Getting as much as they can from analytics is critical for companies seeking to monetize their data, become data-driven, and put their data to work. Yet most find this difficult. Indeed, the failure rate of analytics projects remains distressingly high.
Are You Setting Your Data Scientists Up to Fail?
Many senior managers fail to manage their data scientists properly. They put data scientists in the wrong spots in the organization; view the data science as a technical, not business, initiative; or underestimate how resistant their organizations are to change. These missteps lower the chances that data efforts will succeed and, in extreme cases, doom the efforts from the very start. Senior managers must actively manage their data scientists in order to set them up for success. First, they must think through how they want data scientists to contribute and put them in spots where they can do so. They must immerse data scientists in the business and help them connect with others in the organization. They must obsess on quality, professionalism, and business results. And they must encourage data scientists to spot things that look out of place in the data and to follow up on them.