First Post

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Why create a site for data science managers? We are in a unique point in time where data science is exploding. A new generation of leaders is now boot-strapping new techniques to understand how managing data science initiatives is distinct from traditional software engineering or R&D.

Some companies have more experience than others, some may have claimed to have figured all the tricks out long ago, but many of the experienced professionals I've talked to are facing the same problems and feel they have nowhere to turn to. They ask me how to get buy-in from other departments, what KPIs to use, how to prioritize different projects, who to hire when, how to address fairness and ethical biases. And these are only the questions that managers are aware of. Using principles of participant observation and unstructured interviews, I seek to uncover hidden assumptions, tacit knowledge, and unconscious practices of data scientists, and in addition, observe how their practices ripple out to affect the rest of the organization and vice-versa.