As organizations of all sizes continuously look to drive value out of data, the modern data stack has emerged as a clear solution for getting insights into the hands of the organization. With the rapid pace of innovation not slowing down, the tools within the modern data stack have enabled data teams to drive faster insights, collaborate at scale, and democratize data knowledge. However, are tools just enough to drive business value with data?  In the first of our four RADAR 2023 sessions, we look at the key drivers of value within the modern data stack through the minds of Yali Sassoon and Barr Moses.  Yali Sassoon is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Snowplow Analytics, a behavioral data platform that empowers data teams to solve complex data challenges. At Snowplow, Yali gets to combine his love of building things with his fascination of the ways in which people use data to reason. Barr Moses is CEO & Co-Founder of Monte Carlo. Previously, she was VP Customer Operations at customer success company Gainsight, where she helped scale the company 10x in revenue and, among other functions, built the data/analytics team.  Listen in as Yali and Barr outline how data leaders can drive value creation with data in 2023.

Data leaders play a critical role in driving innovation and growth in various industries, and this is particularly true in highly regulated industries such as aviation. In such industries, data leaders face unique challenges and opportunities, working to balance the need for innovation with strict regulatory requirements. This week’s guest is Derek Cedillo, who has 27 years of experience working in Data and Analytics at GE Aerospace. Derek currently works as a Senior Manager for GE Aerospace’s Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics division, having previously worked as the Senior Director for Data Science and Analytics. In the episode, Derek shares the key components to successfully managing a Data Science program within a large and highly regulated organization. He also shares his insights on how to standardize data science planning across various projects and how to get a Data Scientists to think and work in an agile manner. We hear about ideal data team structures, how to approach hiring, and what skills to look for in new hires.  The conversation also touches on what responsibility Data Leaders have within organizations, championing data-driven decisions and strategy, as well as the complexity Data Leaders face in highly regulated industries. When it comes to solving problems that provide value for the business, engagement and transparency are key aspects. Derek shares how to ensure that expectations are met through clear and frank conversations with executives that try to align expectations between management and Data Science teams. 

Finally, you'll learn about validation frameworks, best practices for teams in less regulated industries, what trends to look out for in 2023 and how ChatGPT is changing how executives define their expectations from Data Science teams. 

Links to mentioned in the show: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal The Harvard Data Science Review Podcast

Relevant Links from DataCamp: Article: Storytelling for More Impactful Data Science Course: Data Communication Concepts Course: Data-Driven Decision-Making for Business

In order for any data team to move from reactive to proactive and drive revenue for the business, they must make sure the basics are in place and that the team and data culture is mature enough to allow for scalable return on investment.  Without these elements, data teams find themselves unable to make meaningful progress because they are stuck reacting to problems and responding to rudimentary questions from stakeholders across the organization. This quickly takes up bandwidth and keeps them from achieving meaningful ROI. In today’s episode, we have invited Shane Murray to break down how to effectively structure a data team, how data leaders can lead efficient decentralization, and how teams can scale their ROI in 2023. Shane is the Field CTO at Monte Carlo, a data reliability company that created the industry's first end-to-end Data Observability platform. Shane’s career has taken him through a successful 9-year tenure at The New York Times, where he grew the data analytics team from 12 to 150 people and managed all core data products. Shane is an expert when it comes to data observability, enabling effective ROI for data initiatives, scaling high-impact data teams, and more. Throughout the episode we discuss how to structure a data team for maximum efficiency, how data leaders can balance long-term and short-term data initiatives, how data maturity correlates to a team’s forward-thinking ability, data democratization with data insights and reporting ROI, best practices for change management, and much more.

The most common application for data science is to solve problems within your own organization, and as professionals become more data literate, they rely less and less on others to solve their problems and unlock professional growth and career advancement. But in the world of consulting, data science is used to solve other people’s problems, which adds an additional layer of complexity since consultants aren’t always given all of the tools they need to do the job right. Enter Pratik Agrawal, a Partner at Kearney Analytics leading the automotive and industrial transportation sector. In this episode, we are taking a look at how data science is applied in the consulting industry and what skills are critical to be a successful data science consultant.  As a software engineer and data scientist with over a decade of experience in the consulting world at companies like Boston Consulting Group and IRI, Pratik has a deep understanding of how to navigate the industry and how data science can be leveraged in it, as well as expertise in digital transformation projects and strategy. Throughout the episode, we discuss common problems that consultants encounter, the skills needed to be successful as a consultant, the different approaches to analytics in consulting versus in an organization, how to handle context switching when juggling multiple projects, what makes consulting feel exciting and challenging, and much more.

One of the toughest parts of any data project is experimentation, not just because you need to choose the right testing method to confirm the project’s effectiveness, but because you also need to make sure you are testing the right hypothesis and measuring the right KPIs to ensure you receive accurate results. One of the most effective methods for data experimentation is A/B testing, and Anjali Mehra, Senior Director of Product Analytics, Data Science, Experimentation, and Instrumentation at DocuSign, is no stranger to how A/B testing can impact multiple parts of any organization. Throughout her career, she has also worked in marketing analytics and customer analytics at companies like Shutterfly, Wayfair, and Constant Contact. Throughout the episode, we discuss DocuSign’s analytics goals, how A/B testing works, how to gamify data experimentation, how A/B testing helps with new initiative validation, examples of A/B testing with data projects, how organizations can get started with data experimentation, and much more.

The insurance industry thrives on data from utilizing data and analytics to determine policy rates for customers to working with relevant partners in the industry to improve their products and services, data is embedded in everything that insurance companies do.

But insurance companies also have a number of hurdles to overcome, whether it’s transitioning legacy data into new processes and technology, balancing new projects and models with ever-changing regulatory standards, and balancing the ethical considerations of how to best utilize data without resulting in unintended consequences for the end user.

That’s why we’ve brought Rob Reynolds onto the show. Rob is the VP and Chief Data & Analytics Officer at W. R. Berkley, a multinational insurance holding company specializing in property and casualty insurance. Rob brings over two decades of experience in Data Science, IT, and technology leadership, with a particular expertise in building departments and establishing highly functioning teams, especially in highly dynamic environments.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how insurance companies utilize data, the most important skills for anyone looking for data science jobs in the insurance industry, why the need for thoughtful criticism is growing in data science, and how an expertise in communication will put you ahead of the pack.

With the increasing rate at which new data tools and platforms are being created, the modern data stack risks becoming just another buzzword data leaders use when talking about how they solve problems.

Alongside the arrival of new data tools is the need for leaders to see beyond just the modern data stack and think deeply about how their data work can align with business outcomes, otherwise, they risk falling behind trying to create value from innovative, but irrelevant technology.

In this episode, Yali Sassoon joins the show to explore what the modern data stack really means, how to rethink the modern data stack in terms of value creation, data collection versus data creation, and the right way businesses should approach data ingestion, and much more.

Yali is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Snowplow Analytics, a behavioral data platform that empowers data teams to solve complex data challenges. Yali is an expert in data with a background in both strategy and operations consulting teaching companies how to use data properly to evolve their operations and improve their results.

Data Analytics has played a major role in Chelsea’s journey to becoming the seventh most valuable football club in the world, Chelsea has won six league titles, eight FA Cups, five League Cups, and two Champions League titles.

Today, we are going behind the scenes at Chelsea FC to see how they use data analytics to analyze matches, inform tactical decision-making, and drive matchday success in one of the world’s top football leagues, just in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar!

Federico Bettuzzi is a Data Scientist at Chelsea FC. As a specialist in match analytics, Federico works with Chelsea’s first team to inform tactical decision making during matches. Federico joins the show to break down how he gathers and synthesizes data, how they develop match analyses for tactical reviews, how managers prioritize data analytics differently, how to balance long-term and short-term projects, and much more.

To become a data-driven organization, it takes a major shift in mindset and culture, investments in technology and infrastructure, skills transformation, and clearly evangelizing the usefulness of using data to drive better decision-making.

With all of these levers to scale, many organizations get stuck early in their data transformation journey, not knowing what to prioritize and how. In this episode, Ganes Kesari joins the show to share the frameworks and processes that organizations can follow to become data-driven, measure their data maturity, and win stakeholder support across the organization.

Ganes is Co-Founder and Chief Decision Scientist at Gramener, which helps companies make data-driven decisions through powerful data stories and analytics. He is an expert in data, analytics, organizational strategy, and hands-on execution. Throughout his 20-year career, Ganes has become an internationally-renowned speaker and has been published in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and has become a thought leader in Data Science.

Throughout the episode, we talk about how organizations can scale their data maturity, how to build an effective data science roadmap, how to successfully navigate the skills and people components of data maturity, and much more.

Python has dominated data science programming for the last few years, but there’s another rising star programming language seeing increased adoption and popularity—Julia.

As the fourth most popular programming language, many data teams and practitioners are turning their attention toward understanding Julia and seeing how it could benefit individual careers, business operations, and drive increased value across organizations.

Zacharias Voulgaris, PhD joins the show to talk about his experience with the Julia programming language and his perspective on the future of Julia’s widespread adoption. Zacharias is the author of Julia for Data Science. As a Data Science consultant and mentor with 10 years of international experience that includes the role of Chief Science Officer at three startups, Zacharias is an expert in data science, analytics, artificial intelligence, and information systems.

In this episode, we discuss the strengths of Julia, how data scientists can get started using Julia, how team members and leaders alike can transition to Julia, why companies are secretive about adopting Julia, the interoperability of Julia with Python and other popular programming languages, and much more.

Check out this month’s events: https://www.datacamp.com/data-driven-organizations-2022

Take the Introduction to Julia course for free!

https://www.datacamp.com/courses/introduction-to-julia

While securing the support of senior executives is a major hurdle of implementing a data transformation program, it’s often one of the earliest and easiest hurdles to overcome in comparison to the overall program itself. Leading a data transformation program requires thorough planning, organization-wide collaboration, careful execution, robust testing, and so much more.

Vanessa Gonzalez is the Senior Director of Data and Analytics for ML & AI at Transamerica. Vanessa has experience in data transformation, leadership, and strategic direction for Data Science and Data Governance teams, and is an experienced senior data manager.

Vanessa joins the show to share how she is helping to lead Transamerica’s Data Transformation program. In this episode, we discuss the biggest challenges Transamerica has faced throughout the process, the most important factors to making any large-scale transformation successful, how to collaborate with other departments, how Vanessa structures her team, the key skills data scientists need to be successful, and much more.

Check out this month’s events: https://www.datacamp.com/data-driven-organizations-2022

As data leaders continue to fill their talent gap, how should they approach sourcing, retaining, and upskilling their talent? What strategies should data leaders adopt in order to accomplish their talent goals and become data-driven?

Kyle Winterbottom joins the show to talk about the key differentiators between data teams that build talent-dense teams and those that do not. Kyle is the host of Driven by Data: The Podcast, the Founder & CEO of Orbition, a talent solutions provider, for scaling Data, Analytics, & Artificial Intelligence teams across the UK, Europe and the USA. As an accomplished expert and thought leader in talent acquisition, attraction, and retention, as well as scaling data teams, Kyle was named one of Data IQ’s 100 Most Influential People in Data for 2022.

In this episode, we talk about how data teams can position themselves to attract top talent, how to properly articulate how data team members are adding value to the business, how organizations can accidentally set data leaders up to fail, how to approach upskilling, and how data leaders can create an employer branding narrative to attract top talent.

Check out this month’s events: https://www.datacamp.com/data-driven-organizations-2022

Data Literacy is increasingly becoming a skill that every role needs to have, regardless of whether their role a data-oriented or not. No one knows this better than Jordan Morrow, who is known as the Godfather of Data Literacy.

Jordan is the VP and Head of Data Analytics at Brainstorm, Inc., and is the author of Be Data Literate: The Skills Everyone Needs to Succeed.Jordan has been a fierce advocate for data literacy throughout his career, including helping the United Nations understand and utilize data literacy effectively.

Throughout the episode, we define data literacy, why organizations need data literacy in order to use data properly and drive business impact, how to increase organizational data literacy, and more.

This episode of DataFramed is a part of DataCamp’s Data Literacy Month, where we raise awareness for Data Literacy throughout the month of September through webinars, workshops, and resources featuring thought leaders and subject matter experts that can help you build your data literacy, as well as your organization’s. For more information, visit: https://www.datacamp.com/data-literacy-month/for-teams

Most companies experience the same pain point when working with data: it takes too long to get the right data to the right people. This creates a huge opportunity for data scientists to find innovative solutions to accelerate that process. One very effective method is to implement real-time data solutions that can increase business revenue and make it easier for anyone relying on the data to access the data they need, understand it, and make accurate decisions with it.

George Trujillo joins the show to share how he believes real-time data has the potential to completely transform the way companies work with data. George is the Principal Data Strategist at DataStax, a tech company that helps businesses scale by mobilizing real-time data on a single, unified stack. With a career spanning 30 years and companies like Charles Schwab, Fidelity Investments, and Overstock.com, George is an expert in data-driven executive decision-making and tying data initiatives to tangible business value outcomes.

In this episode, we talk about the real-world use cases of real-time analytics, why reducing data complexity is key to improving the customer experience, the common problems that slow data-driven decision-making, and how data practitioners can start implementing real-time data through small high-value analytical assets.

One of the biggest challenges facing the adoption of machine learning and AI in Data Science is understanding, interpreting, and explaining models and their outcomes to produce higher certainty, accountability, and fairness.

Serg Masis is a Climate & Agronomic Data Scientist at Syngenta and the author of the book, Interpretable Machine Learning with Python. For the last two decades, Serg has been at the confluence of the internet, application development, and analytics. Serg is a true polymath. Before his current role, he co-founded a search engine startup incubated by Harvard Innovation Labs, was the proud owner of a Bubble Tea shop, and more.

Throughout the episode, Serg spoke about the different challenges affecting model interpretability in machine learning, how bias can produce harmful outcomes in machine learning systems, the different types of technical and non-technical solutions to tackling bias, the future of machine learning interpretability, and much more.

Building data science functions has become tables takes for many organizations today. However, before data science functions were needed, the finance function acted as the insights layer for many organizations over the past. This means that working in finance has become an effective entry point into data science function for professionals across all spectrums.

Brian Richardi is the Head of Finance Data Science and Analytics at Stryker, a medical equipment manufacturing company based in Michigan, US. Brian brings over 14 years of global experience to the table. At Stryker, Brian leads a team of data scientists that use business data and machine learning to make predictions for optimization and automation.

In this episode, Brian talks about his experience as a data science leader transitioning from Finance, how he utilizes collaboration and effective communication to drive value, how leads the data science finance function at Stryker, and what the future of data science looks like in the finance space, and more.

Democratizing data, and developing data culture in large enterprise organizations is an incredibly complex process that can seem overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. And today’s guest draws a clear path towards becoming data-driven.

Meenal Iyer, Sr. Director for Data Science and Experimentation at Tailored Brands, Inc., has over 20 years of experience as a Data and Analytics strategist. She has built several data and analytics platforms and drives the enterprises she works with to be insights-driven. Meenal has also led data teams at various retail organizations, and as a wide variety of specialties in Data Science, including data literacy programs, data monetization, machine learning, enterprise data governance, and more.

In this episode, Meenal shares her thorough, effective, and clear strategy for democratizing data successfully and how that helps create a successful data culture in large enterprises, and gives you the tools you need to do the same in your organization.

[Announcement] Join us for DataCamp Radar, our digital summit on June 23rd. During this summit, a variety of experts from different backgrounds will be discussing everything related to the future of careers in data. Whether you're recruiting for data roles or looking to build a career in data, there’s definitely something for you. Seats are limited, and registration is free, so secure your spot today on https://events.datacamp.com/radar/

When many people talk about leading effective Data Science teams in large organizations, it’s easy for them to forget how much effort, intentionality, vision, and leadership are involved in the process.

Glenn Hofmann, Chief Analytics Officer at New York Life Insurance, is no stranger to that work. With over 20 years of global leadership experience in data, analytics, and AI that spans the US, Germany, and South Africa, Glenn knows firsthand what it takes to build an effective data science function within a large organization.

In this episode, we talk about how he built NeW York Life Insurance’s 50-person data science and AI function, how they utilize skillsets to offer different career paths for data scientists, building relationships across the organization, and so much more.

[Announcement] Join us for DataCamp Radar, our digital summit on June 23rd. During this summit, a variety of experts from different backgrounds will be discussing everything related to the future of careers in data. Whether you're recruiting for data roles or looking to build a career in data, there’s definitely something for you. Seats are limited, and registration is free, so secure your spot today on https://events.datacamp.com/radar/

When you hear the term-digital first, you might think about tech, platforms and data.  But digital transformation succeeds when you put people first.

Gathering and analyzing data, then using it to provide the customer value and an unparalleled experience, is vital for an organization’s success.

Today’s guest, Bhavin Patel, Director o f Analytics and Innovation at J&J joins the show to share why people are the most important component to digital transformation.

Join us as we discuss:

Why you need to put people first The importance of customer value and experience Why digital transformation is an ongoing process, not an end-state 

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In this episode of DataFramed, we speak with Andy Cotgreave, Technical Evangelist at Tableau about the role of data storytelling when driving change with analytics, and the importance of the analyst role within a data-driven organization.

Throughout the episode, Andy discusses his background, the skills every analyst should know to equip organizations with better data-driven decision making, his best practices for data storytelling, how he thinks about data literacy and ways to spread it within the organization, the importance of community when creating a data-driven organization, and more.

Relevant links from the interview:

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