design Thinking by Robert Curedale

Links:

FreshFlow: https://freshflow.ai/ Carmine's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carminepaolino Carmine's Twitter: https://twitter.com/paolino

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We don't have an episode lined up for this week, but we recorded a small chat with Vladimir some time ago. Enjoy it! 

We talked about:

Vladimir's background Learning by answering questions Don't be afraid of being wrong Winnings books Learning random things Approach learning as a machine learning project

Links:

Vladimir on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimir-finkelshtein/

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Ben’s Background Building solutions for customers Why projects don’t make it to production Why do people choose overcomplicated solutions? The dangers of isolating data science from the business unit The importance of being able to explain things Maximizing chances of making into production The IKEA effect Risks of implementing novel algorithms If it can be done simply – do that first Don’t become the guinea pig for someone’s white paper The importance of stat skills and coding skills Structuring an agile team for ML work Timeboxing research Mentoring Ben’s book ‘Uncool techniques’ at AI-First companies Should managers learn data science? Do data scientists need to specialize to be successful?

Links:

Ben's book: https://www.manning.com/books/machine-learning-engineering-in-action (get 35% off with code "ctwsummer21")

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Elena’s background Why do a startup instead of being an employee? Where to get ideas for your startup Finding a co-founder What should you consider before starting a startup? Vertical startup vs infrastructure startup ‘AI First’ startups Building tools for engineers What skills do you need to start a startup? Startup risks How to be prepared to fail Work-life balance The part-time startup approach Startup investment models No resources and no technical expertise – what to do? Productionizing your services When to hire an expert Talking to people with a problem before solving the problem Starting Elena’s startup, Evidently Elena’s role at Evidently Why is Evidently open source? “People will just copy my open source code. Should I be concerned?” Bottom-up adoption Creating value so that clients engage with your product Is there a difference between countries when creating a startup? Does open source mean the data is safer? When should you hire engineers? Following the market Startups out of genuine interest vs Just for money and for fun

Links:

EvidentlyAI: https://evidentlyai.com/ Elena's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenasamuylova/ Elena's Twitter: https://twitter.com/elenasamuylova/

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Santiago’s background “Transitioning to ML” vs “Adding ML as a skill” Getting over the fear of math for software developers Learning by explaining Seven lessons I learned about starting a career in machine learning Lesson 1 – Take the first step Lesson 2 – Learning is a marathon, not a sprint Lesson 3 – If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Lesson 4 – Do something with the knowledge you gain Lesson 5 – ML is not just math. Math is not scary. Lesson 6 – Your ability to analyze a problem is the most important skill. Coding is secondary. Lesson 7 – You don’t need to know every detail Tools and frameworks needed to transition to machine learning Problem-based learning vs Top-down learning Learning resources Santiago’s favorite books Santiago’s course on transitioning to machine learning Improving coding skills Building solutions without machine learning Becoming a better engineer What is the difference between machine learning and data science? Getting into machine learning - Reiteration Getting past the math

Links:

Santiago's Twitter: https://twitter.com/svpino Santiago's course: https://gumroad.com/svpino#kBjbC Pinned tweet with a roadmap: https://twitter.com/svpino/status/1400798154732212230

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Yury’s background Failing fast: Grammarly for science Not failing fast: Keyword recommender Four steps to epiphany Lesson learned when bringing XGBoost into production When data scientists try to be engineers Joining a fintech startup: Doing NLP with thousands of GPUs Working at a Telco company Having too much freedom The importance of digital presence Work-life balance Quantifying impact of failing projects on our CVs Business trips to Perm: don’t work on the weekend What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

Links:

Yury's course: https://mlcourse.ai/ Yury's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ykashnitsky

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html

We talked about:

Tatiana’s background 12 career hacks and changing career Hack #1: Change your social circle Hack #2: Forget your fears and stereotypes Hack #3: Forget distractions Hack #4: Don’t overestimate others and don’t underestimate yourself Hack #5: Attention genius Hack #6: Make a team Hack #7: Less is more. Forget about perfectionism Hack #8: Initial creation Hack #9: Find mentors Hack #10: Say “no” Hack #11: Look for failures Hack #12: Take care of yourself Kaggle vs internships and pet projects Resources for learning machine learning Starting with Kaggle Improving focus Astroinformatics How background in Physics is helpful for transitioning Leaving academia Preparing for interviews

Links:

Mock interviews: https://www.pramp.com/ Learning ML: https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning and https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep-learning Python: https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning-with-python  SQL: https://www.sqlhabit.com/  Practice: https://www.kaggle.com/ MIT 6.006: https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.006/fall11/notes.shtml Coding: https://leetcode.com/ System design: https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-the-system-design-interview Ukrainian telegram groups for interview preparation: https://t.me/FaangInterviewChannel,  https://t.me/FaangTechInterview, https://t.me/FloodInterview

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

We talked about:

Knesia’s background Data analytics vs data science Skills needed for data analytics and data science Benefits of getting a masters degree Useful online courses How project management background can be helpful for the career transition Which skills do PMs need to become data analysts? Going from working with spreadsheets to working with python Kaggle Productionizing machine learning models Getting experience while studying Looking for a job Gap between theory and practice Learning plan for transitioning Last tips and getting involved in projects

Links:

Notes prepared by Ksenia with all the info: https://www.notion.so/ksenialeg/DataTalks-Club-7597e55f476040a5921db58d48cf718f

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html

We talked about:

Ben’s background AI evangelism Ben’s first experiences speaking in public Becoming a great speaker  Key Takeaways and Call to Action Making a good introduction Being Remembered Writing a talk proposal for conferences Landing a keynote Good topics to start talks on Pitching a solution talk to meetup organizers Top public speaking skill to acquire Book recommendations

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html​​​

We discussed monetization roles and the capabilities people need to move into those roles.

The key roles are ML Researcher, ML Architect, and ML Product Manager.

We talked about:

Vin's career journey

What does it mean to "monetize machine learning" Important monetization metrics Who should we have on the team to make a project successful Machine Learning Researcher (applied and scientist) - background, responsibilities, and needed skills Developing new categories  The best recipe for a startup: angry users + data scientists What research actually is ML Product Manager - background, responsibilities, and needed skills How product managers can actually manage all their responsibilities (and they have a lot of them!) ML Architect - background, responsibilities, and needed skills Path to becoming an architect  How should we change education to make it more effective  Important product metrics

And more! 

Links:

https://twitter.com/v_vashishta​ https://linkedin.com/in/vineetvashishta​ https://databyvsquared.com/​

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html​

We talked about:

How we make decisions with machine learning What is decision optimization  Specifying the decision function Emulation for making the best decisions Decision optimization and reinforcement learning Getting started with decision optimization Trends in the industry

Links:

https://datatalks.club/people/danbecker.html https://www.decision.ai/​

Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html