Topics discussed in this episode:

Role and responsibilities (starting 2:13): Practice head of Data Science in North America with principal and senior data scientists reporting from Chile, North America, Canada etc. Cover many industries such as financial services, healthcare, telecom, and tech. 

Leading and trailer adopters of technology (starting 7:07): Heavily regulated industries such as financial/insurance/healthcare are somewhat trailing compared to technology and telecom. And there are companies in each industry whether be manufacturing or retail that are trailblazing even if the industry may be trailing. 

Pandemic impact on organizations (starting 9:34): BOPAS or buy online and pickup at store saw a huge increase. Companies like instacart leapfrog quickly. 

Key success factors in data science (starting 11:54): Data integrity is key. Operationalization is very important. Upto 80% of a data scientist’s job may be data munging/data wrangling to make sure that data integrity is in place.

Day to day roles of senior data executives (starting 13:51): (1) Conversations with clients (2) Being a player coach working with colleagues (3) Working with partners for an integrated approach to solution 

Bonnie’s professional journey (starting 20:04): Started with Honeywell labs, had an opportunity for them to pay for Ph. D in Artificial Intelligence. Later had an opportunity to work with a startup help them establish. Worked with a health insurance company. After few more stints ended up with Teradata. Great thing was learning at every step of the way.

Importance of storytelling with data (starting at 24:49): Started in high school by competing in a tournament. In the professional world, was initially apologetic about storytelling. But after attending a professional seminar and a sales training, realized that all of them were talking about storytelling. Connecting the outcomes with helping families get better coverage or finding better financial support is more meaningful.

Significance of being a senior female leader (starting 29:19): Interesting story that Bonnie’s journey started with her attending a college which was an all male college until the prior year. So most of the experience was working with men from the beginning. In the corporate world, she got opportunities to speak and thought to herself that she has these superpowers because of who you are and what you are capable of. Have been exposed to supportive environments mostly. 

Trends in the industry (starting 35:10): Analytics has taken off in the last few years. Example is that 2017 Superbowl was sponsored by an Analytics company. Data literacy is growing. Focus on operationalization is very important. And the need to scale is also very important.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Books: Michael Lewis’s Big Short, Moneyball; Brent Dykes : Effective Storytelling