How to Run an Exceptional Data Science Team
By: Matthew Raphaelson
Tags: Data Science, Analytics, Startup Lessons, Business, Startup

Framework (we’ll use the restaurant business as an example)

Data science is about transforming a raw ingredient (data) into something useful (knowledge and insights). The restaurant business shares this first principle. Moreover, successful teams in both data science and great restaurants are also well seasoned with three elements: partnership, leadership, and sponsorship.

Staying with the restaurant metaphor for a moment — a successful restaurant isn’t all about the chef (even a celebrity chef), but the partnership of the “front of the house” (the dining space) and the “back of the house” (the kitchen).

Restaurateurs who show diners what the entire house can achieve provide the leadership to align the incentives of everyone on the team. Leaders know what mix of skills is needed (prep chef, pastry chef) in the team, and have a clear idea of what greatness means for each member of the team, and the team as a whole.

Finally, the restaurant needs the support of people who believe in what it can achieve and are willing to offer their sponsorship to make that happen.

The flow of activities for success

❶ Understand your consumers — their preferences and familiarity with what you’re serving.

Restaurants need to know their diners. Your team needs understand the internal consumers of your analytics.

❷ Source, store, and properly prep high-quality ingredients.

Restaurants purchase food ingredients from a purveyor, then prep and store them in a walk-in cooler. You pull data from a database, transform it, and then store it in a warehouse.

❸ Use the right techniques and skills to create a product that delights your consumers.

A master chef’s techniques are culinary. Yours are analytical.

❹ Make sure the meal is well presented and promptly delivered.

Great presentation engages both diners and consumers of analytics.

❺ Get feedback on how your consumers are enjoying what you’ve worked hard to create.

Exceptional teams embrace continuous improvement. That can’t happen without feedback.

Sensible enough, right? But have you developed your analytics process to accomplish all these activities effectively? For a restaurant, not being able to accomplish even one of the activities means failure. The same holds for a data science team. Below we’ll describe each activity as it relates to your team.

1 | Understand your consumers — their preferences and familiarity with what you’re making.

Understanding — even anticipating — what your consumers need is critical to making sure that value is created. But simply understanding that your consumers of analytical insights want valuable insights that help them solve their problems is like knowing that diners want a nice dinner — that’s a given. You’ve got to dig deeper.

How analytically savvy are your consumers? In other words, what’s their Analytical Quotient [2] (“AQ”)? In what form can they digest their insights? Do they want easy-to-digest insights on a regular basis, or do they want larger, game-changing insights that may require more time to develop along with a more elaborate presentation? If consumers aren’t analytically savvy, how can you ensure that what you serve will be more than empty calories that just temporarily satisfy a craving to have something analytical?

Understanding your consumers is essential to know how, what, and how often insights should be produced. That means developing strong relationships to make it easier to understand and anticipate the business problems they’re trying to solve and which decisions they have to make.

2 | Source, store, and properly prep high-quality ingredients.

Unlike a restaurant, there’s only one primary ingredient in data science: raw data. But it comes in an infinite number of varieties and flavors, and has to be reliably sourced, prepped, and stored like ingredients in a restaurant pantry. Some data are dirty. Other data are highly perishable. All data should be:

Sourced from databases, data lakes, and other data sources. (Think farmer, fishmonger, and forager.)

from databases, data lakes, and other data sources. (Think farmer, fishmonger, and forager.) Transformed, so they’re easily usable with an Extract-Transform-Load (“ETL”) process. (Think prep chef.)

so they’re easily usable with an Extract-Transform-Load (“ETL”) process. (Think prep chef.) Stored in a data warehouse. (Think walk-in fridge.)

3 | Use the right techniques and skills to create a product that delights your consumers.

The best who do this are highly-skilled, highly sought-after professionals who perform work that approaches artistry. They’re often in the limelight. The best teams rely on them for their success. Like top chefs, your analysts need the equipment, space, and support to shine. You need to feed their desire to constantly develop and push themselves. You have to show your chefs how to ensure that what they produce — as brilliant as they think it might be — will be enjoyed by your consumers. The rule of thumb at Credit Sesame is that any data science work product should be feasible to implement, improve credit wellness for our members, and enlighten all consumers of analytics within the company.

Yuck v. Yum [3]

4 | Make sure your product is properly presented, put together well, and promptly delivered.

How you present the final product may entice — or repel — your consumers. Great restaurants understand the importance of visual appearance — multiple studies have shown how the appearance of food on a plate affects how diners perceive taste.

The same is true for the consumers of analytics — judicious use of color, avoidance of clutter, logical flow, and attractive graphics all work together to educate, and perhaps whet appetites for further enlightenment. Effective data visualization and data storytelling will draw in your consumers and help them digest your product.

Restaurants make sure diners get their soup while it’s hot and their ice cream while it’s cold. Likewise, your consumers should receive their analyses in a timely way. Delays from analysis-paralysis may result in a stale product your consumers won’t want to use, or be able to use.

5 | Get feedback on how your consumers are enjoying what you’ve worked hard to create.

Top restaurateurs know which menu items are the most popular. They look for what gets left on the plate, or worse, sent back to the kitchen. Survey responses, complaints, online reviews — restaurateurs use all of these to understand what works and make tweaks to what doesn’t. Sometimes sleuthing is necessary to uncover problems. Many diners may be reluctant to give feedback for fear of giving offense or appearing uninformed.

Likewise, you need to know what portions of your work product were acted upon? What portions were left untouched? Did you notice a lack of interest in what you thought was your most valuable insight? Was it because the insight wasn’t clear enough, or because your team didn’t have the appropriate business context when developing the insight?

Success = A well-seasoned data science team

You’ll also need the following seasoning elements to make sure your data science team stays exceptional.

Partnership. The front and back of the house must work well with each other. For example, strong relationships with data architects and data engineers mean ready access to well-prepared data. Having the recruiting team in your corner means access to the talent you need. Close partnerships with consumers of your analytics will help your team better understand their businesses.

The front and back of the house must work well with each other. For example, strong relationships with data architects and data engineers mean ready access to well-prepared data. Having the recruiting team in your corner means access to the talent you need. Close partnerships with consumers of your analytics will help your team better understand their businesses. Leadership. Data science leaders should promote a vision that sets the direction for the team and aligns the team with the consumers. That vision should crisply convey to consumers of analytics the value that can be produced. That value will ultimately come from the team’s ability to unlock value from data through data science. For instance, at Credit Sesame, our team’s vision is to improve credit wellness by unlocking the value of our data through data science.

Data science leaders should promote a vision that sets the direction for the team and aligns the team with the consumers. That vision should crisply convey to consumers of analytics the value that can be produced. That value will ultimately come from the team’s ability to unlock value from data through data science. For instance, at Credit Sesame, our team’s vision is to improve credit wellness by unlocking the value of our data through data science. Sponsorship. Strong executive sponsorship is necessary to promote a data-driven culture, where everyone understands that producing game-changing insights requires time, resources, and investment. Sponsorship means data scientists are less likely to be treated as short-order cooks who only deliver dashboards and reports, instead of serving as thought leaders who drive strategy.

Virtuous cycle of data science greatness

Takeaway

Diners can count on their favorite restaurants to serve up well-prepared deliciousness. To guide your data science team to greatness, take a cue from the great restaurants.

❶ Understand your consumers’ needs, their AQ, and their businesses.

❷ Source, store, and properly prep data with the right equipment. (Yes, foraging may be necessary!)

❸ Use the right techniques and skills to create work product that delights and nourishes your consumers. Avoid empty calories!

❹ Present your work so it’s approachable. Deliver it promptly.

❺ Get feedback. If it’s not explicit, look for clues that indicate feedback. Go back to the first point. Rinse, repeat.

Finally, add three more seasonings to complete your recipe for success:

Partnership

Leadership

Sponsorship

Want to build a Michelin 3-Star data science team? Use this five-step framework, add the three seasonings above, and your team will consistently serve up hot, delicious business insights that delight your consumers.