Hi ,
The greatest gift a CEO ever gave me as a data scientist was telling me my work was no good.
I had been an analytics manager for 5 years when it happened, and I thought I knew
my stuff.
The new CEO had started a month back and insisted on reviewing all papers before they went to the Board. Having written dozens of similar papers before, I figured my paper with the results of my analysis would get through with no problems at all.
I was
wrong.
Line by line, the CEO went through my paper, challenging everything I had said:
- "Why is this so?"
- "What does this mean?"
- "How does this help the business create value?"
It was the most painful 60 minutes of my life and by the end, I wanted to throw up.
And the worst part was that deep down, I knew everything he had said was true.
I had been so focused on explaining the technical brilliance of my work,
I hadn't paused for even a moment to think about the needs of the Board.
I shuffled back to my desk, blinking back tears, determined that it would never happen again - and it didn't.
Because that day, I learned three things that are essential to making an impact
when sharing data science results with senior stakeholders:
- What the business needed;
- How to make recommendations that answer the questions of the Board; and
- How to communicate those recommendations is a way that delivers the right user experience for the Board members.
That day was one of the luckiest days of my career.
But most data scientists never get that lucky. Because most CEOs don't have time to sit down for an hour giving them career-changing feedback about their work.
Instead, they just spend their career
languishing in a back room, wondering why their skill set isn't proving as valuable as they had thought it would be.
For the season premiere of Value Driven Data Science, I gathered three globally recognised analytics leaders, "The Dean of Big Data" Bill Schmarzo, ProofAnalytics.ai CEO Mark Stouse and EY's Global Head of AI John Thompson, to deliver a tough love wake-up
call on why data scientists struggle to create business impact - just like the one that CEO gave to me. And more importantly, they also share how to fix it.
The extended season premiere launches on Thursday 27th February. Make sure you don't miss it.
It may change
the course of your career.
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes
