Hi ,
Q: How can you tell if a data scientist is an extrovert?
A: They look at *your* shoes when they talk to you.
There's a common myth that anyone who excels in a highly technical profession, such as data science, must be an anti-social introvert. And the best way to manage such people is to stick them in a back room, where they never have to associate with anyone other than their own kind.
Or at the other end of the spectrum, that data scientists are so valuable that any time spent away from their computers is an unnecessary waste.
Yet, both attitudes lead to the same outcome - a separation of data scientists from those they were hired to serve.
Optimizing the amount of time data scientists spend at their desks is pointless if no one wants to use what they produce.
For data scientists to create value, they need to understand the problems their end-users encounter - which means encouraging them to go out and speak to them face-to-face.
I have rarely found the myth of the highly introverted data nerd to be true.
To maximise data science outputs, keep your data scientists at their desks, but if you want to maximise outcomes, you need to set them free.
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
p.s. This post is based on a conversation I recently had with Douglas Squirrel on Value Driven Data Science. You can listen to our conversation at the link below: Episode 40: Making Data Science Teams Profitable
