Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#2[deleted]
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#3Something more interesting to me is how do you convince a company to build out a true data science. Every company can use one but very few have one. Has anyone had any experience convincing management of the value?
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#4Something more interesting to me is how do you convince a company to build out a true data science. Every company can use one but very few have one. Has anyone had any experience convincing management of the value?
In my experience if management isn't asking the question, then its a dead issue. At a large company I worked at - data analysis was flat out rejected. I've been told to stop doing and return to standard procedure using heuristics .
Even something as simple as introducing a new data model - at a large company I've been told that "my future replacement" wouldn't understand it. Management looking for continuity will not accept new ways of doing things.
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#5This is pretty spot on with what I've seen up close. Specifically:
1) "Throw [y]our normal engineering practices out of the window." - We treat Data Science very much like the "R" in R&D. We point them generally towards a problem and give them time and latitude to solve it. Trying to fit that into our normal scrum process is impossible.
2) "Data scientists are going to end up building things that need to be translated into production code." - Our hand-off between Data Science and Engineering can be pretty messy. Getting stuff into production efficiently is an ongoing challenge.
3) "Trying to explain some of the hard math that's going on to the entire company isn't a productive use of time." - This point is pretty self explanatory. I get in pretty deep on a regular basis and it gets over my head quick. It can be very hard for the average account manager or marketing person to keep up.
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#6Kurt mentions it early in the article, but I have to also recommend "Building data science teams" by Patil:
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/building-data-science-teams...
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#7Kurt mentions it early in the article, but I have to also recommend "Building data science teams" by Patil: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/building-data-science-teams...
This.
The article is one of the best ever written on the topic.
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#8Kurt mentions it early in the article, but I have to also recommend "Building data science teams" by Patil: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/building-data-science-teams...
I'm hoping to write a couple of follow-up posts talking about some of the trade-offs that you're going to have to make when you're a startup that doesn't have the resources of a Facebook or a LinkedIn. It's difficult to do everything in that (admittedly great) article if your resources are limited.
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#9[deleted]
Re: Building a Data Science Team at a Startup - An Engineering Perspective
#10Kurt mentions it early in the article, but I have to also recommend "Building data science teams" by Patil: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/building-data-science-teams...
I'm hoping to write a couple of follow-up posts talking about some of the trade-offs that you're going to have to make when you're a startup that doesn't have the resources of a Facebook or a LinkedIn. It's difficult to do everything in that (admittedly great) article if your resources are limited.
I'm a data scientist. What sort of resources could I provide to the startup communities? Is it just consulting needs or could I provide an "data science" API?