The Data Chief

How to Master the Future of Work and AI Upskilling, with Marni Baker Stein at Coursera Oct 30, 2024

Description:

Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer at Coursera, joins host, Cindi Howson, and dives into the impact of Generative AI on skills, diversity in tech, and the future of upskilling.

Key Moments:

The impact GenAI and the surge of learning demand (05:45)
Why employers must prioritize AI literacy (10.32)
The gender gap in AI learning and why it matters (19:40)
Leveraging data to drive personalization and learner success (24:00)
Predictions for the future of AI in the labor market (29.53)

Key Quotes:

“Generative AI is going to require us to all be a lot more emotionally intelligent because it's going to create such disruption and change. And we're all going to have to navigate the complexities of this change. We're going to have to bring our organizations through this change. That's going to take emotional intelligence as the one thing this technology isn't, is human. Understanding and human empathy is going to remain paramount.”
“In terms of data and AI skills, what is extraordinary is that the demand for these skills in the last year has grown over a thousand percent. We now have seven individuals a minute enroll in GenAI content.”
“Millions of people globally are deciding that it's time to upskill and reskill in these AI, regardless of whether their employer is telling them to or not. People see it happening. They're reading about it. They're hearing about it. And they're actively going out and chasing down those skills.”

Mentions:

Marni Baker Stein Bio:

Marni Baker Stein is Coursera’s Chief Content Officer, where she oversees the company’s content and credential strategy and partner relationships. Marni has more than 25 years of experience in producing and scaling online and hybrid education programs. Prior to joining Coursera, she was Chief Academic Officer and Provost at Western Governors University, where she led its four colleges serving more than 135,000 students with programs that improved access and affordability without compromising academic quality. Before that, Marni held several leadership positions focused on access, student success, and program design at institutions such as the University of Texas, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How Can Data Leaders Shift from Data-First to Business-First Mindset? With Deepak Jose, Global Data, Analytics and AI leader Oct 16, 2024

Key Moments

From Engineer to Data Leader (03:05)
A Mindset Shift: Business Problem First, Data Second (9:31)
Learning From Missteps (11:00)
The Gazelle and the Lion Analogy (14:53)
The Role of AI: Do Things, Do Things Better, and Do Better Things (25:58)
Built to Last versus Built to Adapt (40:01)

Key Quotes

"Instead of a data-first mindset, you need to have a business problem-first and data-second mindset. That has helped me transform myself as a leader quite a bit."
"It’s more important to define the problem right than solving the problem. How can we understand what you’re trying to solve, and how it impacts the stakeholder?"
“The head of data analytics functions need to be business problem driven, empathy driven, and not technology-first minded or AI-first minded. Our objective is to solve the business problems of the organization. Data, AI, and tech are the enablers.”
"In the past, we built capabilities to last. Now, the mindset has to be to build capabilities to adapt."

Mentions

Deepak Jose Biography

Deepak Jose is Vice President, Head of Data Sciences & Business Intelligence at Niagara Bottling. He is a member of the Forbes Tech Council, AWS Retail and CPG Executive Advisory Forum, industry standards associations, Editorial Board for CDO Magazine, and an advisor for startups and AI analytics service companies.

Before Niagara, Jose was part of global brands like Coca-Cola, Mars, ABB Group, Asurion and Mu Sigma in strategic roles driving business growth. He was named to the 2023 Consumer Good Visionaries by Consumer Goods Technology and Retail Info Systems News, the 2023 40 under 40 by CDO Magazine, the 2022 and 2023 Top 100 Innovators in Data & Analytics by Corinium Global Intelligence, the 2023 100 Most Influential AI Leaders in USA by AIM Research, the 2023 Direct 60 List by The Lead, and the 2023 DataIQ 100 lists.

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Can We Tame AI Before It’s Too Late? With Dr. Gary Marcus Oct 02, 2024

Key Moments:

Disappointment With Today’s AI Systems (4:00)
Congressional Inaction And The Need for AI Regulation (9:00)
The Seduction of AI Propaganda (15:00)
The Misguided Hypothesis of "Scale is All You Need" (23:00)
Don’t Be Fooled by the Masters of AI Hype (27:00)
The Global AI Race and the Need for International Cooperation (33:00)

Key Quotes:

“This matters. It matters as much as immigration policy or financial policy. The tech policy that we set right now is going to really affect the rest of our lives.”
“We should want to have AI that can be like an oracle that can answer any question. There is value in trying to build such a technology. But, we don't actually have that technology. A lot of people are seduced into thinking that we do. But it may be decades away.”
“Nobody can look you in the eye and say, ‘I understand how human intelligence works’. If they say that, they're lying to you. It's still an unexplored domain.”

Mentions:

Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure AI Works for All Of Us
Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind
The Algebraic Mind: Integrating Connectionism and Cognitive Science (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change)
The EU AI Act
AI Generates Covertly Racist Decisions About People Based On Their Dialect

Dr. Gary Marcus Bio:

Gary Marcus is a leading voice in artificial intelligence. He is a scientist, best-selling author, and serial entrepreneur (Founder of Robust.AI and Geometric.AI, acquired by Uber). He is well-known for his challenges to contemporary AI, anticipating many of the current limitations decades in advance, and for his research in human language development and cognitive neuroscience.

An Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU, he is the author of six books, including, The Algebraic Mind, Kluge, The Birth of the Mind, the New York Times Bestseller Guitar Zero, and most recently Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure AI Works for All of Us. He has often contributed to The New Yorker, Wired, and The New York Times.

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Three Must-Read 2024 AI and Analytics Books with Jeremy Kahn, Sol Rashidi, and Bernard Marr Sep 18, 2024

Key Moments:

Jeremy Kahn

The history of AI: the Turing Test and the Eliza Effect with Jeremy Khan (1:50)
Jeremy’s view on how we can learn from lessons of the past (9:00)
It starts with data and people: leveraging AI to increase productivity (16:00)

Sol Rashidi

Sol Rashidi on failing to succeed in AI (31:00)
The need for rogue executives (37:00)
Sol’s view on prioritizing GenAI use cases and measuring ROI (42:50)

Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr on demystifying AI (60:02)
Is society ready for AI’s impact on augmenting jobs? (66:00)
AI’s impact on personalization of medicine, treatment and drug discovery (72:00)

Key Quotes:

Jeremy Kahn

“We're in a position where we can take action while this technology is still being shaped, to try to set some sensible guardrails. If we do that, we will see a lot of benefit from this technology. If we wait, we’re going to be in a situation like with social media. We will have a deskilling of essential human cognitive abilities.”
We don’t talk enough about how to train people to use AI software. The organizations that think hardest about that are going to be very successful.”

Sol Rashidi

“Usually I start the conversations of how ROI shouldn't just be a financial measure. There's three ROI's in my opinion. There's a financial ROI, there's a cultural ROI, and there's a relevancy ROI.”
“I am adamant that business value is not the number one marker. Everything needs to be scored and graded by criticality and complexity. And your criticality is a measure of ‘what is the impact if we don't do this?’”

Bernard Marr

“What we are seeing is we will see an augmentation of pretty much every single job. I can't think of many jobs that will not be augmented by GenAI. We need to really expect change as individuals.”
“We must create a world where education is seen as something that never stops, that carries on. I believe that we are currently entering a hyper evolution cycle, with artificial intelligence right at the center of it.”

Mentions:

'Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future' by Jeremy Kahn

'Your AI Survival Guide: Scraped Knees, Bruised Elbows, and Lessons Learned from Real-World AI Deployments' by Sol Rashidi

'Generative AI in Practice: 100+ Amazing Ways Generative Artificial Intelligence is Changing Business and Society' by Bernard Marr

Bios:

About Jeremy Kahn

Jeremy Kahn is an award-winning journalist for Fortune magazine, where he covers AI and other emerging technologies. Previously, he wrote about technology, including AI, for Bloomberg. His writing on a range of subjects has also appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek,The Atlantic, Smithsonian magazine, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, and Slate. An Ohio native, he now lives with his family in Oxford, England.

About Sol Rashidi

With 10 patents granted and winning numerous awards that include: 'Forbes AI Maverick & Visionary of the 21st Century', 'Top 100 People in AI', 'Global 100 Power List', 'Top 75 Innovators', 'CAO of the Year', 'Top 5 CDO's', 'Top 65 Most Influential Women', Sol Rashidi is an seasoned executive, leader, and influencer within the AI, data, and technology space. Sol’s experience comes from real-world deployments where she has had to roll up her sleeves and do the work, while keeping the strategic intent in mind. Sol is currently Head of Technology for Startups, North America, at AWS.

About Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a multi-award-winning and internationally best-selling author of over 20 books, who writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and works with many of the world’s best-known organizations. He has a combined following of 4 million people across his social media channels and newsletters and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world.

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How Mark Cuban Wins with Data for Affordable Drugs, Sports, and Developing AI Talent Sep 04, 2024

Key Moments:

The road to entrepreneurship (1:00)
Bringing transparency to the prescription drugs industry (4:30)
Analyzing in-game sports data to shoot for new heights (20:00)
Changing the world by making data and AI accessible to everyone (25:00)
How LLMs can build curiosity for the next generation of tech talent (33:00)

Key Quotes:

“As with all things technology, everybody has access to the information, but few people take the time. But those who do tend to have an edge. If you're curious, if you love to learn, you're going to do pretty well. But how do you find those people when they're kids and how do you try to just capture their imagination and get them excited about the technology? That's why we started the bootcamp.”
“I wanted to make technology accessible to people who otherwise couldn't get it. It doesn't matter what you look like, who you are, what your ethnicity is, what your background is. There are just going to be people who don't have access. I wanted to open that door for them. I'm a big believer in diversity, and that when you look at places where other people aren't, that's when you find brilliance that can change the world.”
“The path to least resistance to learning AI is simple. All you’ve got to do is use it. You can use it in ways that you can’t possibly imagine. You can learn how to use large language models to start your own programming and teach yourself how to do it. The sky's the limit. Better way to put it, there is literally next to nothing you can't teach yourself using a large language model. You can even train and educate the model. It’s a virtuous cycle. It can surge curiosity with kids.”

Mentions:

Mark Cuban Bio:

Mark Cuban has been a natural businessman since age 12, when he sold garbage bags door to door. He went on to found MicroSolutions right out of college, selling it to H&R Block.

From there he became an active stock trader, building a track record, starting a hedge fund and selling it a year later. In 1995, he and Todd Wagner started the first commercial streaming company, AudioNet, which became Broadcast.com. They later sold the company in 2000 for 5.7B dollars.

Mark acquired the Dallas Mavericks in 2000. The Mavs competed in their first NBA Finals in 2006, won their first League title in 2011. Mark sold majority ownership in 2023, but still retains a significant stake. During his time as majority owner, the Mavs had the second best record in the NBA.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Is Data Quality the Biggest Threat to Humanity? With Barr Moses and Olga Maydanchik Aug 21, 2024

Key Moments:

Why is the data wrong? (6:00)
Our products are our data (11:00)
The true size of the data quality problem (14:00)
Clean your data before you prioritize shiny new tools (26:00)
The next frontier: GenAI and unstructured data (31:00)

Key Quotes:

“The data estate has changed significantly. But the way in which we manage data and data quality specifically has not adapted.” – Barr Moses
“I tracked every single change in the data that I made, and could calculate how much money a company saved after a data cleanup. For a mid-size company, the difference was approximately a quarter of a billion dollars. For a large company, it could be several billion dollars. 45% of the data I cleaned had errors.” – Olga Maydanchik
“The competitive advantage is really the access to your proprietary data that you have as an enterprise. So you need to make sure that that data is accurate, reliable, and on time. Now, how do you do that? That's something that people are still figuring out.” – Barr Moses

Mentions:

Bio:

Barr Moses:

Barr Moses is the CEO and Co-Founder of Monte Carlo, the data reliability company. Monte Carlo is the creator of the industry's first end-to-end Data Observability platform. She is also co-author of O'Reilly's Data Quality Fundamentals: Building Reliable Data Pipelines. Previously, she was VP Customer Operations at Gainsight, a management consultant at Bain & Company and served in the Israeli Air Force as a commander of an intelligence data analyst unit.

Olga Maydanchik:

Olga Maydanchik is a data governance, data quality, and data architecture thought leader and practitioner. She is an expert in design and implementation of enterprise-wide data management programs, who has led data quality efforts at Deutsche Bank, AIG, and at Citi.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

What Boards Care About Most When It Comes to AI with Dr. Cindy Gordon Aug 07, 2024

Key Moments:

Leveraging data for good (2:00)
Every leader is responsible for data management (13:00)
New metrics to validate AI’s sustainability (21:00)
Mitigating AI’s risks to society (23:00)
The current shape of global AI regulation (28:00)
The importance of diversity in mitigating data bias (37:00)

Key Quotes:

“Every leader must understand that they have a responsibility for data management. It’s an underlying skill that we really have to harness in all of our college, university, and high school programs. It's fundamental. We seem to teach people how to problem solve, but this is table stakes. In order to ever get AI right, we've got to solve the data challenges.”
“There's no question on whether business value and how to measure AI’s return on investment (ROI) is always top of mind in my discussions with executives. But what they really want to know is if their existing ROI methods are sufficient or not. What are the new metrics that they need to put in place to validate AI and its sustainability?”
“We’re not at the high-growth stage of AI innovation. We’re in the early experimentation stage. We don’t have international guardrails. All of these systems are going to take around 20-years to put in place. It takes six years to put a new university curriculum in place. People have to take responsibility to learn. This is a fundamental shift and it's one that's happening at break lightning speed.”

Mentions:

Bio:

Dr. Cindy Gordon ICD.D. is the CEO of SalesChoice, a SaaS AI company focused on Ending Growth Uncertainty for Human Advantage, and has been recognized by Onalytica as one of the top AI global influencers. Prior, she has held senior executive and partner roles at Accenture, Xerox, and Citicorp. She has also been a venture capitalist and angel advancing B2B technology software companies. Internationally, she is recognized for her innovative thought leadership with over 14 books in the market. Cindy is also a board advisor, thought leader in SaaS, AI and AI education, market research companies at: The AI Forum, Corent Technology, Forbes, Kaji.AI, USAII. Her AI community track record is extensive, University of Arizona – Business and Technology AI Board Advisor, Adjunct Professor, George Brown College, Applied AI. She regularly speaks at international conferences to advance AI Ethics and AI Education to board directors and C-suite executives. Academically, Dr. Gordon has an honorary Applied AI Doctorate Certification from George Brown College, an MIT AI Strategy Certification, and a doctorate in Complexity Science and Social Networks. She is also a certified Board Director with an ICD.D. designation. Under Dr. Gordon’s leadership, the company has won over twenty international awards, most recently she was recognized as the CEO of the Year Award for Women in Digital Transformation. She has also received the Governor General Award for her Innovation and Community Leadership.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Stack Overflow CEO on How Seizing The (GenAI) Moment Has Driven Effective Change Jul 24, 2024

Key Moments:

A journey from intern to CEO (05:10)
Encouraging a harmonized relationship between humans and AI (09:58)
Why embracing stress can drive urgency and effective change (17:18)
Generative AI’s impact on the skills landscape (30:39)
Fostering a data-driven company culture (36:41)
Embrace change, and quickly (40:25)

Key Quotes:

“AI does amazing things, like summarizations and semantic search. Humans do amazing things like curation of knowledge, making sure it's accurate, connecting the dots, and creating relationships. So bringing the power of humans-in-the loop, especially given a broader trust deficit, felt like the right thing to do at this point in time.”
“I think ultimately what guides us is we want to be useful to our users and our customers. That's the guiding light. Because why do we exist as an organization or a community? We should all just go home. If we don't actually have a mission and purpose that adds value, then we don't have a purpose. So the question is, what is that? What is the highest purpose?”
“When you think about the future of software development, there’s a lot of doomsdayers about job losses. I think it's going to be the opposite. I think AI reduces the barrier to entry. I think a lot of people will be “developers”, even though they may be doing very different things.”

Mentions:

Bio:

Prashanth Chandrasekar is Chief Executive Officer of Stack Overflow and is responsible for driving Stack Overflow’s overall strategic direction and results.Prashanth is a proven technology executive with extensive experience leading and scaling high-growth global organizations. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s Cloud & Infrastructure Services portfolio of businesses, including the Managed Public Clouds, Private Clouds, Colocation and Managed Security businesses. Before that, Prashanth held a range of senior leadership roles at Rackspace including Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s high growth, global business focused on the world’s leading Public Clouds including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Alibaba Cloud, which became the fastest growing business in Rackspace’s history. Prior to joining Rackspace, Prashanth was a Vice President at Barclays Investment Bank, focused on providing Strategic and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) advice for clients in the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) industries.

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JPMorgan Chase on How to Succeed in Data and Analytics in the GenAI Era Jul 10, 2024

Key Moments:

The emotional temperature for change in analytics (5:06)
There’s no playbook for change management (7:53)
Why Generative AI success requires a melding of expertise (17:20)
Measuring the success of LLMs (18:58)
How do you embrace the new when you’re facing technical debt? (33:27)
How to fine-tune your career in today’s data and AI landscape (37:30)

Key Quotes:

“Business intelligence tends to have this notion of looking backwards. It's not thinking about prescriptive or predictive analytics, or live analytics, powered by the new capabilities that we're seeing. I do think we're going to evolve to a new name.” (03:42)
“You’ll find companies that were and are ahead of the curve will be able to take advantage of these new technologies, GenAI, LLMs, et cetera, much more quickly than other companies. So companies that have not invested the time, resources, money, attention, and prioritization into data governance, data use, and data literacy are at a serious disadvantage. And companies that have done the opposite, that have proactively invested, will be able to make significant gains.”
“I think there's three pillars of success. One is understanding your data from end to end. What is it used for? What domain is it in? Understand it as much as possible. What is the product? What is the data product that you have in all aspects of it? Then, understand your business, right? How does data relate to your business? These people are going to be the ones that leverage the technology the most efficiently.”
“Don't hesitate to take a lateral mobility move. I know people are always interested in going up, up, up, up, and up. However, you know, sometimes consider going sideways.” (40:46)

Mentions:

Bio:

Scott Stevens is responsible for Intelligent Solutions, which empowers JPMorgan Chase employees through innovative data, Business Intelligence and low-code capabilities.

Scott has been with JPMorgan Chase since 2011 and has worked in Financial Services his entire 32-year career, with prior roles at MBNA, Bank of America and Sallie Mae. Scott has been in data and analytics roles since 1997.

Scott enjoys working with local universities on modernizing data science curriculum, guest lectures and coaching student teams on analytics projects. While at work, Scott enjoys mentoring and likes to help people advance their careers and skills. Scott serves on multiple non-profit boards, and Scott is the executive sponsor for the JPMorgan Chase Delaware Volunteer Leadership Group.

Scott lives in Delaware with his family. Scott’s personal interests include travel, wine-making, photography and rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles.

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How to bridge the gap between humans and AI, with Sadie St. Lawrence Jun 19, 2024

Key Moments:

Leveraging Generative AI for work? Start by asking the right questions (04:13)
What’s in store for the future world of work (18:18)
How Generative AI can expand humans’ divergent thinking (26:16)
Taking people and culture along the Generative AI journey (31:20)
The value of diversity in data (42:00)
A tale of mentorship (44:20)

Key Quotes:

“With Generative AI, now we have a command line interface that’s allowed us to converse, which is so core and essential to who we are as humans. The ability to be able to talk to one another. That's allowed us to survive for thousands and thousands of years and evolve.”
“I think that there's a lot of greater potential in terms of expanding our own creativity and strategic thinking. So while humans have flexible and moldable brains and we have neuroplasticity that allows us to learn new things, we have to put ourselves in those environments. AI is really good at divergent thinking. So when we think about creativity, a core aspect of that is divergent thinking. What comes to mind when you think of a tree? Maybe leaves and fruit. Divergent thinking is thinking of all the outside things, like sunshine and soil, that may be associated with the tree or that tree growth. There's a lot more potential that we've yet to unlock in terms of updating our own thinking to expand our own divergent and creative thinking”
“We know that when we have more diverse teams where everyone feels that they can speak up, and you get better ideas. You get more collaboration. So having that core vision of what is that culture and environment that you want to have is really key”

Mentions:

Bio:

Sadie St. Lawrence is on a personal mission to create a more compassionate and connected world through technology. Having grown up on a farm in Iowa she witnessed first-hand how advancements in technology rapidly changed how we work and earn a living, which in turn affected the overall success of a community. In addition, Sadie was homeschooled her entire childhood which led to a unique perspective in self-directed learning approaches and out of the box thinking.

Sadie holds a diverse education having degrees in piano performance, psychology, and data science, but at her core she has always been a teacher. In 2014 she transitioned from working in a neuroscience lab studying emotional learning and memory, to working in data science. During her time as a data scientist, she went on to lead data science teams and consult for Fortune 500 companies in AI. Through her work, she noticed that while many organizations and individuals have good intentions when it comes to D&I in data careers, there was a lack of progress.

Today, Sadie’s work is focused on educating individuals in technology, increasing access and pathways for all people and creating a more equal future for all.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Commander’s Business: How the U.S. Coast Guard Serves with Data and AI Jun 05, 2024

Key Moments:

The voyage to a data-driven US Coast Guard (5:21)
Navigating data-driven approaches to US Coast Guard operations (20:28)
Balancing experience-based decision making with data-informed decision making (25:34)
In whose data do you trust? (30:10)
Measuring the value of data (33:80)
Should an AI ethicist be part of the team or should everyone really be an ethicist? (45:00)

Key Quotes:

“Up until three years ago when we started this, some people – and really our entire organization – just thought data as IT. They didn't think much past that, because no one had ever really challenged them to think about it. So it wasn't really thought of as, ‘this is the data that we have, and this is the commander's business. This is how the business is going to run. It's not just letting IT figure it out.’”
“I think that technology has helped us along the way to visualize data that otherwise would be difficult and time consuming to conceptualize and understand. And as we continue to find ways to make humans understand better what it is that they're looking at – especially in extremely dynamic and complex data situations – I think you'll start to see a shift of trust and that's really experience. It's experience in using data informed decision making activities.”
“Would an ethics, an AI ethics advisor to the CDAO be a great thing? Absolutely. Are we all just ethicists? Yes, but I would say that there is a lot of understanding needed. There's a huge area where you could be an expert in the ethics of artificial intelligence and provide sound guidance day after day. I would think that this particular type of employee would be extremely valuable.”

Mentions:

Bio:

Captain Brian Erickson currently serves as the United States Coast Guard’s first Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer and is principally responsible for the coordination of data and artificial intelligence activities across the organization. His previous assignments focused primarily on engineering and operations, serving at five operational assignments piloting rotary and fixed wing aircraft performing search and rescue, law enforcement and other military mission profiles. Brian is a licensed Professional Engineer specializing in aerospace and also served in the Office of Budget and Programs working directly for the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In 2020, he was selected as the Coast Guard’s MIT Sloan Fellow following service as Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Air Station Savannah, GA. Brian is a 1998 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and holds a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University as well as a Master of Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a 2022 DataIQ Top 100 most influential persons in data and the 2023 MachineCon AI Leader of the Year.

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How to activate the collective genius with data and AI, with Walid Mehanna, Merck KGaA May 22, 2024

Tune in to learn:

Make your business strategy a data strategy (3:10)
‘Cover my back’ approaches (09:00)
Straddling risks in data and business (11:28)
Learnings from implementing myGPT (16:18)
Activating your organization’s collective genius (24:05)
Creating the right processes and culture to breed AI success (31:00)
The current state of AI regulation (38:35)

Key Quotes:

“You can have an AI strategy without a data strategy or without a business strategy, but it will not help you much. So your data strategy is your business strategy and vice versa. (04:42).
“I would say we started with the collective genius or activating the collective genius. What we wanted to do is enable everybody to try things out and tell us what has the highest opportunity and possibility” (25:46)
“We're now slowly going into a paradigm shift where we go away from more reports, from more dashboards, and into what's important for me to know today. I don't want to go through 200 dashboards in three different technologies. The one thing that I want is an intelligent model that has access to all of my data and tells me, well, there's five KPIs you should have a look at. Maybe it's a data quality problem. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's just a deferred invoice or whatever. But maybe it's something that needs your attention and you should now get active on it.” (30:26)
“I think AI is a wonderful technology. I think it has a lot of potential upside. It has the high risk of being misunderstood and overestimated. But honestly, you can't blame it on technology. Often, that's part of the history of large organizations. It's not always the technology, it's the adoption of the technology. And this has a lot to do with maturity of the workforce, maturity of the organization, processes, culture. So you can bring the best technology in the world, but if you don't have fertile ground, if you don't have the right people on the ground that make sure that your workforce understands it and also that your processes are adjusted accordingly, then the technology will fail” (34:05)
“My dream is that you don't need me anymore because I'm a transformational leader. And when everybody in this organization breathes data, breathes AI and applies it every single day, then my task is done, then you don't need me anymore. I still have a few days.” (38:00)

Mentions:

Bio:

Walid is Chief Data & AI Officer at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, where he leads the company’s Data & AI organization, delivering value, governance, architecture, engineering, and operations across the company globally. With many years experience in startups, IT, and consulting major corporations, Walid encompasses a strong understanding of the intersection between business and technology. Born in Egypt and raised in three different states in Germany, Walid celebrates his multicultural background and leverages it to inform his commitment to DE&I. As a father of two amazing daughters, he advocates for a more equal workplace to ensure a better future for the next generation. Walid strives to be the best ally he can be, making these values the cornerstone of his leadership approach.

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How analytics teams can earn their seat at the table with Elevance Health May 08, 2024

People are only as healthy as the communities they live in. In this episode, discover how Elevance Health is reimagining the healthcare system, and strengthening our communities in the process with a data-driven strategy. Learn how Elevance Health leverages community data to paint a more complete picture of an individual’s health, making healthcare journeys more personalized and equitable. You’ll also hear why analytics must have a seat at the business table, the importance of extending data democratization beyond the organization, and the need for change management along the journey.

Tune in to learn:

How Elevance Health forms holistic views of patients’ heath by connecting community data (03.55)
Why analytics should sit at the business table (13:08)
How to understand your customers as individuals, learn their business problems, and meet them where they are (19:10)
Why data democratization should go beyond the organization (21:16)
How to engage in a new relationship with data with natural language (35:35)

Key Quotes:

“Once you're sitting across from a community-based organization and you're helping them with where to focus efforts, having data in that conversation and being able to show, well, here are where our members are located and here are the members that have a chronic need for food or for transportation. Using data in that conversation is a game changer.”
“Analytics should be at the table, not a takeaway from the table. So I think analytics, when they’re sitting around the table with the business when they're making decisions or they're working through a problem, is a very different construct than traditional models where the business convenes, works through a problem, then decides well we need more data, or we need data to drive a decision here, go ahead and put in a ticket or seek additional data and bring it back."
“I think training is critical. I've seen far too many dashboard wastelands where you have dashboards sitting out there that are accessed very little, but have really, really good information. What that tells me is there wasn't a good amount of training. There is not a strong communication plan. There's not a robustness of really ensuring that the solution is oriented to the problem that it was created to solve.”

Mentions:

Bio:

Robert Garnett serves as Vice President for Government Analytics and Health Benefits Cost of Care at Elevance Health. In this role, he leads a data-driven organization supporting analytics and insights for Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial and enterprise customers in the areas of population health, cost of care, performance management, operational excellence, and quality improvement.

Prior to his current role, Robert served as President and CEO, Amerigroup Tennessee, where he was responsible for the strategic, fiscal, regulatory, and operational leadership of the health plan. In his role, he was also responsible for building and managing state and local relationships and fostering new growth and strategic opportunities within Tennessee’s TennCare Medicaid program.

Prior to his promotion to President in 2018, Robert served as the Chief Operating Officer and previously the Director of Medicaid State Operations, leading all day-to-day health plan operations and execution, customer service, quality management, and regulatory oversight from 2014 to 2018. He served in a similar operational leadership capacity for Amerigroup Georgia from 2011 to 2014. In addition to these roles, Robert supported South Region Medicaid with business development & implementation, and strategic operations.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How RedCloud levels the playing field for fair trade using data Apr 24, 2024

In developed nations, corporations often rollup and eat independent mom and pop shops into big box retail or big .coms that centralize supply chains and logistics. Meanwhile, independent sellers are the backbone of emerging markets. But a collision is starting to occur and it’s happening fast. Big corporations want to bring the same strategy to these emerging markets, so how can the independent seller maintain their independence? To do that, they need technology partners like RedCloud. In this conversation, we learn how RedCloud sits at the forefront of the 3 key disruptions inside of emerging markets: employment, technology, and sustainability. Learn how Soumaya Hamzaoui, Co-Founder and COO and JD de Jong, SVP of Product combine data, technology and deep knowledge of emerging economies to help independent sellers.

Key Moments:

A personal mission: Born in Algeria, Africa, Soumaya discusses how her childhood shaped her understanding of emerging markets.
Unlike Amazon: Commerce has existed in emerging markets since the beginning of civilization. Yet independent sellers face existential challenges if big corporations are allowed to enter their markets and gobble up all of the opportunities. Learn how RedCloud hopes to not be like Amazon, and would rather focus on keeping independent sellers independent.
Data for emerging market independent sellers: discover how the team developed the right products for these markets and how they overcame challenges unique to their customers.
Challenges in emerging markets: Gain unique perspectives into how international marketplaces work.

Key Quotes:

“We are not only here to develop the technology, but we are also here to educate these businesses on the value of digitization, on the value of data. [According to a World Bank Report] 90% of these businesses need training and upskilling to keep up with the pace of the evolution of how the economical world and technological world is evolving. 88% need support in digitization on how to take their business from traditional businesses to fully digital business. And another 80% need mentorship and support on how to transform their business. - Soumaya
“It is one thing to give a user access to create their own visualization. It's an entirely different thing to create not just the visualization, but an interpretation of what that visualization means. - JD
“When companies look at emerging markets and the lack of digitization, they think there's a reluctance to digitize and there really isn't. It's not about the adoption of technology, but the simplification of and the cost of that technology.” - JD

Mentions:

Bios:

Soumaya Hamzaoui describes herself as an Entrepreneur and Product Strategist. She has a strong track record of developing products across Enterprises focused on the fintech and commerce global industries. She has deep sector expertise built over the last 15 years across Africa, Asia, and EMEA in mobile money, digital financial services, and FinTech launches. She attended prestigious universities in France and Algeria.

Juandre (JD) de Jong is a seasoned Product professional and Chartered Management Accountant, currently serving as the Senior Vice President of Product at RedCloud. Juandre combines his financial acumen with a deep understanding of customer needs to drive product strategy and innovation. He has a proven track record of successfully launching and scaling innovative products that meet market demands. He was born in South Africa and currently resides in the UK.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to Create a Data and AI Literate Company with Bridgestone and The Data Lodge Apr 10, 2024

Description:
Cindi Howson is joined by Valerie A. Logan, CEO and founder of the DataLodge and Chief Strategy Officer at DATA SOCIETY GROUP, and Jason Beyer, Vice President of Data and Analytics at Bridgestone Americas. They delve into the vital concepts of data literacy and AI literacy, sharing their insights and experiences in fostering a data-driven culture within organizations. Valerie, widely regarded as the "godmother of data literacy," sheds light on the three key pillars of her approach: mindset, language, and skills. Jason provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Bridgestone is cultivating data literacy, including partnerships with HR, creating a data marketplace, and fostering a community of data enthusiasts.

Key Moments:

Valerie Logan explains the three pillars of data literacy: mindset, language, and skills (06:16)
Jason Beyer shares Bridgestone's approach to scaling data literacy, including partnering with HR and creating a data marketplace (22:10)
Valerie highlights the importance of leadership in modeling the right mindset for data literacy (29:28)
Cindi, Valerie, and Jason discuss the evolution of data literacy to AI literacy (33:48)
Lightning round with fun questions for Valerie and Jason (38:26)

Key Quotes:

ISL (Information as a second language) is really a foundational methodology for how we look at the enablement of people, the empowerment of people with this capability. And when I talk about data literacy in ISL, I look at it really as three things, mindset, language, and skills. - Valerie A. Logan
Terms, Techniques, then Tools. If you're trying to drive a different behavior, a tool is part of that. But how somebody thinks, how someone engages is also part of it. - Valerie A. Logan
Leaders need to think about data fluency different from those that may be using data in their role or may have data as a role and recognize that there's different levels of fluency, proficiency, and the core literacy that go along with that. - Jason Beyer
Even before we called it a data literacy program, we had this mindset and approach as a COE team and our value contribution to the organization is we need to raise the water for the entire organization in how we use and make the most of our data assets. - Jason Beyer

Mentions:

Bios

Valerie A. Logan
Founding The Data Lodge in 2019, Valerie is as committed to data literacy as it gets. With train-the-trainer bootcamps, and a peer community, she’s certifying the world’s first Data Literacy Program Leads. Valerie is excited to also serve as the Chief Strategy Officer of DSG. Valerie has more than 30 years of experience in consulting leadership and telecommunications. She lives between the Adirondacks in Upstate NY, and Sarasota, FL with her husband Brian, and their yellow lab, Cooper, the Lodge mascot.

Jason Beyer
A Data, Analytics, & Technology pioneer with a proven ability to lead transformational change. Jason brings global experiences from automotive, retail, industrial manufacturing, construction, medical, and government industries. He believes what’s good for society is good for business. Jason serves on multiple boards for his community of Nashville, and for the data industry

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Data, AI, Action: Navigating GenAI with Chris Stephens, Field CTO at Appen Mar 20, 2024

Description:

In this episode, Chris Stephens, Field CTO at Appen, dives into how CDO’s are navigating the world of generative AI. From setting clear expectations to driving adoption within organizations, Chris and Cindi explore the challenges and opportunities in this evolving landscape. Chris shares Appen's innovative approach to integrating humans into deep learning processes and discusses the potential of synthetic data. Plus, he shares how crucial human expertise is, in shaping ethical AI practices and touches on the impact of legislation and industry trends on AI's future.

Key Moments:

The Impact of generative AI on CDOs [06:19]
Appen and the excitement of generative AI [10:34]
The potential of synthetic data and content curation [12:13]
The importance of CDOs embracing generative AI [17:40]
The early stage of generative AI and funding innovation [26:39]
The importance of human in the loop [34:09]
The role of legislation and industry leadership [38:46]

Key Quotes:

As a CDO, I think you absolutely have to figure out how to grab onto that, take ownership of it, and provide the leadership that your company needs - if you don't, then of course someone else will.

All of the challenges come on the non-technical side. Being successful in these programs is about more humanistic type skills than it is being a wizard in the technology space, in my opinion.

The work that Appen does is working in support of all of these global organizations and the key is getting humans involved in these loops.

Mentions:

Bio:

Chris has been leading large-scale data transformations for over a decade, bringing advanced analytics capabilities to the world for 25 years. Most recently, he served in CDO roles at GEICO, Zendesk, and American Eagle Outfitters. Prior to that he helped lead the Data Science practice at Pivotal Software helping organizations around the world adopt modern data and software practices. He is Field CTO and Head of AI Solutions at Appen bringing AI systems to life for organizations around the world. He is an advisor to Insight Partners and Battery Ventures helping shape a new generation of technology and teams. He is Adjunct Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University teaching our next generation of data and AI leaders. He is passionate about the human side of data, transformation, and innovation. He hails from Pittsburgh with his wife and 5 young adult children. An avid music fan, he reminds us that, "you who choose to lead must follow."

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How Procter and Gamble Pioneered Big Data Mar 06, 2024

Description:

Michael Jordan once said that players win games, and teams win championships. In this episode, Cindi interviews Alfredo Colas, Senior Vice President of Data and Analytics at Procter & Gamble. Together, they explore the importance of fostering a data-driven culture and digital fluency, while delving into strategies for overcoming challenges in data culture. They also discuss the company's rich history of data innovation and the evolving impact of technology on data access and processing. From key insights on investing in data and AI fluency to discussing the role of the AI factory in accelerating machine learning processes, Alfredo and Cindi cover it all.

Key Moments:

Building a data-driven culture and data fluency [9:48]
Overcoming challenges in data culture and adoption [10:16]
Investing in data and AI fluency across the organization [19:55]
The AI Factory and accelerating machine learning processes [20:16]
Addressing fears and human oversight in AI [27:50]

Key Quotes:

As part of that also, we believe we need everyone in the organization to understand data, to understand analytics. So we are heavily investing in the digital fluency of the full organization and not just the IT function.

Michael Jordan said that players win games and teams win championships, I agree with him. To me, it's not about one trait. It's about having a diverse team where everyone brings something different.

If we want to be here another 100 years or another 183 years, we need to be training the new generations so that they can be successful in the future.

Mentions:

Bio:

Alfredo Colas is the Senior Vice President of IT for Data & Analytics, and Digital Go-To-Market. He leads an organization of more than 850 P&G IT professionals and over a thousand partner resources.

Data and Algorithmic solutions are a key engine of P&G’s Integrated Growth Strategy. Through a combination of Enterprise Data Lake platform, data pipelines and machine learning workbenches, this team is creating cutting-edge capabilities across all dimensions of the business.

As part of his Digital Go-To-Market role, he is accountable for developing new capabilities to help P&G win by unlocking the full potential of P&G’s Sales organization. He oversees the digitization of the company’s sales processes and powering them with analytics. He also leads P&G’s Salesforce Platform Team.

Alfredo joined Procter & Gamble in 1996 in Spain and, over the years, led various local, regional and global organizations across the U.S. and Europe, including Italy, Russia, Spain and Switzerland. In 2005-2006, Alfredo participated in a Manager-On-Loan program, where he worked in PC business operations at Hewlett-Packard. He has extensive experience in transforming and enabling the sales organization at P&G, and has led commercial and supply chain redesigns, e-commerce initiatives and the integration of multiple acquisitions. Most recently, he led IT & Shared Services for North America, P&G’s largest region.

Alfredo thrives at the intersection of business and technology. He is motivated by applying technology to transform the business and create significant value. He also has long-standing experience working in external forums to identify opportunities and impulse efficiencies that improve the end-to-end value chain and ultimately benefit consumers. He started working with GS1 Spain (AECOC) more than 20 years ago. He has been in the board of GS1 US since 2016 and actively participates in key industry initiatives such as Verified by GS1 and the migration from product barcodes to 2D codes.

Alfredo resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife and his two younger children. His eldest is a freshman in engineering at Purdue University.

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Alfredo Colas on The Data Chief.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Secrets of Success with Nisha Paliwal from Capital One Feb 21, 2024

Giving ABC’s more meaning, in this episode of The Data Chief host Cindi Howson, engages in a captivating conversation with Nisha Paliwal, the managing VP of Enterprise Data Technology at Capital One. Nisha dives into her multifaceted role as a tech leader, visionary, and advocate for STEM education. The discussion traverses topics ranging from the impact of technology on younger generations to the future of work in the era of AI. With insights into Nisha's unique ABC leadership framework and Capital One's innovative culture, this episode offers a rich exploration of data leadership and human-centered tech strategy.

Key Moments:

The impact of technology on younger generations [3:05]

Nisha’s leadership style: The ABC Framework [5:02]

The future of work and AI’s impact [15:56]

Mitigating risks and building trust in AI [20:20]

The importance of data in AI [25:22]

Capital One’s culture of innovation [31:18]

Key Quotes:

“Let's just be who we are and bring the best in others too. So all the people who I work with, bring their best self to work and are comfortable with whoever they want to be.”

“I think AI might not be for everybody to start with. I think it's okay to wait and watch. I think it's okay to let it bake because again, these things are not cheap either, right? These require a lot of investment upfront.”

“Data is the king these days, we have a lot of investment in data, we have about 1000 plus people and I'm here to serve them, to serve the organization, serve our product – I care about what we build.”

Mentions:

Bio:

Nisha Paliwal is Managing Vice President of Enterprise Data Technology at Capital One, where she has held a variety of leadership roles over more than eight years. An accomplished leader, visionary technologist, and passionate change agent, she has been a relentless advocate for leveraging technology and data insights to create true business value for more than 20 years.

At Capital One, she also actively contributes to and holds leadership roles in the Women in Tech and Origins business resource groups (BRGs). Nisha has a big heart for her associates and desires for them to feel valued, engaged and psychologically safe.

With a passion for introducing young girls to technology, she also mentors others and supports several STEM-focused non profits, with a long-term vision of bringing more women into the ranks of technology leadership. Nisha volunteers her personal time with three non-profits - Boolean Girls, CodeVa, and WingsForGrowth, which focus on STEM education for K-12 and education for women in leadership-related topics.

Nisha is an avid learner who made the jump from microbiology to the tech world after teaching herself C# programming. She continues her life-long pursuit of learning by reading, listening to podcasts, and participating in internal and external speaking engagements.

Nisha has recently co-authored a book “The Secrets of AI Value Creation,” published by Wiley, in her pursuit of learning and sharing those learnings with the community in the form of this book.

Order Nisha’s new book, The Secrets of AI Value Creation now.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

AI for Good: Inside OVO's Mission to Decarbonize Homes and Empower Customers Feb 07, 2024

On this episode of The Data Chief, Katie Russell, Data Director at OVO Energy shares OVO’s transformative journey to become a sustainable energy leader, emphasizing the shift to Google Cloud Platform and a data mesh strategy. The discussion covers OVO's innovative use of generative AI, measuring success through customer savings, and the ongoing challenge of fostering a data-driven culture.

Key Moments:

OVO’s mission and data support [1:05]
Data transformation [7:37]
Technology modernization [11:17]
Data discoverability and data mesh [17:28]
Measuring business contribution [22:03]
Generative AI and data privacy [27:56]
Data-driven culture and trust [30:51]

Key Quotes:

"We chose Google Cloud Platform as our underlying data platform with BigQuery then as the data warehouse. The thesis being that they practically invented the technology and so should be good at it."

“My job is to represent my team, make sure that we're working on the right things, and then, build trust with the leadership community that we're doing the right things with data for the business.”

"I'm thinking that there might actually be a bit of a full circle on data privacy and sharing. I think with ChatGPT being so easy to use with its really human-centered design and with social media ups and downs over the last few years, I'm wondering if there's going to be a revolution in data privacy and data sharing and personal data."

Mentions:

Bio:

Katie Russell is the Data Director at OVO Energy, leading teams of Data Scientists, Data Engineers and Analysts who are transforming OVO’s data capability. As part of a technology led business, leveraging data using artificial intelligence keeps OVO truly innovative, delivering the best possible service for our customers.

Katie joined OVO in October 2017 having spent 5 years at ONZO - an energy analytics startup - as Head of Data Science. During that time she was chuffed to be awarded Big Data Hero by techUK in June 2016 and helped ONZO win multiple awards for their innovative solutions for utilities. Prior to that Katie worked for another analytics start up in the water industry, got a PhD in Mathematical Physics and holds a BA and MMath from the University of Cambridge.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

From Reporting to Decision Science: Inside HP Jan 24, 2024

You’ve heard the term data science, but have you heard about decision science? Juergen Kallinger, VP of Data and Insights at HP, shares valuable insights and reflections from his 22-year journey at HP. In this episode, Juergen dives into HP’s pivotal shift from solely reporting, to the dynamic realm of decision science and how it’s aligned their data team.

Key Moments:

Balancing technical skills and business acumen [7:16]
The analogy of being a great cook [9:24]
Maintaining proximity to business stakeholders [16:55]
Adjusting the language for different audiences [22:35]
The evolution of data science and decision science [32:48]
The excitement and potential of AI [37:19]

Key Quotes:

“I talk a lot about extreme ownership. We're in the data world and we're at the end of a very long chain of things that have to work for us to be able to deliver high-quality data analytics and insights to our business users. We cannot assume that everything upstream always works and is always perfect and we just rely on the very last mile.”

“Data is like water. It's vital for our survival in the modern business world."

"The more tech buzzwords there are, the less I would use them with the business teams. I would more focus on the business outcomes and what we enable. It's important to talk about the implications of strong data governance, aligning to the same metrics, enabling specific insights, and guaranteeing higher data quality to build trust in the data."

Mentions:

Bio: Together with his team, Juergen is currently responsible for HPs Data, Business Insights & Analytics globally. His team of consultants, project managers, solution architects & developers is responsible for the design & delivery of data products, business intelligence and analytics solutions to HPs Commercial (Sales, Category, Operations), Finance, Supply Chain, Services, Customer Support & Digital Transformation teams globally. He joined HP in November 2001 as Project Analyst in Vienna, Austria and has held several regional and worldwide management positions since then. During his career at HP Juergen worked in a wide range of international roles where he gained deep insight into HP’s core processes and systems globally covering Marketing, Sales, Pricing, Category, Configuration & Quote as well as Finance and Sales Compensation. In 2022, Juergen has been appointed to lead the HP-wide Data, Business Insights & Analytics organization to introduce a more modern, consistent, and efficient Business Intelligence operating model, data & platform strategy. Before joining HP, Juergen has worked for BASF and a local tax advisory company in Vienna. Juergen graduated with a master’s degree in economics from the Vienna University of Economics & Business and completed an executive education program for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Stanford University. Together with his wife, Juergen moved to Houston, Texas in January 2014.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Data & AI Industry Predictions in 2024 with Sapphire Ventures, Unstoppable Domains, and Tata Consulting Services. Jan 10, 2024

Gen-AI, Gen-AI, Gen-AI. The transformative technology has captured the imagination of everyone in the tech industry. Industries are shifting before our eyes, and the roles and responsibilities of data practitioners everywhere are going to shift again. The question is not whether an impact will be made, but what will the impact be?

In this episode, Cindi sits down with 3 industry leaders to discuss how AI will impact our work and our personal lives in 2024. Sandy Carter shares how a severe injury in Brazil impacted her outlook on data sharing, and data verification in a world where AI can convince millions that the Pope wears puffy jackets. Jai Das sees a gap in educating technical workers if AI is too widely adopted. Prab Pritchandi shares how the financial industries will modernize in a heavily regulated environment.

Industry Predictions:

There will be an intersection of AI Privacy and blockchain technology that will be poised to reshape the entire landscape of proof of ownership. And therefore, also revolutionize data sharing practices. We will go and move into a decentralized proof of ownership because of the increasing use of Gen AI and the fear of deep fakes. (34:15) - Sandy Carter
Generative AI is going to get rid of a lot of the grunt work that we have day to day. Including some of the groundwork in data prep, some of the groundwork that analysts have to do, or even understanding reports and dashboards. I think the fear about [AI] getting really smart and destroying the world is really far-fetched. All of the LLMs and all of these GPT 5 and all of these models, they're great [but] they're not really reasoning. They're not right. They're great at getting some information and putting it in a new form. They don't come up with anything original. So I'm not actually fearful of [AI] replacing humans. (14:30) - Jai Das
90 percent of the data available in the world has been created in the last one year.And every year the amount of data is actually increasing. I could say data is really a good digital twin of your business [but] that itself is not a value unless you're able to convert this data to insights and then convert the insights to actionable insights. (1:06:00)- Prab Pitchandi

Key Moments

Jai observes 2023 AI startups are missing profitable business models (10:55)
Jai identifies a gap in education. Developers are trained through repetition. But what happens when repetition is replaced by AI (24:53)Sandy breaks her femur and surgery is delayed by 48 hours due to data (34:54)
Sandy says, Taylor Swift is Web 3.0 (46:30)
Prab compares banking data and analytics to cricket (51:27)
Prab wonders if Formula 1 can be driverless (1:07:00)

Mentions:

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

The Data Chief Returns In 2024 Nov 22, 2023

The world's top data and analytics leaders share their stories on the The Data Chief. New episodes return in January 2024. Until then, take a look at some of the previous episodes and hear case studies, industry insights, and personal lessons from the executives leading the data revolution. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to Organize Modern Data and Analytics Teams with Mode Analytics Co-Founder, Benn Stancil Oct 25, 2023

Description:
On this episode, Benn Stancil, Co-Founder of Mode Analytics and current Field CTO at Thoughtspot shares his thoughts on who wants to use data to solve problems, and who just wants data to validate an opinion. He brings unique perspectives to how data excellence can be proliferated through an organization, whether shadow IT is a nuisance or a guide post, and how large language models will influence the future of data.

Key Moments:

How an internal analytics tool Benn built at Yammer led to starting Mode Analytics to serve the new breed of technical data teams (4:00)
Why the urgency around BI consolidation in 2023 prompted conversations with ThoughtSpot (52:30)
The risks of shadow tools and lack of consistency; importance of a centralized data infrastructure (26:30)
Using natural language search as an interface for asking novel questions and changing how people use data (44:00)
Data teams need visibility into the business context; centralization for infrastructure but decentralization to embed in business units (23:30)
How ambition plays an outsized role in the type of data tools selected in an organization (17:58)

Key Quotes:

Courage, ultimately, is needed in making a decision that you have to own. [Unfortunately], data can be a punt. If you make a data driven decision, nobody made the decision. The data made the decision. There is like an abstraction there of who was actually responsible for it.
What ends up happening [in shadow IT] is you spend all this time just trying to figure out, like, which one do you trust? Who's right? Everybody has their different perspective
Good Googlers are not people that know the, the exact syntax of weird Google searches. Good Googlers are the people who have some spider sense about where to go looking for things. And I think AI is probably going to be similar to that, where it's not the crazy prompt engineers that'll make it good. It’s like some of the next level spider sense skills that we don’t know yet.

Mentions

Bio

Benn Stancil is ThoughtSpot’s Field CTO. He joined ThoughtSpot in 2023 as part of its acquisition of Mode, where he was a Co-Founder and CTO. While at Mode, Benn held roles leading Mode’s data, product, marketing, and executive teams. He regularly writes about data and technology at benn.substack.com. Prior to founding Mode, Benn worked on analytics teams at Microsoft and Yammer.

Personal Details:

- Enjoys playing baseball and is a Braves fan

- Favorite pump up song: "Labour" by Paris Paloma

- Grateful for opportunities to travel and gain new perspectives

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Democratizing Data with Colgate-Palmolive Chief Analytics & Insights Officer, Diana Schildhouse Oct 11, 2023

Diana Schildhouse, Chief Analytics and Insights Officer at Colgate-Palmolive, discusses driving business value through analytics, ensuring executives are data fluent, innovating with AI, and her career path through iconic brands like Mattel and Disney.

Key Moments

Listening Tours: How 100’s of one-on-one conversations helped to narrow in on which business problems could be solved with data and quickly lead to business value (4:50)
Working to benchmark the company against its industry helped to establish the business impact and value of data (6:41)
Transforming from pockets of excellence to uniform excellence. Spreading data excellence as a way to increase data transformation (8:00)
Increasing data literacy via its own data education and recognition program, Data Literacy and Analytics Academy. (9:52)
Because product development lifecycles are so long, data plays a massive role in understanding consumer trends and what consumers will want in the future (19:46)
Use case driven innovation drives business value fastest. (22:46)
Data Clean rooms and partner collaboration is the key to generating useful 1st party data (25:06)
How a center-led hybrid enabled global teams to improve data utilization at Colgate-Palmolive (31:21)
Co-Creation helps create both nuance for specific teams and applicability for broader teams (33:21)

Key Quotes

The approach of let's take five years and invest in data and get it to a perfect spot and then we can start doing analytics and showing that value is just not one that any company has patience for.
That co-creation is so important to us, because..if the business doesn’t understand what a solution is supposed to help them do, it won't be adopted.
We try to be laser focused on what we think will move the business versus starting with the data. We're not trying to boil the ocean. It's hard to show value and progress when you're not delivering tools that can actually help the business make a decision today or tomorrow.

Mentions

Bio

Diana Schildhouse is Chief Analytics and Insights Officer at Colgate-Palmolive. She previously held analytics leadership roles at Mattel and The Walt Disney Company. Diana has an undergraduate degree in Business and Finance from USC and an MBA from Harvard.

Personal Details

Favorite activities outside of work: walking her golden doodle named Bagel, spending time with family, movies, reading
Song that pumps her up: "Who Run the World (Girls)" by Beyonce
Grateful for close friendships with "personal board of directors" from business school
Seen the Barbie movie 3 times and loved it

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to create an ecosystem moat via data sharing with CDAO at retailer Carrefour Sep 27, 2023

Description

As the world’s seventh largest retailer, Carrefour is using advanced analytics to transform operations, better serve customers, and pioneer the future of retail. Chief Data & Analytics Officer Sebastien Rozanes explains how the company is leveraging data and generative AI to drive measurable business value across merchandising, supply chain, marketing and more.

Key Moments:

How a strong data foundation and data monetization mindset accelerated data maturity at Carrefour (5:46)
Selling data to CPGs to improve collaboration and justify data investments (20:57)
The "data supermarket" analogy to get business leaders invested in data quality (30:39)
Reducing friction by enabling suppliers and retailers to work from the same data facts (32:33)
Starting with imagination not limitations to identify AI opportunities (42:08)
Leveraging ChatGPT to transform the ecommerce shopping experience (45:10)

Key Quotes

“It's okay to be 5% wrong, but 95% right…[with the time you free up] you will make up much more value than trying to optimize the last 5%.”
“The role of Chief Data Analytics Officer goes way beyond the technology. It's 10 percent about technology, 20 percent about data, but actually 70 percent about transformation and adoption.”
“Generative AI is a game changer for efficiency and helping us focus on human creativity.”

Mentions:

Bio

Sebastien Roznes is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Carrefour, a top 10 global retailer serving 80 million customers across more than 40 countries, including 8 countries with direct operations. Prior to joining Carrefour, Sebastien served as a Principal and Associate Director with the Boston Consulting Group with a focus in Digital, AI, and Data-Driven Transformations for Multinational Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods businesses. His educational background focuses on both Computer Science and Business providing him with unique insights on how data can serve the business.

Learn more from Sebastien and how data is transforming retail on The Data Chief.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Three Must-Read Data and Analytics Books with Dr. Barb Wixom, Vin Vashishta, and Asha Saxena Sep 13, 2023

It’s that time of year again. On this episode of The Data Chief, Cindi dives into three of the hottest book recommendations for data and analytics leaders and sits down with Dr. Barb Wixom, author of Data is Everybody’s Business, Vin Vashishta, author of From Data to Profit, and Asha Saxena, author of The AI Factor.

Key Moments:

Introducing Dr. Barb Wixom (2:10)
Barb’s desire to continue helping people in the data industry (2:57) (Barb)
The different types of organizational leaders (8:21) (Barb)
Creating value from data (10:50) (Barb)
The selling framework (16:42) (Barb)
A financial services case study (21:56) (Barb)
Introducing Vin Vashishta (27:18) (Vin)
The importance of companies having a single playbook (28:08) (Vin)
Benefits of a value-based approach (32:52) (Vin)
Starting with a problem statement (34:58) (Vin)
When a lack of data literacy becomes problematic (38:46) (Vin)
Driving culture change (40:30) (Vin)
Introducing Asha Saxena (46:12)
What is Women Leaders in Data and AI? (48:27) (Asha)
The four-quadrant framework for deploying AI (52:11) (Asha)
Case Study: How an Animal Shelter leveraged AI (55:44) (Asha)
How to use AI ethically and responsibly (59:32) (Asha)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like these on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Reimagining the banking experience with CDO of Singapore's GXS Bank Aug 30, 2023

Not many CDOs get to enter a new role with a clean slate. But Geraldine Wong, CDO for GXS Bank in Singapore did just that. In this episode of The Data Chief, she explains how the bank has built a foundation of data literacy by providing employees the right tools, access, and knowledge to put data at the forefront of their workflow. This culture of education and understanding establishes trust, empowers departments to “self-serve” data for better productivity, and ultimately leads to stronger understanding of data for customers and employees alike.

Tune in to learn:

Starting from a “clean slate” as a CDO (1:32)
GXS’s role and purpose as a new bank (3:49)
Data security and consumer privacy (9:47)
The GXS Bank data strategy (14:46)
Using generative AI to improve data fluency (20:27)
Advantages and disadvantages of being fully in the cloud (26:48)
How higher education can better prepare workers for digital transformation (29:32)
Why Singapore is a global leader in data literacy (37:24)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Geraldine on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to find and retain data team talent with the VP of Analytics at the Milwaukee Bucks Aug 16, 2023

In this episode of The Data Chief, hosts Cindi Howson and Sonny Rivera interview Sumathi Thiyagarajan, the VP of Business Strategy and Analytics for the Milwaukee Bucks and Fiserv Forum. Sumathi discusses being a data leader in professional sports, building a data team from the ground up, and leveraging insights to continually provide the best fan experience.

Tune in to learn:

Making the transition to a professional sports team (2:42)
The evolution of Sumathi’s role and team (4:58)
The growing importance of data across the NBA (10:02)
Unique challenges Sumathi faces in her role with the Bucks (12:01)
Creating personalized fan experiences (14:38)
Using data to increase the team’s visibility in the marketplace (18:12)
Finding (and keeping) strong data team talent (22:31)
Building a talent pool through a successful hackathon (26:20)
Coaching and developing a diverse data team (29:07)
Addressing the challenges of fragmented data (33:50)
Driving innovation for the Bucks (and across the NBA) (37:35)

Mentions:

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Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Balancing long-term vision with near-term action with Vercel’s VP of Data Aug 02, 2023

Alex Viana, VP of Data at Vercel, has had a truly unique career. Starting with a role at the Hubble Space Telescope, Alex found his way into the data space by way of data security and searching for leaked data assets. Today, he leads the data organization at Vercel, where he views building – teams, technology processes, and metrics – as his primary responsibility. In this episode Alex shares his thoughts on leading data teams at different (but fast-growing) tech companies, the importance of building scalable data platforms, delivering value through stakeholder engagement, and balancing long-term vision with short-term action as a key to success.

Tune in to learn:

The origins of Alex’s data journey with the Hubble Space Telescope (4:29)
Alex’s unique approach to data leadership (6:12)
About Vercel (8:25)
Transitioning from growth-stage to more mature companies (10:38)
The biggest challenges Alex faces at Vercel (14:12)
Creating synchronicity across departments (16:59)
Having vision as a data executive (21:54)
The role of the data team in scaling a company (24:45)
Determining your value as an executive (27:31)
Building a positive data culture (33:10)
The growth of generative AI in data (39:20)

Mentions:

Bio:

Alex Viana is the VP of Data at Vercel. Alex has over 15 years of experience in data management and analysis, and has led teams of data scientists, engineers, and analysts in their previous positions. Alex is an expert in Python and SQL, and has used these skills to develop software platforms for managing and analyzing large datasets. Alex has also created databases of astronomical observations and predicted moon positions. In their current role, they are responsible for providing accurate data and insights to the organization and promoting data-driven decision making.

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Alex on The Data Chief.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How healthcare data can save lives with Truveta CEO Terry Myerson Jul 19, 2023

Each day, valuable patient data collected by healthcare systems. When used properly as part of healthcare analytics, this can help drive better outcomes for both patients and providers. However, when data management is not effectively implemented, organizations lose out on these benefits. Terry Myerson, CEO of Truveta, saw the need to unlock data’s potential while still ensuring privacy and security. In this episode, he discusses his company’s unique approach, the urgent need for better data insights for treatment protocols, and how AI is creating both efficiencies and concerns when making sense of data.

Tune in to learn:

The origin of Truveta [6:28]
Pulling data from the provider, not the patient [9:47]
Fragmentation, privacy, and unstructured data [11:58]
Healthcare data trends [15:50]
Population-level data [17:49]
Bringing in data from multiple systems [23:08]
Why transparency earns trust [26:10]
Language models and generative AI [28:10]
Terry’s career journey [35:29]

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Terry on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How data is transforming commercial real estate at JLL Jul 05, 2023

It’s one thing for a company to invest in new technology. It’s another for a company to become invested in technology. In this episode, Yao Morin, CTO of JLL explains how she isn’t just adding data to the company workflow, but is instead fostering a culture of innovation and data-driven mindsets across the 240-year-old company through education, and by demonstrating data’s business value across departments.

Key Moments:

Yao’s rapid rise at JLL [4:01]
Energy efficiency data in commercial real estate [13:26]
Fostering creativity and imagination in data teams [16:29]
Better understanding of B2B customer pain points [21:24]
Yao’s approach to startup investment [23:45]
Generative AI and the data/analytics workflow [28:58]
Delegating to better manage large data teams [32:27]
The underrepresentation of women in data and tech leadership roles [36:02]

Mentions:

Intuit
StubHub
Jira / Confluence
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Tom Davenport
Diablo IV (video game)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen

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Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to build a data culture with purpose Jun 21, 2023

The role of data teams continues to evolve across industries. But in mission-driven fields such as healthcare, data creates efficiencies that could potentially save lives. In this episode of The Data Chief, Cindi is joined by Jeremy Forman of Seagen to discuss the pivotal role his data team plays in driving insights-informed decision-making, and how they successfully collaborate with other departments to improve patient outcomes.

Key Moments:

The key challenges for data leaders in healthcare [3:50]
How Jeremy’s team supports company-wide initiatives [9:16]
Fostering cross-team communication and collaboration [12:08]
An ideal data organizational structure [14:39]
Driving organizational change [17:09]
Building an entrepreneurial culture [20:59]
Setting competing priorities [29:01]
FAIR data principles [36:34]
Jeremy’s career path [41:19]

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Jeremy on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to manage consumption creep in a cloud-based world with TIFIN CPO Jun 07, 2023

When it comes to investing, it’s been said that the biggest risk of all is not taking one. But for many of us, the prospect of figuring out how and where to smartly invest our money is overwhelming if not flat-out confusing. TIFIN is a FinTech company focused on democratizing this process by matching investors to potential investments with AI. In this episode, Raja Musunuru, the Chief Product Officer of financial tech leader TIFIN, covers a wide range of topics, from the importance of understanding customer needs to promoting data fluency across an organization.

Tune in to learn:

About TIFIN [00:55]
Raja’s unique perspective on technology, data, and products [12:01]
The costs of cloud computing [16:04]
Cloud governance and oversight [20:02]
Views on FinOps [21:22]
Optimizing the costs of multi-cloud operations [29:23]
Promoting data fluency [36:19]

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Raja on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Netflix on Balancing Data with Judgment for Better Insights May 17, 2023

Using data to gain customer insights can be difficult. Using data to gain customer insights from an ever-growing, ever-changing entertainment audience presents a much steeper challenge. In this episode, Elizabeth Stone, VP, Data & Insights at Netflix, explains how her dedicated team reflects the larger Netflix culture, balancing hard data with a mindset of learning and experimentation to make decisions that improve the Netflix experience.

Tune in to learn:

Elizabeth’s role as head of Netflix’s data and insights team (2:46)
How Netflix is leveraging machine learning (11:13)
The continued culture of innovation at Netflix (13:44)
Using data to inform intuition and choice (18:00)
How the data and insights team engages with other stakeholders (22:30)
How Elizabeth obtains the resources she needs (25:37)
The importance of cross-functional understanding and collaboration (32:13)

Mentions:

Gartner Data and Analytics Conference
Lyft
Randy Bean, author of Fail Fast, Learn Faster
ChatGPT/OpenAI
Daft Punk / Hot Chip / LCD Soundsystem

Guest Bio:
Elizabeth Stone leads Netflix’s Data & Insights org. Data & Insights is a centralized and globally distributed team that includes: data engineering, metrics development, analytic insights and tooling, research and development of machine learning algorithms, optimization and automation, experimentation and causal inference, and consumer research. The Data & Insights team applies this functional expertise to improve and evolve all parts of Netflix's business including the member-facing product, streaming delivery, content, studio production, games, ads, business operations, and growth. Elizabeth previously worked in finance, both as a trader and as an economic consultant, before transitioning to the tech industry, where she led teams at Nuna and Lyft. She is a graduate of MIT and Stanford University.
Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Why Online Retailer Zalando Was First to Embrace the Data Mesh May 03, 2023

Most data professionals aspire to be leaders within a single industry. It’s rare to see professionals establish and re-establish themselves as powerful influencers across multiple verticals. But this is precisely what Dr. Alexander Borek has done, helping some of the world’s most recognizable brands scale tangible value from data, analytics, and AI. In this episode, he covers a wide range of topics, including his personal career journey, creating cultures of innovation, centralized vs. decentralized data products, and the imminent impact of generative AI.

Key Moments:

Background on Zalando [2:15]
Dr. Borek’s The Ultimate Data and AI Guide [5:32]
Becoming a data leader in multiple industries [7:02]
Germany’s growing data culture [14:30]
The need for a greater sense of urgency in data understanding [17:07]
The origins of the data mesh [19:33]
The benefits of cross-team collaboration [24:44]
Data mash vs. data fabric [31:30]
Using data for insight and action [37:28]
The rapid expansion of generative technologies [40:10]

Mentions:

You can join Alex in person at the Data Masterclass Europe 2023 conference! The conference will be held in Berlin from June 21-23. Apply to join here.

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Delek US on Proving Value as the CDO Apr 19, 2023

The role of the CDO is changing, and with these changes come new opportunities to prove business value. On this episode of The Data Chief, Ido Biger, EVP of Data and Technology for Delek US, explains how he’s breaking down data silos and turning insights to actionHe also takes listeners through several analytics use cases including creating operational efficiencies for frontline workers and reducing customer churn.

Tune in to learn:

Ido’s role at Delek and confronting his biggest challenge (04:23)
How Ido breaks down data silos (11:53)
Using data-driven insights to increase operational efficiency - Telco case study (15:15)
Using data-driven insights to reduce customer churn - Airline case study (20:01)
Why COVID was a huge opportunity for the airline industry (26:20)
Turning insights to action - Oil and gas case study (29:08)
The importance of finding a sponsor for your data project (32:19)
How to prove value as a CDO (33:04)
Ido’s work as a professor (35:12)
The skills data professionals need to succeed (37:32)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Bill Schmarzo on Why Companies Need to Pivot from Data-Driven to Value-Driven Apr 05, 2023

What is the true value of data? Whether you’ve been collecting data for years or are just getting started, the reality is that data holds zero value on its own. In fact, it’s a huge cost. In this episode of The Data Chief, industry veteran Bill Schmarzo, currently in Customer Data Innovation at Dell Technologies, shares why modern data leaders must let go of the notion of being data-driven and focus on business outcomes. He also discusses how having more data isn’t always the right move, especially when considering larger business goals.

Tune in to learn:

Demonstrating data’s value in an uncertain economy (7:36)
Defining data KPIs (16:54)
The importance of data-driven decision-making (22:43)
Moving from “data-driven” to “value-driven” (33:24)
Modern data culture (42:08)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Bill on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to Connect Data Strategy to Business Value Mar 22, 2023

Modern data leaders know creating a data-informed culture requires cross-functional partnership and collaboration across the entire business. IT by themselves can’t do it. Nor can individual business departments. Both the IT and business strategy must be in lock step to achieve results. On this episode of The Data Chief, Dora Boussias, Senior Director of Data Strategy and Architecture at Stryker, discusses the role of modern data executives, three keys to creating a data-informed culture, and her approach to breaking down silos based on her own 28 years of experience building effective data strategies across industries.

Tune in to learn:

How Dora’s diverse experiences have helped her approach to data strategy (6:53)
How data leaders should be connecting data strategies to business value (10:37)
How technical strategy and data strategy differ (13:57)
Dora’s investment in continued learning about business challenges (14:59)
Why there are no “dumb questions” when working toward a goal (18:51)
Emphasizing change management to create a bigger impact (23:36)
The importance of a collaborative culture across all business divisions (28:25)
Can data-fluent cultures be driven from a grassroots approach? (30:32)
Why data alone is not enough to make good decisions (34:00)
The state of female leadership in the data industry (36:55)
The lighting round (45:36)

Mentions:

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Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

The Big Data Behind How You Get Paid Mar 08, 2023

The implications of employment shifts have different effects on certain subsets of the population. Understanding these implications in real time helps businesses, governments, and individuals make better decisions about what to do next. ADP serves its customers in more ways than just payroll, taxes, and employment benefits. CDO Jack Berkowitz shares more about these benefits, and the parts of ADP’s business dedicated to reporting and sharing data.

Tune in to learn:

Managing high data volumes and maintaining data reliability at ADP (03:05)
Real-time employment data about equity in the workforce (05:33)
Monetizing data and how that has changed (09:35)
The end of FTP? (12:06)
The role of payroll data plays to tell the truth about diversity and inclusion in the workforce. (19:45)
Jack’s personal career shift from the vendor to end-user (27:08)
Lightning Round (28:00)

Mentions:

ADP National Employment Report
Edward Tufte https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/
Randy Pausch https://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/story/index.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221514864_Storytelling_Alice_motivates_middle_school_girls_to_learn_computer_programming
Beau Miles - Backyard Adventurer https://beaumiles.com/the-backyard-adventurer/
the video that I watch over and over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvT5XS7j-Dc

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Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

How to Harness the Explosive Growth of ChatGPT for AI Innovation Feb 22, 2023

Historically, computers haven’t been particularly good at determining user intent from real-world language inputs. However, the advancement of natural language processing technologies, like ChatGPT, has led to remarkable improvements in AI systems' accuracy in responding to human queries. In this episode, Amit Prakash, Co-founder of ThoughtSpot, discusses the development of AI and the accountability required to make it ready for daily use.

Tune in to learn:

What was the problem Amit was trying to solve when he co-founded ThoughtSpot? (04:48)
When did Amit first start looking at ChatGPT and natural language processing? (08:16)
Why did ChatGPT explode in 2023? (21:00)
Is ChatGPT ready for important work and research? (31:26)
Will ChatGPT spell the end of platforms like ThoughtSpot? (32:41)

Mentions:

Follow Amit on Substack and view his series of blogs on ChatGPT and LLMs. https://amit.thoughtspot.com/

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Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Top Data & AI Industry Trends in 2023 with Tom Davenport, Tony Baer, and Sonny Rivera Jan 18, 2023

Everywhere you look, change is redefining the data landscape. From the rise of the analytics engineer to data leaders clamoring to make self service analytics real, it’s clear organizations are looking for new opportunities to put their data to work.

But which changes matter? In this episode, we break down some of the data and analytics trends for 2023 that will help you identify key ways to rise above your competitors. Tom Davenport is back for another episode and this time he’s here to talk about AI and the relationship that the workforce should start building with it. Tony Baer weighs in on the great data framework debate. And Sonny Rivera points out the need for better education in the analytics industry, particularly when it comes to data modeling techniques.

Tune in to learn:

The biggest surprise in the survey findings around the role of the CDO (03:13)
Data governance or data enablement? (05:14)
CDO’s making a play for CEO in 2023 and beyond (07:27)
Legacy companies and AI adoption (08:30)
2023 prediction from Tom (13:50)
Could we have predicted that data mesh would be such a hot topic in 2022? (23:45)
Tony’s prediction for data mesh, data lakes, data warehouse, data fabric? (30:28)
Tony’s prediction and hopes for CDOs in 2023 (35:00)
ThoughtSpot's new evangelist, Sonny Rivera (35:55)
Sonny’s work in the DBT community (41:30)
Sonny’s prediction for the analytics engineer in 2023 (44:10)
The need for more modeling education in analytics boot camps (45:02)
What should your 2023 resolution be as an analytics engineer? (48:06)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Tom, Tony, and Sonny on

The Data Chief

.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Six Rules to Dominate the Decade of Data Nov 16, 2022

Today’s digital economy is more competitive than ever, and making smart data decisions can be what sets the leaders apart from the rest of the field. With new technologies now democratizing data at an accelerated pace, how can companies ensure that their data strategy is helping them stay ahead of the curve? As our third season comes to a close, Cindi takes a look back at some of our most insightful conversations to lay out six essential rules that every Data Chief should follow to dominate the decade of data.

Tune in to learn:

Rule 1: Leverage the best-of-breed from the modern data stack (02:30)
Rule 2: Empower everyone with true self-service analytics (10:58)
Rule 3: Drive actions with operationalized insights (18:44)
Rule 4: Build a flexible data foundation (27:26)
Rule 5: Utilize third-party data to build a 360-degree view (35:07)
Rule 6: Deliver engaging data-driven UX (38:47)

Mentions

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders on The Data Chief. https://www.thoughtspot.com/data-chief

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at https://mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

ThoughtSpot’s Cindi Howson on Best Practices for Driving Impact from Data & Analytics (Ep. 26 Refresh) Nov 02, 2022

On this episode of The Data Chief, we look back at some of the key themes from season one, including the rise of the CDO, the intricacies of aligning your department’s goals with that of the businesses, and how you coped with accelerated timelines. While we relive these important conversations, we also discuss why culture and data fluency continue to be the biggest hurdles to becoming a truly data-driven business.

Tune in to learn:

The Rise of the Data Chief (02:54)
Aligning with Your Business Values (08:32)
Rapid Technical Innovation and the Shift to Cloud (15:52)
Technology Reflects Culture (23:30)
Assessing your Data Fluency (31:52)

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders on The Data Chief. https://www.thoughtspot.com/data-chief

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at https://mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

The Modern Milkman’s Chief Strategy Officer, John Hughes on Using Data to Save Our Oceans from Plastic Oct 19, 2022

Each year, around 8 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean, killing wildlife and damaging the environment for future generations. Much of this pollution originates from the wasteful packaging used for everyday grocery products. But a greener grocery alternative is making waves from across the pond. Joining us today is John Hughes, Chief Strategy Officer at The Modern Milkman, a UK-based grocery delivery company that brings locally sourced goods directly to customers without any single-use plastics. From the startup’s early days, John sought to invest heavily in data modernization. Hear how his data-driven approach has helped the company cultivate a shared mission with customers to make the world a cleaner, safer, and better place for all of its creatures.

Tune in to learn:

About The Modern Milkman and how John became associated with it (04:46)
How data has helped lead to the company’s growth (12:17)
The Modern Milkman’s data stack (28:14)
The benefits of working with startups (32:40)
Advice for larger companies on data stack modernization (38:00)

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like John on The Data Chief. https://www.thoughtspot.com/data-chief

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at https://mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

New Zealand's Crown Research Institute CDAO, Jan Sheppard on Treating Data as a Treasure Oct 05, 2022

Treating data as a treasure is a foundational principle for Jan Sheppard, the Chief Data and Analytics officer at New Zealand’s Crown Research Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR.) This agency leads ongoing research in public health, environmental health, and forensics for the country of New Zealand. Like many other CDAOs, her role is relatively new. But the unique values she applies to data can be traced back many hundreds of years to the indigenous Maori people of her country. Through her work, Jan recognizes the profound impact data can have on people and their environments for generations to come. Learn more about the important climate and health policy challenges that ESR is working to solve with data in this episode, plus her take on data literacy vs. business savviness, and why her data strategy is just two pages long.

Tune in to learn:

How do you make vastly different data work together at ESR? (07:12)
Data’s role as a treasure (11:43)
How do government and private companies look at data differently (13:50)
How do you guard against the misuse of data? (18:39)
Dangers of misinterpreting the models and need for data-savvy. (21:16)
Jan’s data North Star - recognizing the value of the data (25:10)
Goal to create digital twins to help address climate change (30:13)
Working around the difficulty of unstandardized ESG reporting (34:05)
Maori values and data at ESR - the life force of data (40:35)

Mentions:

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution book by Walter Isaacson
ESR’s Data Strategy

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Jan on The Data Chief. https://www.thoughtspot.com/data-chief

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at https://mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Société Générale’s Innovation Data & AI Leader Julien Molez on Creating a Value-Driven Data Framework Sep 21, 2022

At French bank, Société Générale, providing the best customer experience in the modern digital world means rethinking everything about banking, including its corporate structure. Three years ago, Julien Molez, joined the bank’s leadership team to become the first Innovation Data & AI Leader. On this episode of The Data Chief, Julien addresses changes sweeping the banking industry, including higher customer expectations, tougher regulations, and the ESG revolution. He also reminds us that at the end of the day, fancy AI models and algorithms will only perform as well as the data that goes into them.

Tune in to learn:

Creating a value-driven data framework (06:31)
How do you achieve customer personalization while adhering to GDPR? (15:29)
How do you truly secure data at all touchpoints? (20:29)
How is Société Générale leading in ESG reporting? (23:44)
What were Société Générale’s unique challenges in scaling up AI use cases? (28:55)
How do you educate business stakeholders about the best data possibilities? (35:56)
What is a key data framework technique? (40:00)

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Julien on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Three Must Read Data and Analytics Books with Tim Harford, Zhamak Dehghani, and Brent Dykes Sep 07, 2022

It is once again that time of year when our host, Cindi Howson shares her favorite data and analytics book recommendations. In this special annual episode, we feature three of the industry’s top data writers, thinkers, and fellow podcasters. Tim Harford comes to the conversation with his new book, The Data Detective, and big-picture ideas about how traits like curiosity serve data scientists so well. Zhamak Dehghani shares her concept of The Data Mesh, especially as it relates to sharing data across business verticals. Finally, in his book, Effective Data Storytelling, Brent Dykes compels readers to think carefully about the way they craft the message or narrative around the data they’re interpreting.

Tune in to learn:

Making sense of the world through a data lens with Tim Harford (05:18)
Tim’s favorite of the ten data commandments (07:11)
Guard against using data as a control mechanism (15:14)
How does curiosity create a healthier relationship with data? (19:57)
Data Mesh with Zhamak Dehghani (32:31)
Blending centralized and decentralized schools of thought (36:39)
Data Mesh isn’t for everyone (48:11)
How do you begin your data mesh transformation? (53:28)
Brent Dykes and the importance of data storytelling (1:02:17)
Why do data scientists need to be better communicators? (1:11:13)
The Venn diagram of data storytelling (1:15:14)

Mentions:

The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics by Tim Harford
Data Mesh: Delivering Data-Driven Value at Scale by Zhamak Dehghani
Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative, and Visuals by Brent Dykes

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Tim, Zhamak, and Brent on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

DoorDash’s VP of Analytics & Data Science, Jessica Lachs on Leveraging Data to Delight Customers Despite a Challenging Supply Chain Aug 17, 2022

Who’s hungry? Thanks to delivery apps like DoorDash, it’s never been easier for modern consumers to satisfy almost any craving in just a few taps. At the helm of DoorDash’s data organization is VP of Analytics & Data Science, Jessica Lachs. With metrics guiding every decision at the company, a key part of her decision-making comes down to properly quantifying the value of each possible tradeoff. Learn more about her decision-making framework, plus how her career in finance evolved into entrepreneurship and ultimately led her to create the data and analytics organization at DoorDash.

Tune in to learn:

Using data to move levers that balance tradeoffs (09:28)
Managing an unpredictable and complicated supply chain (12:26)
The confluence of personalization and consumer privacy (15:08)
Strategy for data architecting by the DoorDash team (21:00
Cultivating a creative team that also communicates effectively (26:59)
Unlikely career journey: Lehman Brothers to entrepreneurship (33:00)
Cultivating a positive response to failure (35:51)
Lightning Round (40:15)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Jessica on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Swiss RE’s SVP of P&C R&D, Jerry Gupta on AI Innovation and Building Revenue-Enhacing Data Models Jul 27, 2022

Swiss RE’s SVP of P&C R&D, Jerry Gupta is a firm believer in the revenue-generating potential and AI and machine learning. On this episode of The Data Chief, Jerry offers his view on innovative data model, frameworks for building and operationalizing these models, what makes a good data scientist, and why it will always be more challenging for data teams to maintain existing models vs. innovate new ones.

Tune in to learn:

The difference between ost cutting versus revenue-enhancing initiatives 03:20
More about the Data Model framework 07:50
Why the quality of your output depends on the quality of your input 11:35
How to address the shortfall of data scientists in the job market 13:48
How to set more clear value statements for models 27:56
More about informing the regulation of ethical AI and machine learning 45:33

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Jerry on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

American Express CDO and EVP Enterprise Digital & Data Solutions, Pascale Hutz on Managing Data as a Product and Rewarding Creative Destruction Jul 13, 2022

What keeps a data pro at one company for almost thirty years? On this episode of The Data Chief, Pascale Hutz, the Chief Data Officer and EVP of Enterprise Digital & Data Solutions at American Express, shares how her career at American Express has transformed over the years and what she’s learned along the way. Tune in to hear more about her latest cloud migration journey, why she’s on a “mission to decommission,” and how she fights imposter syndrome even as a C-level executive in one of the largest, most impactful financial services firms in the world.

Tune in to learn:

About Pascale’s career journey (03:41)
That data should be considered like a product 14:18:
How to stay tranquil during transformation (17:02)
The importance of decommissioning tech (21:21)

Mentions:

"Data Mesh: Delivering Data-Driven Value at Scale" (written by Zhamak Dehghani)
World50
“Enterprise Data Platforms, American Express, VP: The Data Landscape is Evolving Continuously”
“Not Impossible” (written by Mick Ebeling)

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Pascale on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Boehringer Ingelheim’s Dr. Victoria Gamerman on Design Thinking in Healthcare and Creating a Data-Sharing Ecosystem Jun 29, 2022

How can data be activated to create better healthcare outcomes? Dr. Victoria Gamerman, the Global Head of Data Governance and Insights at Boehringer Ingelheim, offers that part of the answer is that data is changing to be thought of as part of the broader healthcare “ecosystem.” Listen in for how some of the philosophical frameworks concerning data can help to improve healthcare.
Tune in to learn:

Changes in how data is being used in healthcare (07:00)
How a system could be set up to share health data safely and wisely (13:05)
How design thinking can apply to healthcare (25:41)
What data mentality needs to change (28:26)

Mentions:

HBS Professor Linda Hill Says Leaders Must Engage with Emotions as Never Before
Clayton Christensen - "Jobs to be Done" theory
“Coded Bias” (movie)

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Victoria on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Show Notes for YouTube:

How can data be activated to create better healthcare outcomes? Dr. Victoria Gamerman, the Global Head of Data Governance and Insights at Boehringer Ingelheim, offers that part of the answer is that data is changing to be thought of as part of the broader healthcare “ecosystem.” Listen in for more of Victoria’s takes on how data can improve healthcare.

Key Moments:

00:00 Getting to know Victoria and her career journey

04:26 What sort of work does Boehringer Ingelheim do?

07:00 What are some changes in how data is being used in healthcare?

10:24 Is sharing health data becoming easier?

13:05 Creating a system to Share health data safely and wisely

16:42 Will wellness data become more integrated?

19:47 Are regulators behind technologically?

25:41 How does design thinking apply in healthcare?

28:26 What mentality about data needs to change?

30:37: Data and academia

36:54 How can we bring people along in terms of data?

38:33 Learning from data disasters

42:11 How does Victoria continue to learn new things?

Mentions:

HBS Professor Linda Hill Says Leaders Must Engage with Emotions as Never Before
Clayton Christensen - "Jobs to be Done" theory
“Coded Bias” (movie)

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Victoria on https://www.thoughtspot.com/data-chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at https://mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Prudential Financial’s CDO Kjersten Moody on Continuous Learning & Collaboration to Drive Impact with Data Jun 15, 2022

What does it take to turn a new position that never existed into one that delivers transformation for an entire organization? As the first Chief Data Officer at Prudential Financial and the initial Chief Data Analytics Officer at a prior career stop at State Farm, Kjersten Moody knows the answer. Tune in to learn how being a constant learner has consistently allowed her to see challenges as opportunities for growth.

Tune in to learn:

How Kjersten’s role model influenced her life and career (04:08)
How Prudential is thinking differently about its strategy and data (32:28)
About the role that a good culture can play in supporting transformation (36:19)
How Kjersten has elevated data science at Prudential (42:33)
How to meet stakeholders in a place that’s helpful to them (47:38)

Mentions:

“The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande

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Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

CarMax AVP of Technology, Data & Analytics, Abhi Bhatt on Upskilling Talent and Using Third Party Data to Build Better Customer Experiences Jun 01, 2022

How do you make innovation truly come alive? For Abhi Bhatt, the AVP, Technology, Data & Analytics at CarMax, innovation is about using data to change “business models.” Abhi also describes the need to train up teammates and others who use the data concerning technological advances. Additionally, he shares his career journey and how his positive experience as a CarMax customer initially activated his interest in the company.

Tune in to learn:

How did Abhi end up working at CarMax? (13:00)
How can companies make the most of their internal data? (17:18)
How do you train up relevant parties concerning new technology? (23:41)
How does Abhi find talent? (27:56)
How does Abhi keep up with so much innovation? (37:07)

Mentions:

Top Trends for 2022

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Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Fitch Group’s Heidi Lanford on Finding a Voice in the C-Suite and Improving Data Literacy May 18, 2022

How has the Chief Data Officer role changed? Heidi Lanford, CDO of Fitch Group, shares that “it’s gone from stewarding and protecting data to monetization of data.” She explains how CDOs can be effective by working together with other company leaders and communicating simply. Learn from Heidi why there can be great career value in being willing to be uncomfortable.
Tune in to learn:

How does Heidi work with the leadership team? (10:03)
How does Heidi suggest CDOs communicate to CEOs?(13:05)
How can a CDO work with the technology side to update the tech stack? (18:58)
How is Heidi helping her workers become more data literate?(27:50)
What’s the benefit of choosing to be uncomfortable in one’s career journey? (37:48)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Heidi on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Gilead Sciences’ Murali Vridhachalam and ZS Associates’ Mahmood Majeed on the Modern Data Stack and Data Mesh May 04, 2022

The data landscape is evolving in the life sciences and healthcare sectors. Murali Vridhachalam, the Head of Enterprise Data and Analytics at Gilead Sciences, and Mahmood Majeed, Managing Partner at ZS Associates, offer their compelling perspectives on digital transformation in life sciences and healthcare and how data can be used in these areas to improve patient outcomes. Plus, Mahmood and Murali share their takes on how to effectively reskill data professionals and the role of IT in healthcare and life sciences is evolving.

Tune in to learn:

How has the pandemic driven digital transformation in healthcare and life sciences? (05:34)
Why has healthcare and life sciences historically been behind in terms of digital (11:37) transformation?
Does data mesh add to confusion? (19:59)
How has modern data and analytics delivered better patient outcomes? (25:21)
How do you effectively upskill and reskill your people? (30:41)

Mentions:

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Murali and Mahmood on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Levi Strauss & Co.’s Dr. Katia Walsh on Using AI and Analytics to Create Cutting-Edge Customer Experiences Apr 20, 2022

Your data will never be clean and it will never be perfect. So how do we create meaningful models anyway? As Dr. Katia Walsh puts it, data leaders are facing a “tsunami of data.” But that tsunami shouldn’t stop you from testing, iterating, and moving quickly. Dr. Walsh is the Chief Global Strategy and AI Officer at Levi Strauss & Co. and today she shares how her team has leveraged a mindset of “think big, start small, scale fast” to create cutting-edge data models and digital capabilities quickly.

Tune in to learn:

(4:22) Why every business is a data business and how building out new digital and AI capabilities is about improving the 3Cs (connections, commerce, and creation.)
(8:21) How Levi Strauss & Co. leverages data to create custom experiences no matter where a customer engages with them. As Katia says, “It’s not business; it’s personal.”
(18:43) Why Katia’s motto is “think big, start small, scale fast.”
(19:43) What do when you don’t have perfect data (and why you will never truly have perfect data).
(27:55) Where to look for your organization’s next data leader - it’s not where you think.
(30:36) How Levi Strauss & Co. is using bootcamps to increase data literacy at every level of the organization.

Mentions:

Levis.com

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Katia on The Data Chief.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

LPL Financial's Cara Dailey on Data Enablement and Balancing Data Defense with Offense Apr 06, 2022

With every passing year, a new batch of data tools comes available, and a new crop of data professionals enters the job market. The Chief Data Officer has evolved into a position that acts both on the offensive and defensive sides of these changes. Our guest today, Cara Dailey, the EVP, and CDO at LPL Financial, has helped shape and define the role of data leaders in the C-suite as she’s moved through her career. Her experiences at companies like Nike, Bank of the West, and Silicon Valley Bank have led her to embody a spirit of data-enablement – rather than governance. She also begs the question, “Is all data created equal?” Tune in to find out on this episode of The Data Chief.

Mentions:

Key Takeaways

Great CDOs balance offense and defense. Primarily, the role of the CDO started with the idea that organizations needed someone focused on protecting the data, keeping it safe and secure. Now, as the world has evolved, so has the role. Modern data leaders need to also be able to impact their organization by bringing value through performance data analytics for clients, customers, and employees. Cara posits that it’s not enough to simply protect; you must also ask yourself what are you actively contributing?
Focus on data enablement. The best data executives can think of themselves as part of a data enablement forum, inviting a collaborative attitude in the increasingly important world of data governance. Make it such an integral part of the program you’re creating as the data leader. Think of yourself and your team as the data glue that holds the organization together.
Not all data is created equal. While data is a powerful tool for decision-making, it’s important to remember not all data needs to or even should be valued the same. In highly regulated environments, absolute accuracy may be required. But for internal use cases like improving a product or process, directional indicators are just as good.

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Cara on The Data Chief.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Unilever’s Vandana Khanna and Deeksha Singh on Demystifying Data, Dreaming Bigger, and Inspiring Business Users with The Art of the Possible Mar 23, 2022

If you look around your home, it’s very likely you have at least one item from the Unilever family of brands lying around. From the soap in your shower to the ice cream bars in your freezer, Unilever delivers everyday products that help people get more out of life. And they rely on data to ensure they’re doing so sustainably.

Today’s guests are Unilever Director of Digital Finance Transformation, Vandana Khanna, and Director of Data and Analytics, Deeksha Singh. On this episode, the two leaders join Cindi to share exactly how they’re using data to impact everything from supply chain decisions to employee belonging. They also dive into how they are demystifying data at every level, eliminating manual reporting and data visualization work, and using data and AI to be a more sustainable company. All of this and more in today’s episode with Vandana Khanna and Deeksha Singh.

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Vandana and Deeksha on The Data Chief.

Key Takeaways

Change starts with inspiration: When an organization is used to manually creating dashboard reports for every business question or visualizing data in Excel, it can be hard to break these habits and change behaviors at scale. The key is inspiring people with the art of the possible. Show users what good looks like and how technology can empower them to be faster and smarter, and the rest will follow.
Digital transformation goes hand in hand with opportunity: It’s common for business people to run for the hills when they hear the word “transformation.” As a leader, it’s important to communicate that there's nothing to fear. There is no transformation without people. You need both to move the needle, and often people’s roles become even more important because they’re needed to ensure the technology is working as it should.
You may never be bias-free, but you can be bias-aware: People and data are inherently biased, but thankfully bias awareness is growing in corporate culture. One of the most effective ways that global brands like Unilever are achieving less bias and more diversity is by bringing more diverse leaders into the fold. These leaders bring new perspectives and context to processes that increase the inclusivity of your product and organization overall.

Key Quotes

Vandana:

“So an example would be when we started working on RPAs, we started taking away all the manual reporting. Imagine the width and the breadth of the manual reporting we had! As soon as RPA were put in place we had triggered momentum across the sourcing units with these RPAs. They became the biggest hit because people said, ‘Oh, wow, I'm able to save so much time.’”

“Human beings have biases. We cannot eliminate our biases. No matter how we try, we will never be bias-free. We will be bias-aware.”

Deeksha:

“I also believe that data is one of the key strategic assets for any transformation to happen for any organization for that matter. And it's growing, it's growing in variety in volume in velocity. Any organization will be able to manage the complexity and make sense of this data in a timely manner, which I think will thrive when it comes to digital transformation today and in future.”

“Sustainability is at the core, the heart of everything we do. Unilever's purpose is about making sustainable living commonplace, and yes, a large amount of data is being used – in terms of how we enable a reduction in carbon reduction in plastic deforestation and its impact and even sustainable sourcing. So if I were to pick an example, a case in point of sustainable sourcing. We've partnered with a third party who provides us with the cloud services that, along with the satellite data that is available – in terms of monitoring the impact of these ingredients that are being sold from different locations across the globe, coupled with the power of AI. We mix all of this [and] we get very rich geospatial data, which we are using in a lot of decision making when it comes to, where we are sourcing from. So for example, if these ingredients are being sourced from a location, which is impacted by deforestation and has a future impact of deforestation, we can take a quick decision of not sourcing from those locations, from those places where there is deforestation in act.”

“I feel that as an organization, what we have also realized is the power of data and digital literacy, which is around raising the floor and bringing people along – in terms of making them literate [and] making them aware of things that are coming their way, rather than just giving them a surprise, blow to their heads to say that we are changing tomorrow.”

“Everybody wants change, but nobody wants to change.”

Mentions

Unstereotype - Unilever’s bias awareness and training
Magnum Ice Cream - Mentioned guest product
Invisible Women - Book recommendation

Bios

Vandana Khanna

As a digital transformation Leader and Director of Digital Finance Transformation at Unilever, Vandana has extensive experience in Finance, IT, Supply Chain, and Product Management — delivering analytics, data science, and automation capabilities that help companies thrive. With deep expertise in CPG, Telecommunications, Retail, and Pharma, I lead diverse teams of direct and indirect reports and drive results through finely-tuned business acumen using Agile practices.

She is responsible for leading the design and delivery of complex projects leveraging BI and Data Analytics to answer critical business questions, detect consumer behavior and provide creative solutions for a wide range of business challenges.

She incorporates technologies like IoT, Cloud, Big Data to improve the financial performance of any organization. I have developed business intelligence and reporting solutions through ETL, Data governance, and Data Visualization.

Deeksha Singh

Deeksha is the Director of Data and Analytics at Unilever, who is an information technology leader, with more than 10 years of experience. She is well-versed in Platform, Operations Management, Data & Analytics, and Digital Transformation. She has proven expertise in managing complex transformation initiatives, navigating ambiguities, and partnering with Senior Stakeholders. Deeksha is recognized for cost-effective system improvements, operational streamlining, efficient change management, and a positive leadership style. Currently, she is setting up the Global Analytics Platform for Unilever simplifying access to data and insights, while crafting seamless user experience and joined-up user journeys.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Afterpay’s Nitish Mathew on Prioritizing Customer Needs, Balancing Governance and Freedom, and Giving Your Team Purpose Mar 09, 2022

Nitish Mathew, the Global Head of Data Engineering and Governance at Afterpay, joins The Data Chief to discuss measuring the impact of analytics, the rise of the analytics engineer, the importance of taking risks, and much more.

Tune in to learn:

Why you can't take a data center mindset to the cloud (6:30)
Why stakeholder satisfaction is the ultimate KPI (15:00)
Inspiring your team through purpose (19:10)
How to build a “walled garden” for business users (22:40)
The importance of taking risks and celebrating failures (30:40)

Get even more insights from data and analytics leaders like Nitish on The Data Chief.

Episode mentions:

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Rakuten’s Takuya Kitagawa on Digital Twins, Getting a CEO to Love Data, and Moonshots Feb 16, 2022

Whether you’ve passed your cursor over their logo on a streaming service, spotted it on the front of a Golden State Warriors jersey, or use their cash-back rebate system, the Rakuten brand is everywhere and actively expanding.

Today’s guest, Takuya Kitagawa is the Managing Executive Officer & CDO at Rakuten. On this episode, Takuya joins Cindi to discuss how the company has found massive, international success across multiple industries by integrating data across lines of business to deliver better customer experiences. He also dives into the importance of data fluency at every level, and elaborates on how Rakuten is leveraging the concept of “digital twins” to better connect with customers. Stick around to hear all of this, plus exciting details regarding Rakuten latest moonshot projects.

Key Takeaways

Integrated data delivers better customer experiences: Rakuten has seen major success in offering enhanced services and experiences to customers around the world. Their secret? Integrating data across multiple lines of business, starting with customer login credentials. This approach makes using multiple services a seamless experience and builds customer loyalty.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel: Before building a new technology from the ground up, see if anyone else has already done it. There’s so much you can learn, borrow, or buy from others. If you can learn to leverage the innovation that’s already happening around you, you’ll be in a better position to accelerate your own digital transformation.
Invest in data fluency at every level: It’s important that executives be just as data fluent as anyone else in your organization. For Rakuten, investing in data fluency at the highest levels of leadership manifests as quarterly AI bootcamps and mandatory data trainings.

Key Quotes

“We discovered when we acquired the credit card company, that it is much, much cheaper to send traffic from one internal service to the other than down going through of course advertising companies such as Google and Facebook, even though this takes a little ingenuity and creativity. If you think about it, eCommerce and credit cards come really well together because, to shop online, you need credit cards and the key point is how do you connect credit card back to the shopping?”
“Our CEO had a very, very clear directive - if we are going to acquire a company, integration of it starts from integration of ID. So log ID needs to be completely the same. This already has been a common practice across Google, in Facebook to align the log ID starting from there you really have to integrate the data. So that's a key point when you acquire a company one of the key agreements you have to make with the other company is we have to integrate ID and data.”
“Algorithms [are] becoming a commodity at this point. The key differentiator of AI is data."
“Frankly, the best practice is to learn from [the] outside, because venture capital money is flowing at this ridiculous amount, and there [are] so many people, so much money, and so much effort to try to make things easier. Before you try to build what’s necessary yourself, it's better to look around and see if there are other companies who can help you… Be humble. [We] try to learn from our site and leverage what is already there.”

Mentions

Dr. Hisataka Kobayashi’s Discovery of photo immunotherapy
Harvard University Partnership
FC Barcelona and Golden State Warriors

About Takuya

Takuya Kitagawa is the managing executive officer and Chief Data Officer of Rakuten Inc, and serves as the director for Well-being for Planet Earth(WPE). As Chief Data Officer of Rakuten group, he is responsible for the end-to-end value creation and execution of AI & data strategy, and manages a global organization located across the world including Japan, U.S., India, France and Singapore. He also leads Rakuten institute of technology, R&D function of the group, as the global head. Vision of his group is the fundamental understanding of customers and their behaviors with AI and data; how business and service can empower customers to spend their money and time better. As a board of director for well-being for Planet Earth, he further extends and applies the understanding of human beings and society to contribute to more general domains of well-being across the world. Prior to working on AI, he worked as a theoretical physicist and published more than 20 papers in journals including “Science” and “Nature Physics.” Dr. Kitagawa obtained his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University and A.B. in physics and mathematics from Harvard College.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Etsy’s Chu-Cheng Hsieh on Using Data to Develop a Thriving Marketplace Feb 02, 2022

As the world continues to fill with impersonal, factory-machined goods, so increases the desire to see and feel more human creativity in the items we use in our lives. Etsy, a community marketplace for creative goods, was designed to help people sell their unique and homemade items online. The company continues to innovate and transform the small-business world, leading by focusing on innovation in their technology.

Today’s guest, Chu-Cheng Hsieh, is the first Chief Data Officer at Etsy. On this episode, Chu-Cheng Hsieh joins Cindi to discuss his unique perspective on helping build a data-driven organization from the ground up and how he’s fostered a culture of experimentation that has led to rapid growth and transformation within the company. He also dives into trends such as machine learning and data observability, and explains some of the most helpful mental frameworks he’s learned in his life and career.

Key Takeaways

Check human intuition with data: Your gut feeling might be right, but in today’s world it’s critical to remember the importance of being able to back up your thinking and your decisions with facts. Hsieh emphasizes the importance of trusting the data that’s in front of you, even if the answer goes against decades of personal experience.
Create a ‘regret minimization framework’: Popularized by Jeff Bezos, the ‘regret minimization framework’ is a way to help you more clearly define what career decisions you should make. It encourages the thinker to imagine being at the end of their life, looking back at what they’ve done, and asking themselves, “Is that really the life story I want to have?”
Invest in insights: Hsieh shares that “You don't want to judge your success based on just [the] outcome. You should judge your success based on the decision quality.” By investing in thoughtful decision-making, you can increase the probability of success, even when you don’t have all the facts or data.

Key Quotes

“I only have one life, so I can either become a professor or I can do something different. So I use[d] something called regret minimization framework. I think Jeff Bezos mentioned this. I closed my eyes, imagined [myself] 30 years from today and I'm telling my life story to my grandson. And I think [what] kind of story will make me feel more excited and happy?”
"One thing which I learned, this surprise[d] me, is that human instinct is often wrong. You [think] that if I change this color from blue to red that people will like that. [But] that's your opinion. You are just one person. Even [with] 20 years of experience in this field, you could be wrong. I can show you tons of examples that the data will show totally different[ly] [from] what you thought it to be.”
“Your intuition, [is to] think one millisecond doesn't matter. It actually [does] matter because sometimes this one millisecond, especially for people who are using their mobile device, the user experience can be totally different, especially when the network is spotty.”
“You don't want to judge your success based on just [the] outcome. You should judge your success based on the decision quality. And if you have good insight, this doesn't mean that you always [are] right. The only thing you can do is to invest [in that] insight, so that when you make a decision, you know the reasons and insight behind the decision. This gives you a higher probability of making the right decision. So this concept of ‘Thinking in Bets’ is what I [use] to help me to make a better quality decision.”

Mentions

Book: Thinking in Bets
Jeff Bezos’ regret minimization framework

About Chu-Cheng

Chu-Cheng Hsieh manages the data org across Etsy globally, including engineering, data science, and machine learning. Partnering with Etsy’s product and business executives, he develops the data strategy, represents data science, and drives high-impact decisions. He is specialised in search engine, recommendation systems, and machine learning technology. His primary responsibility is to deliver strategic and creative data science approaches that help achieve Etsy’s mission and goals.

He received a PhD in computer science from UCLA, and has two master degrees. In his leisure time, he enjoys innovating and collaborating with academic researchers. He has brought cutting-edge research into products. He publishes papers in top-tier conferences, such as WWW, SIGIR, KDD, and enjoys giving talks/keynotes at a variety of academic or industrial conferences on information retrieval, recommendation systems, and data mining.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Using Data to Transform the Fan Experience in Football and Basketball: Insights from the Indianapolis Colts and Orlando Magic Jan 19, 2022

There’s nothing like watching your favorite sports team live and in-person. The roar of the crowd. The smell of the concession stand. The suspense of the game clock winding down to its final seconds. But would you have guessed that behind every ticket purchase, box of cracker jacks, and Jumbotron moment, there are teams of data professionals working to make your fan experience even more seamless and engaging?

Joining Cindi today to discuss the data and analytics powering our favorite sports events are Jay Riola, the SVP of Strategy & Innovation for the Orlando Magic, and Charlie Shin, the VP of Data Strategy and Analytics for the Indianapolis Colts.

With perspectives from both the NBA and the NFL, Jay and Charlie explore the evolution of mobile ticketing, challenges with identity management, the importance of building fan trust, and the most surprising insights they’ve ever discovered within their data.

Key Takeaways

Customers expect more for their data: When customers share their data, they expect something in return. Respecting their privacy and keeping their data safe are the bare minimum. They expect real, tangible value. As a business, your responsibility is to use this data to enhance their experience. Whether that be through custom offers, more relevant content recommendations, or more seamless purchasing experiences, what matters most is that you’re delivering on the expectation of value.
Collecting data is one thing, putting it together is another: While technologies like mobile payments and social media have made it easier for businesses to collect data, they’ve also added complexity to the process of building accurate customer profiles. To truly understand the person on the other side of the screen, you must have the right skills and infrastructure to bring all that data together.
Great data scientists need to be a triple threat: It is no longer enough to be very good at the technical components of your job and “so-so” at translating insights into actionable recommendations for business stakeholders. The best data scientists have technical chops, a deep understanding of how their business works, and the storytelling skills to turn insights into influence.

Key Quotes

Charlie:

“In sports, they started off by focusing on the product, which is the on-field performance, our players. So a lot of the emphasis was using datas to optimize their investments, enhance their quality of on-field performance. But as the competition grew… now we've seen a shift where the focus is more on the customers and their experience in addition to the on-field quality.”
“Identity management is a key topic in sports at this point… We have a variety of different data sources, whether it's ticketing, merchandising, digital engagement, or website or apps, there's a lot of information that's coming through. And then we're trying to figure out how do we tie all this together so that we have that clear understanding of that single view of our customers across these touchpoints. And I don't think this is just a sports industry challenge, right? I think it's a challenge across all industries that manage consumer information.”

Jay:

“We were a pretty early adopter of variable ticket pricing and thinking about the value from a ticket perspective of our games differently based on the team that we were playing, the time of the year, whether it was early in the season versus later in the season, obviously weekday versus weekend, but just recognizing that the marketplace values these games differently and so should we... Then it became, how do we dynamically price our tickets? How are we changing pricing as we approach games to reflect the demand situation that we have or if an opponent is performing better or worse than we expected, and we can raise or lower pricing. I think where data is really helping guide us… is product development and thinking about ticketing in new and kind of transformational ways.”
“We have seen significant growth in ticketing revenue and improvement in retention of fans, as we've introduced this more sophisticated way of thinking about pricing and sales to our business. And I would venture to guess that most teams that have implemented this are seeing returns as well in terms of revenue growth and also total ticket sold.”
“We are fortunate to work in an industry where fans are more willing to share their data with us… But I do think that the same expectations do come along, which is I'm giving you something and in return, there's an expectation, obviously that you will protect my data and store it safely… but also that now you're going to enrich my experience with you somehow… I think it's kind of shifting responsibility to companies to be far more active in how they think about not just security and data management, but returning value on that expectation that will come from your fans and your consumers.”

About Charlie

Charlie Shin is a highly analytical customer strategy and marketing executive with global and domestic experience in data analytics, strategic planning, project management, customer segmentation, customer relationship management, and KPI management. He excels at guiding enterprise data strategy, CRM initiatives, and organization-wide marketing technology infrastructure.

Prior to joining the Colts, Charlie was a VP of Strategy & Analytics at MLS for past 15 years where he developed the foundation and enhanced league-wide data strategy, analytic capabilities and CRM technology infrastructure. He also worked as a senior business consultant at Samsung OpenTide and PwC Consulting for over six years managing various projects related to customer strategy, CRM strategy, performance marketing, customer segmentation and new business model development. In addition, he currently serves as an adjunct faculty at NYU and Columbia University.

Charlie holds a BA in business administration from Yonsei University and an MS in sports business from New York University.

About Jay

Jay Riola is entering his 16th season with the Orlando Magic. He was promoted to senior vice president of strategy & innovation in July 2019. Riola oversees the Magic’s business strategy and innovation efforts including data engineering, strategy and analytics, mobile strategy, CRM, digital marketing and marketing technology, as well as other strategic initiatives and special projects.

Riola started with the Magic as an intern in 2006 and worked as part of the Magic’s internal team overseeing the design and construction of the Amway Center, which opened in 2010. Since 2010, he has worked in several roles to grow the Magic’s data and analytics program from a small, startup effort into a department that is regarded by sports industry professionals as a best-in-class team. Riola has also helped lead the Magic’s mobile strategy and digital technology efforts, including advancement of the team’s mobile app and development of new and innovative digital ticketing solutions. In 2016, he helped lead the process to bring the Orlando Magic’s G-League team, the Lakeland Magic, to Lakeland, Florida, negotiating the deal with the City of Lakeland and the RP Funding Center.

In addition to his role with the Magic, Riola is an adjunct instructor with the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida, where he teaches a sport business analytics course. He is active in the broader sports business industry serving on several boards and advisory committees, including currently serving as chair for UCF’s DeVos Sports Business Management Program’s Advisory Board, Baylor University’s Center for Sports Strategy and Sales (S3), KORE Software’s Customer Advisory Board, the Greater Orlando Sports Commission’s Human Rights Committee for its 2026 FIFA World Cup Candidate City Bid and the NBA’s Team Innovation Advisory Council (TIAC). Riola also serves on the board of Sports2Change, a nonprofit organization he founded that encourages volunteerism among youth student-athletes in Central Florida.

Riola received his bachelor's degree in business administration with concentrations in finance and marketing from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas in 2006, where he played on the men’s basketball team. He received his MBA from the University of Florida in 2011. Riola currently resides in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood with his wife, Julia. They have a daughter, Madeline, and a son, Mason.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

GM’s Iwao Fusillo on Recruiting Top Talent and Building a Successful Data Literacy Strategy Jan 05, 2022

For years, businesses have prioritized academic background and domain expertise when searching for top talent, matching current skills to job reqs with little regard for candidate aptitude. But according to Iwao Fusillo, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at General Motors, this is an outdated strategy. Iwao has led and developed data and analytics teams across multiple verticals, including finance and sports. In his experience, the secret to building successful and diverse teams is assessing passion, too.

Fusillo, a data and analytics veteran with prior stops in the NFL and American Express, now leads GM’s program for enterprise-wide analytics and data science. In this episode of the Data Chief, Iwao joins Cindi to discuss how data and analytics are fueling the future of General Motors, advice for structuring and scaling data teams, and how GM’s newly founded data and analytics academy is fostering data literacy across the organization.

Key Takeaways

Presentation is key: As data and analytics professionals, one of the most important skills you can develop is how to speak the language of the business. This means presenting data stories in a business-friendly way so that non-technical stakeholders start to build trust in data programs, not fear or confusion.
The best talent is both skilled and passionate: If you’re only evaluating candidates based on a bulleted list of current skills and past experience, you’re very likely missing out on great talent. Don’t discount a desire to learn and passion for your product or industry.
AI requires a hands-on approach: While AI and machine learning offer many opportunities for improved business operations, they can pose great risk if left unsupervised. Responsible use of these technologies means paying attention to data quality and acting quickly when biases are identified.

Key Quotes

“It's such a unique time to be in the automotive industry because automotive and tech are coming together. As I sit here today, as GM's Chief Data and Analytics Officer, I really do feel that data and analytics are fueling GM's future, our all-electric, zero-emissions future, and being responsible for a program of enterprise-wide analytics, top-tier data science capabilities in an industry that I've got such passion about is big for me.”

“As analytics mature over the next decade, as A.I. continues to mature over the next couple of decades, Chief Data Officers, Chief Analytics Officers will in fact be tapped more for CEO positions and independent board positions. Many more functions will be led by data-savvy, senior executives.”

“Passion, when it comes to data, [data] literacy is really important. That's why we put the GM analytics academy course out there, to not only build the literacy itself but just the passion in having a core competency around analyzing and presenting data in a compelling way to make decisions.”

“I am seeing a rapid uptake here at General Motors in data and analytics being a part of that strategic story, data, and analytics, being a part of every person in every function and how they think about it and how, how they think about advancing their function.”

“There's domain expertise, and I think having great math and science skills are important, but they're not a full package. You don’t have to have math and science, or you have to have transferable skills, yes. I would say, I would take the passionate person who I could drop into a textile mill in the middle of the Midwest somewhere. And that person will figure it out. I'd rather have that than the person with the exact academic background.”

“Some of the attributes we teach in the analytics academy are speaking in the vernacular of the business. How do we talk about data concepts from descriptive analytics to predictive analytics? How do we talk about those concepts in a business-friendly way?”

Bio:

Iwao Fusillo joined General Motors as Chief Data and Analytics Officer in January 2021. Reporting to the Head of Innovation & Growth for GM, Iwao is responsible for driving GM’s program for enterprise-wide analytics and data science capabilities. He leads the end-to-end data lifecycle and establishes business processes for best-in-class data strategy, architecture, governance and democratization. Acting as GM’s data evangelist, he ensures that GM’s 1,300+ data analytic professionals use a value-based approach to defining workstream priorities and serves as a trusted business advisor to senior management and various stakeholders to identify strategic analytics opportunities with transformative value creation potential.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

ServiceNow’s Vijay Kotu on the Power of Micro-Decisions and Aligning Data Strategy to Business Strategy Dec 22, 2021

Every day we make decisions. Some are as simple as deciding when to leave for work in order to beat traffic or what to eat for breakfast. Others bear much greater importance, such as what new products to launch or what new markets to tackle. Analytics plays an important role in helping your business make these decisions in a smarter, more data-driven way.

“The purpose of analytics is to help us make decisions, is to create decision-making capabilities across the company. The next step was to find out what those decisions are that we would need to make? When I say decisions, these are not like once in a quarter, boardroom decisions. I'm talking about everyday decisions that many of our colleagues make every single day.”

Vijay Kotu is the SVP of Data and Analytics for ServiceNow, a company that is helping enterprises manage digital workflows. In this episode of the Data Chief, Vijay discusses how he is building a high-growth “mathematical enterprise” where frontline workers are empowered to make smarter business decisions with data and AI. He also speaks about the impact of ecosystems, the need for businesses to have a holistic view of their data in order to create positive outcomes, and why being intentional about analytics use cases is absolutely essential.

Key Takeaways:

Don’t underestimate the impact of micro-decisions: We all want to be more data-driven, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that data and analytics can only be applied to once-a-quarter, boardroom-level decisions. Enabling frontline employees to be more data-driven in their everyday work is a hugely powerful way to make a positive impact across your entire business.
Evaluate how data can improve workflows: The holy grail of analytics is converting insights to action. One of the most effective ways to do this is by automating workflows whenever and wherever possible. With automation, you help everyone in the business be more efficient without adding any extra work or manual decision-making.
Data becomes exponentially more powerful when it’s connected: Having all of your proprietary data in one place is a great way to start your data journey but it becomes exponentially more valuable when you connect it to outside data sources. Bringing together multiple sources of data gives you even richer insights about your customers, employees, and products.
Data serves the business: At the end of the day, your data goals should align with that of businesses. Data and analytics professionals must remember that data is there to serve sales, marketing, product, IT, etc. into making better decisions for the business. They are the ones running the functions and the data and analytics teams are the backbone of that. Therefore, data teams should be designing products with that in mind.

Key Quotes

“The purpose of analytics is to help us make decisions, is to create decision-making capabilities across the company. The next step was to find out what those decisions are that we would need to make? When I say decisions, these are not like once in a quarter, boardroom decisions. I'm talking about everyday decisions that many of our colleagues make every single day.”

“Data just in one place, it's less valuable. But when you connect it with other data points that you have, it becomes even more valuable.”

“What are you going to do with those insights? That would be the actions. If these insights are helping you make a decision, how do we actually put that decision in action is closing the loop. That has been the Holy Grail of analytics. Rather than stopping at insights, you're closing the loop on helping people do that action here.”

“The things that matter the most for our customers right now is a prioritization decision, and doing really well in those areas will help us reach further in our goal.”

Bio:

Vijay Kotu is Senior Vice President of Analytics at ServiceNow. He leads the implementation of large-scale data platforms and services to support the company's enterprise business. He has led analytics organizations for over a decade with focus on data strategy, business intelligence, machine learning, experimentation, engineering, enterprise adoption, and building analytics talent. Prior to joining ServiceNow, he was Vice President of Analytics at Yahoo. He worked at Life Technologies and Adteractive where he led marketing analytics, created algorithms to optimize online purchasing behavior, and developed data platforms to manage marketing campaigns. He is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery and a member of the Advisory Board at RapidMiner.

To hear more about ServiceNow, check out their podcast.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

The Top Trends in 2022 for Data Leaders from DataRobot, Databricks, and Google Dec 08, 2021

At the end of every year, you’re probably asking the same questions we are. What are the big changes coming next year? How do I stay ahead of them? And what’s separating real trends from the hype?

To answer these questions, we are excited to bring together some of the top minds in the industry. In this special episode, we’ll pick their brains and dig into what you need to know to thrive in the year ahead.

You’ll hear from three incredible guests -- all of whom are building and shaping the future of data and analytics:

First, Ben Taylor, the Chief AI Evangelist at DataRobot
Then, the Global Field CTO of Databricks, Chris D’Agostino.
And finally, Bruno Aziza, the Head of Data & Analytics at Google Cloud.

Nothing is off the table. So whether you want to hear about augmented everything, dig into the debate around different cloud platforms, or learn why analytics has become more impactful than ever, this is the episode for you.

Key Takeaways

CDOs must deliver simplicity but contend with complexity: As the data ecosystem continues to introduce new innovation at an ever increasing rate, data leaders must grapple with all these new capabilities. At the same time, however, the rising need for access to this innovation from nontechnical, business professionals means CDOs must simultaneously deliver simple, intuitive experiences that empower the rest of the business
Is the data warehouse on the way out? D’Agostino makes a bold prediction that within 10 years, the traditional data warehouse won’t exist. That begs the question: what will replace it? The lakehouse, data mesh, and data fabric are all contenders, but require organizational changes, not just the introduction of new technologies, as Aziza points out.
Preventing bias within models: A consistent problem in the industry - one that we’ve touched on several times this year - is the potential for machine learning and AI to scale bias in unprecedented ways. As we enter 2022, it will become even more imperative that you and your team are able to answer questions like “how will this model potentially amplify basis,” “how can we prevent biases,” or “what biases exist in our data sets?”
Creating an ecosystem of data sharing: The rise of analytics exchanges creates massive opportunity for businesses for two reasons. First, it allows users to share data across platforms at a faster rate. And second, users are now able to share more than just data, but actual assets at an improved rate.
In 2022, AI, ML, and data products must prove value: For years, companies have experimented with AI and ML, but as Taylor points out, the disillusionment with the impact of these experiments is at an all time high. So whether you’re building data products or launching new AI use cases, data leaders need to lead with the value they will deliver, not only imagine the art of what’s possible.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

What To Expect on The Data Chief Dec 01, 2021

We are back with more episodes! In the coming months, you’ll hear from executives and data leaders from companies like Databricks, Google, General Motors, Etsy, ServiceNow, and more. Our guests cover topics like cloud acceleration, ethical AI, data fluency, scaling data teams, the trends that matter as we enter 2022, and much more!

You won’t want to miss these upcoming episodes, so be sure to subscribe to The Data Chief on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Plus, you can dive deeper into these subjects at thedatachief.com where we host live events, share industry articles, and you can join a private slack community of like-minded Data Chief listeners.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Four Must Read Books for Data and Analytics Leaders with Randy Bean, John Thompson, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, and Doug Laney Aug 25, 2021

As we wrap up Season 2 of the Data Chief Podcast, It’s time to once again thank all of our listeners for tuning in and sending Cindi your ideas, and to all of our awesome guests who willingly shared their time and insights along the way.

This season The Data Chief shared stories such as Sol Rashidi, CAO Estèe Lauder Companies, about how she starts every day by reading for an hour. Or from Season one, Alberto Rey Villaverdo, Executive Director of Advanced Analytics at VirginMedia, about how he reads an hour or more every single day. It’s those stories that have inspired this special end-of-season episode.

In this podcast, Cindi is joined by four distinct authors with must-read books, two new that are new to bookshelves, and two that are time-tested. Be sure to check out the companion blog on thedatachief.com for other books Cindi recommends as well.

In this episode you’ll hear from

Randy Bean, author of Fail Fast, Learn Faster.
John Thompson on Building Analytics Teams
Cole Knussbaumer Knaflic on Storytelling with Data
Doug Laney on Infonomics: How to Monetize, Manage, and Measure Information as an Asset for Competitive Advantage

Key Takeaways

From Randy Bean, Developing a data culture is an ongoing process: Becoming data-driven or developing a data culture is not a destination, it's an ongoing process that never truly ends. In fact, the most sophisticated data companies are often the most worried about how they’re doing. This mindset of continued iteration and improvement is what fuels innovation. When you feel like you have it all figured out, think again.
From John Thompson, When building an analytics team, hybrid models deliver the best of both worlds: Although more complex than other organizational models, hybrid data teams allow you to meet the needs of your business in a faster, more scalable, and more effective way. How? At any given time, high-volume data professionals will be focused on repetitive tasks like data acquisition, data integration, feature engineering, modeling, and feeding data objects up the chain, while artisanal data scientists directly interface with the subject matter experts embedded across various lines of business.
From Cole Knussbaumer Knaflic, Shape data stories with your audience in mind: When presenting data, it’s important to understand who your audience is. What do they care about? How will this information impact them? What action should they take after receiving it? Tailoring your data story to them and building a narrative arc that takes them along for the journey is key to creating the kinds of a-ha moments that stick.
From Doug Laney, Data monetization requires innovative thinking: For many organizations, the value of their data outweighs the value of the rest of their business. Instead of focusing on the limitations of regulations like GDPR or HIPPA when going to monetize it, try to think outside the box. Can your data help you develop a new product or service? Can it forge a partner relationship? Can you sell a derivative of it? The possibilities are limitless.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Investec’s Daniel Seymore on Change Management, Business Agility, and Developing Domain Expertise Aug 11, 2021

Is the role of a data scientist still a “sexy job” or has it lost a bit of its luster? And what’s more important for successful data leaders, deep data knowledge or business savvy?

Daniel Seymore is the Head of Business Intelligence for Investec, a bank that is delivering out of the ordinary insights in the world of finance to help its customers create and manage wealth. One of Daniel’s career-guiding principles is to question the conventional, and on this episode of The Data Chief, he sheds light on some of these questions and shares how he is continuing to live by this principle to help Investec modernize its data capabilities.

Daniel and Cindi also discuss why the only constant in life is change, which means businesses must place a larger emphasis on upskilling workforces. Lastly, the two dive into why domain expertise might be the most important skill for any data leader.

Main Takeaways

Domain expertise matters: The hardest pivot for most technical professionals is moving away from day-to-day technical capabilities and into a leadership role. Data science is an important part of any company’s toolkit, but great leaders should understand the problems they’re solving on a business level and be able to relay it back in a way everyone can understand.
Fail quickly to learn and adapt: With any project, it’s good to have a plan but it’s also important to embrace the idea of failure. The faster you fail, the sooner you can learn and adapt your processes to succeed.
Change management is about partnerships: Gone are the days when employees sit back and take every direction from their boss at face value. Successful change managers recognize the individual value each employee can add to a project. They treat it as a partnership. And this is benefiting not just immediate teams, but the business as a whole.

About Daniel

Daniel Seymore joined Investec in 2016 and soon after got appointed to lead the Private Bank Business Intelligence team. Prior to Investec, Daniel worked at SARS as the Manager of the Performance Analytics team. His career has mainly been focused within the data realm with extensive experience within the fields of data analytics and decision sciences.

At Investec Daniel is responsible for operational and strategic management of the business intelligence and operational analytics capability within the Private Bank department. This includes identifying and implementing machine learning use cases and scaling the capability enterprise wide, refactoring and streamlining of data warehouse processes and implementation of self-service capabilities for end-users.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Mastercard’s JoAnn Stonier on Responsible AI and Applying Human-Centric Design Principles to Data Problems Jul 28, 2021

JoAnn Stonier loves her role. After all, when you’re the Chief Data Officer for Mastercard, the opportunities to create real change are plentiful. But Stonier knows her work is about more than just data privacy and governance, it’s about aligning the company’s data strategy to business goals and impacting the organization in a positive way. And of course, making sure that all 725 million of Mastercard’s credit card holders are protected.

With a career rooted in privacy, a degree in law, and a background in interior design, Stonier is not just a well-rounded CDO, she’s a visionary. On this episode of The Data Chief, JoAnn joins Cindi for an inside look at data’s impact on people, data ethics, and the importance of building trustworthy models.

Main Takeaways

The CDO is an enabler of the business: In Joann’s own words, “the role of the CDO is to engage the business in tomorrow’s business.” This means CDOs must consistently be aligned with the company's goals, and develop capabilities that lay track for future innovation. Great data governance, data management, and data quality are table stakes. The CDO must also have a sense for where the market is going and how the business can carve out new space for itself to deliver value to customers.
Data is about people: As a data leader, it’s easy to get caught up in the novelty and opportunity of innovation. But data is more than an anonymized collection of 0s and 1s, it’s about people and the tremendous impact it can have on their lives. As products and services are developed, it’s important to apply individually-centric design principles and evaluate how you might be affecting someone, for better or worse, on the other side.
Responsible AI starts with trustworthy data: Simply put, data is food for AI. In order to build ethical or responsible AI and machine learning algorithms, there must be improvement in data trust and quality. Oftentimes these algorithms are missing integral data points that neglect particular demographics. This creates a level of bias in the numbers that will only continue to be amplified over time.

About JoAnn

JoAnn Stonier is the Chief Data Officer for Mastercard, where she is responsible for the enterprise data strategy and management, including identifying and mitigating data risks across the company, as well as influencing data-driven products, overseeing data policy and governance. She advises executive management on a broad range of complex data policy and regulatory issues. Prior to her current position, Ms. Stonier established the first Privacy Office for Mastercard in 2008, and developed the organization’s Information Governance program beginning in 2013. Prior to joining Mastercard, Ms. Stonier was the Chief Privacy Officer for American Express Company.

JoAnn is a recognized data and privacy expert and is sought after for her innovative and practical approach to solving problems in the digital age. In 2018 she assisted in the creation and launch of Trūata, an Irish data trust enterprise, formed to ensure anonymization compliance with the EU-General Data Protection Regulation. She currently serves on their board. In addition to the Trūata board of directors, she currently advises a broad range of industry and policy groups regarding data innovation and privacy including: the United Nations Global Privacy Advisory Group; the World Economic Forum’s Data Driven Development Steering Committee; and the Board of Directors of the Information Accountability Foundation. She is also a Board Advisor for Hope for the Warriors, a non-for-profit organization that assists U.S. military personnel and their families. She has served on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Privacy Professionals from (2013-2018) and served on the Executive Committee in multiple roles including Chairman in 2017. For her data thought leadership, Ms. Stonier has been recognized by the Information Governance Initiative as the Chief Information Governance Officer of 2015 and in 2011 she was named as an Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow.

Ms. Stonier received her Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University in Queens, and her Bachelor of Science degree from St. Francis College. Ms. Stonier is a lawyer and holds memberships in the Bar of the State of New York and the Bar of the State of New Jersey.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Estée Lauder’s Sol Rashidi on Treating Data as a Product, Turning Failures into Success, and the Unique Position of the CDO Jul 14, 2021

Every data professional will gladly discuss their big wins — but what about their big losses? How have career hiccups molded them into the leaders they are today and put them on a path to transform entire industries?

Sol Rashidi is the Chief Analytics Officer at the Estée Lauder Company. Throughout her personal and professional life, Sol has used moments of uncertainty as opportunities for growth. Today she is recognized as one of the top 50 most powerful women in tech. On this episode of The Data Chief, Sol joins Cindi for a candid conversation about how she uses challenging circumstances as fuel for further innovation, and how she turns failures into valuable learning moments. Sol also takes a deep dive into the unique position of the CDO as both a business and a tech partner, why data as a service for internal stakeholders is just as important as when designing consumer-facing data products, and why knowing your shelf life is one of the most valuable professional skills you can have.

Main Takeaways

Competition breeds innovation: When it comes to fostering innovation, having the right talent and a propensity for technology are both critical to success. But so is a healthy amount of competition. When your margins are locked, there’s no sense of urgency and it’s easy to slide into a state of complacency. On the other hand, industries with more competition tend to see higher levels of innovation because teams are motivated to push the envelope.
Data as a service for internal stakeholders: External facing data apps and operationalizing machine learning are great for data monetization, but applying a product mindset is a key tool for internal stakeholders as well. The reality is enterprises are hungry for insights and it’s important to develop tools with these constituents in mind. Data and insights must come to life for the organization so it can be used by anyone within the organization.
The scope of tech is always changing: Every new piece of technology is going to possess the latest and greatest features, but it’s important to understand where that technology is in its maturity cycle and a particular tech partner’s focus. Will a particular service solve the need for the business at hand, and will it continue to serve a need into the future? These answers are often more telling than any laundry list of features.

About Sol

Sol Rashidi currently holds 8 patents, with 21 filed in the Data & Analytics space and is a keynote speaker at several technology conferences speaking on various topics such as Machine Learning, Data & Analytics, and Emerging Operating Models for organizations taking on transformations in the D&A space. Prior to joining Estee Lauder as their Chief Analytics Officer, Sol was the Chief Data & Analytics Officer for Merck, EVP and CDO for Sony Music, and Chief Data & Cognitive officer for Royal Caribbean.

Goal oriented and a team player, Sol believes in uncomplicating the complicated and cultivating environments that are innovative, driven, and collaborative. Sol has a unique ability in bridging the gap between Business and IT, her deep understanding of multiple functional disciplines (i.e. change management, enterprise data, application architecture, process re-engineering, sales, etc.) enables her to drive change by articulate the need for change in organizations that otherwise wouldn’t evolve.

Sol played NCAA Water Polo and Rugby for Cal on the Women’s National Rugby Team for several years, and completed the Ironman.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Pilot Flying J’s Ameet Shetty on Cloud Data Infrastructure, Governance, Analytics Talent Jun 30, 2021

Data governance. It’s a “dirty word” in business often associated with being told “no,” but from the perspective of the CDO it’s a crucial part of managing data quality and trust. How are employees being held accountable? Do people have the right access to insights? And is your own business’ data infrastructure and governance policies fostering innovation or stifling it?

Ameet Shetty is Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Pilot Flying J, a company that serves more than 1.3 million consumers daily while operating more than 750 locations stateside. On this episode of The Data Chief, Ameet joins Cindi for a conversation on data governance and how to organize your analytics team. Ameet explains why governance gets a bad rap while also touching on the importance of balancing accountability with innovation, having the right technology foundation in place, and the most successful CDOs are natural connectors.

Main Takeaways

Lean on data as a driver for customer insights and intimacy: Data is key to creating unique personalized touchpoints for your customers. By allowing customers to willingly provide information across all the business touchpoints, this creates a chance to drive insights and move the organizations forward. Companies can use this information to create a stickier connection with the user by providing more personalized experiences in-store or across its apps, but this also gives the business a chance to enhance every touch point and provide a consistent user experience.
Building a holistic team pushes you forward: A single individual cannot pull the boat forward, but a team rowing together can get the boat to where it needs to go. When building teams, make sure you are taking a holistic approach and bringing in members from different fields of expertise and backgrounds to close the gap in areas where you are not as strong
Over-governing stifles innovation: The term governance is a dirty word for a lot of enterprises, but it’s more important to think about governance not as a burden or regulatory issue but more as data management. It’s important always to maintain data quality, but you must have a balance because you don’t want to govern your data to the point that it stifles innovation.

About Ameet

Ameet Sheet is the Chief Data Officer at Pilot Flying J. Prior to joining Pilot, Ameet served as McDonald’s first Chief Data Officer. Ameet is helping to define and infuse data across the global enterprise. He is creating the roadmap to identify the technology, team, process and culture change required for enabling enterprise data transformation and establish best-in-class processes for data strategy and governance and evangelizing these changes throughout McDonald’s.

Prior to McDonald’s, Ameet was the Chief Data & Analytics Officer for SunTrust Banks, Inc. In this role, he led the Enterprise Data & Analytics office, with responsibility for driving the strategic vision and effective deployment of data and business intelligence capabilities to improve efficiency, reduce risk, and enable strategic business growth.

Ameet earned an MBA in Marketing from Georgia State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Georgia.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Credit Karma’s Ryan Graciano on Data Marts, Data Models, and Disrupting the Credit Landscape Jun 16, 2021

No journey to the cloud is the same. While some will encounter similar obstacles, each journey has its own unique challenges. But what happens when a company born in the midst of a crisis and changing technology, has to innovate just as fast as the changing landscape to keep up?

Ryan Graciano is the co-founder and CTO of Credit Karma, a company that is aligning technology and data to help bring transparency to the credit lending process. On this episode of The Data Chief, Ryan explains how Credit Karma survived early struggles such as the financial crisis of 2008. Ryan also touches on how Credit Karma navigated it’s journey to the cloud, stepping away from the comfort of on-premises data centers to the elasticity of the cloud, and the importance of grooming outside data sources to keep insights consistent. That and more on today’s episode with Ryan Graciano.

Main Takeaways

Explainable algorithms drive success: As third party datasets become more readily available, there is an evolving need for data professionals to understand where that data is coming from and how it will affect your models. While these datasets can make it easier for models to be spun up quickly, you must be able to account for how and why those algorithms are generating particular answers.
Clean data leads to reliable answers: Data analysts must spend time making sure the data they are using is not only clean, but reliable. When an analyst uses dirty or untrustworthy data, algorithms will have a tendency to run in an undefined manner, which will lead to high variance in answer quality and consistency.
Keep data fluency a priority: Even for organizations that believe they are data literate, the process of understanding data at an organizational level is an ongoing one. A best practice for maintaining data literacy is to create a standardized set of how data is recorded and reported internally. When practices like this are standardized, organizations can avoid issues like data bias.

About Ryan

As a co-founder of Credit Karma and Chief Technical Officer, Ryan Graciano has grown the company’s engineering department from a one-man band into a team of hundreds, developing a technical framework to support the company’s rapid growth. His expertise and innovation has helped bring new levels of usability and sophistication to financial services technologies.

Today, Ryan runs an ever-expanding group of engineers tasked with building out new products at pace while stressing a culture of agility and experimentation, even as Credit Karma reaches new levels of scale. As a leader, he serves as a constructive agitator, looking to break down traditional workplace hierarchies and empowering each member of his department with real influence over the future of the product.

Ryan has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and spent five years at IBM before joining Credit Karma.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

First Command’s Darren Pedroza on Being a Data Activist and Leading your Company Through Digital Transformation Jun 02, 2021

The role of the Chief Data Officer is an evolving one. Today, data professionals are expected to be champions for their business – aligning data goals with business values – while also leading their company’s digital transformation. It’s a position best suited for visionaries, advocates, and change agents.

Darren Pedroza is the Vice President of Enterprise Data and Analytics at First Command Financial Services, with a mission of helping military families reach their financial goals. In addition to being a data and analytics savant, a major part of his success in this role is his acute understanding of how to transform a data strategy to keep pace with changing times and business needs.

On this episode of The Data Chief, Darren explains how First Command transformed its data and cloud strategy to be more flexible, agile, and democratized. Darren also touches on a host of topics, including Databricks, what routinely leads to bad data, and leadership best practices.

Main Takeaways

Future-proof your cloud strategy: Your cloud data strategy shouldn’t end at scale. Focus on flexibility, agility, and democratization by adopting as many cloud-native tools as needed and consistently upskilling non-technical business users. Additionally, you want to be intentional about your build vs. buy strategies and make sure the vendors you partner with become allies.
Remember that good data doesn’t just happen: All data has a lifecycle, but there are two unique challenges that plague companies when it comes to their data collection: silos and poor user experiences. The best data collection applications are the ones that have a simple workflow, and a clear and pleasant user experience.
Align your team to your tech stack: When going through digital transformation it’s important to make sure that not only are you partnering with vendors that can integrate across multiple platforms, but also compliment the skillset of your team at hand.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Kraft Heinz’s Serena Huang on Retaining Top Talent with People Analytics May 19, 2021

In the age of data-driven decision making, an adage still bears true: People are a company's most valuable asset. No matter how technologically advanced and forward thinking your company is, it cannot operate without the individuals that make the organization go. So how are companies using data and analytics to not only make better decisions at the company level, but also improve the employee experience? And how are data and analytics predicting trends for the future of work that includes employee well-being and greater inclusivity?

Serena Huang is the Global Head of People Analytics at the Kraft Heinz Company. On this episode of The Data Chief she shares insights into her work and why companies are turning to this important function to design more thoughtful employee experiences. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways

Start with the problem, not the data: When solving a problem, don’t start with your data. Instead, understand what solution you are trying to solve for and then design your experiments around that problem. Once that’s in place, you can start gathering directional data that will lead to a solution.
Share your progress and momentum: Transparency is key, so when you are conducting your analysis make sure the data you are collecting from employees not only benefits the company, but also the employee itself. If your employee feels as if the line of questioning does not benefit them, they are less likely to participate. Your data gathering process must be a two-way street that shows results both for the employees and the company.
Create value beyond the obvious: Data and analytics should always be on the lookout for new ways to bring value to the business. For Kraft Heinz, this meant measuring different scenarios such as exit interviews, engagement surveys, and understanding why employees left, to create a more holistic view of the employee experience.

About Serena

Dr. Serena Huang is currently the Global Head of People Analytics at the Kraft Heinz Company. Serena is a thought leader in people analytics, HR technology, future of work, and employee experience with deep expertise spanning large multinationals including GE and Deloitte. Her recent interviews appeared on Workforce.com and Rallyware. Dr. Huang is also a long-time practitioner of mindfulness and leads guided meditations in corporate settings to boost employee well-being.
As a data analytics executive, Dr. Huang is passionate about leading change, building high-performing global teams, and helping business leaders see data as an asset in large organizations. She excels at showing executives the “art of the possible” through both 1-on-1 dialogues and facilitated hands-on workshops, and co-creating customizable, scalable solutions in predictive analytics in HR, Workplace Strategy, Supply Chain and Litigation domains. Dr. Huang has built and led on-shore/off-shore analytics teams and capabilities from the ground up in highly matrixes multi-national corporations over the past 10 years. She welcomes global opportunities outside the U.S. or U.S. companies with significant global footprint.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

OpenTable’s Grant Parsamyan on How Data and Analytics is Helping the Restaurant Industry Rebound from COVID-19 May 05, 2021

The restaurant industry has been one of the hardest hit industries over the last year. Amid countless closures and reopenings, restaurants have overcome many obstacles in an effort to survive. Through these struggles, restaurant professionals have turned to data to optimize everything from takeout orders to new layouts, all the way to analyzing market recovery.

Grant Parsamyan is the Senior Vice President for Data and Analytics at OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service that is empowering restaurants of all sizes to operate more efficiently through the use of technology.

On this episode of The Data Chief, Grant dives into OpenTable’s State of the Industry site, designed to illustrate how COVID-19 has impacted restaurants through powerful data storytelling. Grant and Cindi also discuss the importance of data literacy, and picking the right analytics tools to match business use cases. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways

Measuring success and proving value: Measuring success or measuring value from data and analytics is a difficult proposition. A recent study suggests less than 14% of businesses go back to do an ROI study, so it’s incumbent on data professionals to continuously be capturing anecdotes of the businesses benefits to prove value over time. A best practice for measuring value is to set a baseline and make sure that you pick the right tool to advance your use case and then measure that baseline to provide the value of those investments to gain the credibility to advance your analytics.
Decline of the dashboard: The role of data professionals is becoming less about developing dashboards and more about creating tools that empower users to answer their own questions. Because data flows at such a quick pace, predetermined views and dashboards are often outdated as soon as they’re created.
Data sharing leads to quicker results: Data sharing is enabling customers to monetize data without the messiness of manual file transfers. By being able to share data from one platform to another, data professionals are not constrained by time and volume.

About Grant

Grant Parsamyan serves as the Vice President - Data Engineering and Analytics of OpenTable. Grant started at OpenTable in March of 2017. Grant currently resides in the Greater Los Angeles area.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Daily Harvest’s Brad Klingenberg on How Data-Driven Personalization is Driving Food Creation Apr 21, 2021

Data and the power it wields has made its way into every industry over the last decade. From entertainment to real estate, all the way to the fashion industry, companies leading their industries are using data to create uniquely personalized digital experiences.

Brad Klingenberg is the Chief Algorithms Officer at Daily Harvest, the direct-to-consumer brand that helps stock your home with fresh, plant-based foods. Brad leads the data team and is charged with using data and algorithms to create meals Daily Harvest customers will enjoy and keep coming back for.

On this episode of The Data Chief, Brad and Cindi discuss the importance of aligning your customers’ wants with business value to create unique experiences, and how to go about sourcing data to get the desired outcomes. Brad also dives into his previous work at Stitch Fix, and provides insights on how to scale data teams and foster a data culture. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways

The personalization promise to customers: Customers aren’t giving you their data for free. They’re doing it so your business can get to know them in ways that make sense, and to use that information to create more personalized experiences for them. When the customer trusts what you’re going to use their information for, you have an opportunity - and obligation - to create a unique experience that is both beneficial for the customer and the business.
Tools to solve data bias: It’s quite easy for biases to be introduced into your algorithms through the data that is used. While there is an emerging set of tools to help diagnose and evaluate data bias, it’s a hard problem to solve, and one that requires getting to the root - the data itself. Everything starts with the data you have. Data teams need to put an emphasis on the diversity in their data to recognize gaps and biases.
Building a data-driven culture: Never before has it been more important for companies to champion a data-driven culture. Leaders need to lead by example in this shift. At the same time, data functions have a special role to play in helping companies reason with uncertainty, understand measurement and experimentation.

About Brad

Brad Klingenberg is the Chief Algorithms Officer at Daily Harvest, the direct-to-consumer brand that helps you stock your home with clean, delicious food built on real fruit + vegetables and ready in minutes. Brad leads the data team and is charged with using data and algorithms to tailor the Daily Harvest experience to individual food values and taste preferences through the co-creation of food and digital personalization.

Prior to Daily Harvest, Brad was the Chief Algorithm Officer at Stitch Fix, where he oversaw a team of more than 140 data scientists and engineers. As the leader of the Algorithms team, Brad was responsible for developing and improving the core algorithmic capabilities that leverage data to power Stitch Fix.

Brad has also served as an advisor/consultant for Candidate Labs, Udacity, Opendoor.com, and Netflix. He currently lives in Boulder, CO with his family and holds a PhD from Stanford University, as well as a Bachelor of Science - Master of Science dual degree from University of Colorado at Boulder.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Opendoor’s Ian Wong on Disrupting the Real Estate Industry with Data-Driven Digital Transformation Apr 07, 2021

“Garbage in, garbage out.” It’s a philosophy every data leader is familiar with. Your algorithms and models are only as good as the data you put in them -- so how do you ensure the data you are leveraging is reliable and trustworthy?

Joining Cindi today is Opendoor Co-founder and CTO, Ian Wong. Opendoor is on a mission to remove the guesswork from homebuying, and in this episode, Ian details how the company’s algorithms provide future homebuyers peace of mind about getting the best possible offer for their home. Ian explains how the team harnesses multiple data sources and uses machine learning to maintain a competitive advantage. Plus, Ian and Cindi discuss how to turn those valuable data insights into measurable business results.

All that and more on today’s episode with Opendoor’s Ian Wong.

Main Takeaways

Trust in the numbers: All great algorithms start with great data, but having a high fidelity of data is one of the key differentiators for any high-performing model. When you’re mixing first-party data with third-party data, be intentional about how you create strategic data models that fit your business.
Data scientists need to hone business skills: As a data professional, it’s not enough to have a breadth of technical skills, coding, algorithms, statistics, and mathematics -- you must also have a firm grasp of business needs with solid communication skills. Remember: your research is not helpful if it does not meet the immediate needs of the business. Being able to find that balance is an integral skill for any young data scientist looking to break into the field.
Fail fast and experiment: When it comes to machine learning, there's a lot of opportunity for failure. Launching a prototype quickly and iterating as you go is the name of the game. It shouldn’t take a quarter to make and deploy a new algorithm. The more time between inception and deployment, the less likely you will be able to use the insights gathered. Stay agile, move quickly, and follow the data.

About Ian

Ian Wong is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Opendoor, where he is responsible for the development of product and technology. Ian is building a team of engineers, data scientists, product managers and designers to modernize the real estate industry. He was previously pursuing his PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford when he left to join Square as their first data scientist. At Square, Ian developed tools and algorithms to handle risk. He has earned Masters degrees in electrical engineering and statistics from Stanford University. As a mission-driven real estate marketplace that radically simplifies home buying and selling, Opendoor has been used by over 85,000 customers in more than 25 metros nationwide.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

ThoughtSpot’s Ajeet Singh on Designing Disruption for Analytics Mar 10, 2021

Ajeet Singh is a risk taker. There’s no other way to describe someone who's done the things he has and accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. An immigrant, entrepreneur, and and most importantly a disruptor, Singh has constructed two multi-billion dollar entities from the ground up. Throughout his journey, he’s been guided by two principles: his out-of-the-box thinking and curiosity about how he can improve people’s lives.

As a young entrepreneur working in Silicon Valley during the big data days, Singh noticed the data and analytics space was ripe for disruption. So he did something about it. First with Nutranix and now with ThoughtSpot, where he's working to solve some of the world's biggest problems by democratizing data for all. On this episode of The Data Chief, Singh, Co-founder and Executive Chairman at ThoughtSpot, dives into some of the biggest challenges facing CDOs in 2021, why organizations must empower their leadership teams to drive meaningful change, and how big tech can be utilized for good moving forward.

Main Takeaways:

- The cloud is here to stay: Large enterprises are increasingly moving their data to the cloud. The challenge now for CEOs and CDOs is not “if” they will adopt cloud but “when,” and how quickly they can get there while maintaining their current momentum.

- Empower your leaders to drive change: It’s easy to create new C-level positions, but real innovation and transformation starts with empowering your leadership with the required mandates and resources to empower their teams.

- Build your culture with intention: Every organization inherently has a culture and you must be deliberate about how you build that culture. Every department should reflect your core principles and create a space for individuals and teams to thrive.

About Ajeet

Ajeet Singh is the co-founder and Executive Chairman at ThoughtSpot, a company revolutionizing analytics with search and AI. Driven by his passion for creation, Ajeet has built two multi-billion dollar technology companies from the ground up - ThoughtSpot and Nutanix. Prior to starting ThoughtSpot, he was a co-founder and Chief Products Officer at Nutanix, the leader in the enterprise cloud industry and largest tech IPO of 2016. Prior to Nutanix, Ajeet learned the ropes of enterprise technology startups as the Senior Director of Product Management at Aster Data, later acquired by Teradata for $300M. Ajeet has also held business and technical roles at Oracle, where he was part of the team that first launched Oracle Database to the Amazon EC2 cloud. Ajeet holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where he graduated at the top of his class.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

ThoughtSpot’s Cindi Howson on Chief Data Officer Success Strategies Feb 24, 2021

Much like a roller coaster, 2020 was full of many loops, twists, and turns. From accelerated digital transformations to expedited migrations to the cloud, you were asked to do it all— often with far less time and resources. Through it all, The Data Chief was right there with you, along for the unprecedented ride.

From the beginning this podcast had a vision: To bring you learnings and best practices from the brightest minds in our industry to help you all become better data stewards. On this episode of The Data Chief, we look back at some of the key themes from season one, including the rise of the CDO, the intricacies of aligning your department’s goals with that of the businesses, and how you coped with accelerated timelines. While we relive these important conversations, we also discuss why culture and data fluency continue to be the biggest hurdles to becoming a truly data-driven business.

Main Takeaways

The Rise of the Data Chief: The role of the CDO now goes beyond getting your data house in order. You must become a true analytics leader and business partner by developing a deep understanding of how to properly build a team and nurture strategic partnerships.
Aligning with Your Business Values: Data is the lifeline of every organization but in order to achieve buy-in from your stakeholders, your data and analytic investments have to be aligned with the goals of your company. This means asking what projects are right for your team to pursue and which ones make the most sense for the overall direction of the organization.
Rapid Technical Innovation and the Shift to Cloud: How we store and manage our data is changing rapidly. Many companies are moving their data to the cloud and their vendors are often the ones helping drive this change.
Technology Reflects Culture: Technology and culture are two sides of the same coin. A culture of fear, protecting the status quo, and settling for “good enough” often engenders legacy tech saddled by inefficient processes. At the other end of the spectrum, organizations who are embracing cloud and augmented analytics are empowering new decision makers at the speed business demands.
Assessing your Data Fluency: Investing in data fluency and partnering with business stakeholders to build these skills across your organization is part of your mandate as a Data Chief. As an industry, we need to flip the emphasis from technical training to using data in a business context.

About Cindi

Cindi Howson is an analytics and BI expert with 20-plus years’ experience and a flair for bridging business needs with technology. Cindi was previously a Gartner Vice President in data and analytics, lead author of the Analytics and BI Magic Quadrant, data and analytics maturity model, as well as research in data and AI for good, NLP/BI Search, and augmented analytics. She introduced the BI bake-offs and innovation panels at Gartner events globally and is a popular keynote speaker. Prior to this, she was the founder of BI Scorecard, a resource for in-depth product reviews based on exclusive hands-on testing, a contributor to Information Week, and the author of several books including Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data and SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0: The Complete Reference. She served as The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) faculty member for more than a decade. Prior to founding BI Scorecard, Howson was a manager at Deloitte & Touche and a BI standards leader for Dow Chemical. She has an MBA from Rice University and a BA from the University of Maryland.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Princeton University's Ruja Benjamin on Bias in Data and A.I. Feb 03, 2021

Joining Cindi today is Ruha Benjamin, a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and the founding director of the IDA B. WELLS Just Data Lab. She has studied the social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine for over 15 years and speaks widely on issues of innovation, equity, health, and justice in the U.S. and globally. Ruha is the author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code and People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier, and the editor of Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life.

In this episode, Ruha and Cindi discuss how flawed data can have disastrous, real-world consequences for women and people of color. Ruha also describes a multidisciplinary approach to recognizing and refurbishing the processes for gathering and governing data.

Key Takeaways:

The least apparent bias is often the most dangerous. We can't prevent the consequences of bias or even take it seriously if we're not aware of it — or worse, choose to ignore its less obvious manifestations.
Widen the lens and don't settle for 'happy talk.' Diversity is not the status quo for most organizations, therefore it should make us uncomfortable. If it’s not, it may be a sign that you’re stopping the conversation short.
Focus on building the right team before you start building AI systems. Diversity needs to start from the groundwork that happens before the foundation is poured.
"Big me up." Surround yourself with role models and people who build you up rather than tear you down — and be a support system for them as well.

More About Ruha:

Ruha Benjamin is a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and the founding director of the IDA B. WELLS Just Data Lab. She has studied the social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine for over fifteen years and speaks widely on issues of innovation, equity, health, and justice in the U.S. and globally.

Ruha's second book, Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, examines the relationship between machine bias and systemic racism, analyzing specific cases of “discriminatory design,” and offering tools for a socially-conscious approach to tech development. She is also the editor of Captivating Technology.

Ruha also recommends the workbook, Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Verizon's Radha Sankaran on Personalizing Customer Experiences and Improving Frontline Decision-Making with Data Jan 20, 2021

Joining Cindi today is Radha Sankaran, the Executive Director of Advanced Analytics/AI and ML at Verizon. Radha is a technology executive with more than 24 years of hands-on leadership experience with a proven track record in fast-paced and quality-driven product delivery. She has led and managed high-performance teams in the telecom and wireless industry for 4G LTE, IoT, and 5G technologies.

Today, Radha and Cindi discuss the benefits of personalizing customer experience - including why personalization is Verizon's number one priority moving forward. Radha also shares her strategies for empowering frontline decision makers with data in a way that helps rather than overwhelms, how to protect customers’ privacy while putting their data to best use, and what women in tech aspiring to excel in this field should know to succeed and break the glass ceiling.

Key Takeaways:

Get personal. Leverage data to view your customer’s journey from their perspective. Whether it’s email, SMS, chatbots, in store visits, or interacting with a call center, tie cross-channel experiences together seamlessly to create a positive and personalized experience.
But not too personal. Protecting customers’ data is at the core of everything Verizon does. When building personalized journeys, you have to find the balance between providing a valuable experience for your customer, while not overstepping their privacy in a way that feels invasive.
Empowering frontline employees with data. Compiling and sharing every data point with your team is not helpful. Rather than overwhelming frontline decision makers with mountains of data, distill need-to-know data in a way that’s easy to consume. For Radha, this means equipping her team with only the data needed to determine the next best actions (NBX) for serving customers.
Advice for girls and women in tech. “To all of those women and girls out there wanting to get into STEM, be bold. Don't let anything hold you back."

More About Radha:

Radha Sankaran is the Executive Director of Advanced Analytics/AI and ML at Verizon. She's a technology executive with 24+ years of hands-on leadership experience and a proven track record in fast-paced and quality-driven product delivery, leading and managing high-performance teams in the telecom and wireless industry for 4G LTE, IoT, and 5G technologies. Radha has a strong foundation of strategic thinking, operational excellence, people, and culture development, all anchored in integrity.

She has spent 12.5 years with Verizon and currently serves as the Exec Director of the Systems of Insights portfolio leading Advanced Analytics and AI-Driven Customer Experience Strategy and Development within the Customer Experience Organization for the Consumer Verizon Business.

Before assuming her current position, she was the Executive Director spearheading omnichannel customer experience for all wireless assisted channels in addition to the overarching responsibilities for strategy, architecture, development, analytics, and quality assurance in Verizon IT resulting in annual revenues of $5B to $8B.

Prior to Verizon, Radha spent 13 years at AT&T/Lucent/Avaya until 2007, where she did some pioneering work in the field of HDTV and Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and CRM technologies. In her last responsibility at Avaya, she was in a technology architect role for implementing the Sales Module in SAP as well as Avaya's multimedia contact center application integrated into Siebel's service management module.

Radha holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from SUNY, Stony Brook.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Donald Farmer, Wayne Eckerson, and Tom Davenport on Data and Analytics Trends to Watch in 2021 Jan 13, 2021

This week we have a very special episode featuring insights from three data and analytics leaders on what to expect in 2021. You’ll hear from:

Donald Farmer, a principal at TreeHive Strategy
Wayne Eckerson, the Founder and Principal Consultant at Eckerson Group
Tom Davenport, Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College

They discuss everything from how to remain relevant in the rapidly evolving data and analytics industry, what technologies will have the biggest impact on our lives, and what the future of the workplace will look like and what those changes mean for your business. Enjoy the lightning rounds on Super Bowl predictions, snow, and best books to read!

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Citigroup's Chris Powers on Data Literacy Jan 06, 2021

Joining Cindi today is Chris Powers, Senior Vice President and Global Product Manager of Business Data Analytics & Digital Innovations at Citigroup.

On this episode, Chris and Cindi discuss data literacy as a thought process that is nurtured by a good old-fashioned willingness to take things apart and put them back together again, what common data sense is and how it can be taught to people without shaming them, and why "the five whys" are an invaluable technique for solving almost any problem.

They also examine the real -- and counterintuitive -- purpose of self-service analytics. Plus, Cindi and Chris explain why data's role as the new oil is only as good as knowing what engine can use it.

Key Takeaways:

If data is the new oil, you need to make sure it gets to the engine that can use it. Data, like oil, doesn't do anything on its own. In order for it to be of use, you need to have processes in place to contextualize that data and ensure it gets to the right experts and business decision-makers.
Business users often know what they want, but not how to reach it. Your job is to connect the dots between them and their goal, while challenging false assumptions that obscure the path to that goal. For this (and many other problems you'll encounter), the five whys can prove to be an indispensable technique.
The success of self-service analytics relies on data literacy. The "sink or swim" strategy will only drown prospective users faced with an overwhelming ocean of data they don't know how to process. The good news: anyone can learn the basics if they just start small.
Data literacy is a thought process, not a formula. Cultivate an inquisitive mind that seeks to understand how pieces fit together to make a functional whole. It will serve you and business users better than pointing to a graph that tells you something you both already know.

More About Chris:

Chris Powers has been at Citigroup for the last 24 years. In his current role working with client experience data, he focuses on providing the tools and insights to interpret the data so people can be empowered to make the best decisions for their clients. But for him, it is not just about the data. People tell stories with their data, and to do that effectively, they need to be able to understand what their data is telling them. Chris works to create a community of people that can effectively work and communicate with their data in order to build a data-driven culture. He doesn’t just do this inside Citi.

Chris is one of the founding members of the Tampa ThoughtSpot user group and is also a 2020 Qlik Data Luminary, creator, and co-organizer of the Tampa Qlik Meetup group. Since his childhood, he has had quite the journey to get where he is today. Learning how to overcome his own data anxiety, navigating through a rollercoaster of education decisions, and putting his sometimes exhausting questioning of "But why?” to good use. He spent more than 10 years in customer service before finally joining Citi. Now Chris uses the unique experiences from his journey to help people with common data sense.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Nationwide's Jim Tyo on Data Governance Best Practices Dec 02, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Jim Tyo, CDO at investment management firm Invesco, and the former CDO at Nationwide, where he was responsible for overall strategic vision, planning, execution, and management of all activities related to the operation of the Enterprise Data Office (EDO).

On this episode, Jim and Cindi discuss best practices and the evolution of data governance and information quality over the past decade, taking the 'digital twin' approach from the world of manufacturing and applying it to the world of data, the ethical nuances of navigating privacy laws and nontraditional inputs for complete datasets without introducing undue biases, advice for people aspiring to pursue a career in data, and much more.

Key Takeaways:

Strategies Jim has leveraged to properly balance data governance and information quality (for which his team has won awards), and how the conversation around data governance has changed during his decade in the field.
How the concept of the digital twin transitioned from the world of manufacturing to the world of data, and how organizations can use it to get an even more complete picture of their organization.
How Nationwide created an internal data marketplace for people to more easily find all the data available within the company.
The ethical considerations of navigating privacy laws and using nontraditional data inputs like fitness wearable devices and social media to ensure fair coverage without bias.
Why good teamwork is critical in analytics, a world where nobody knows everything.

About Jim

Jim Tyo is CDO at investment management firm Invesco, and the former CDO at Nationwide, where he was responsible for overall strategic vision, planning, execution, and management of all activities related to the operation of the Enterprise Data Office (EDO).

With more than a decade under his belt as a senior executive in the data field, Jim has envisioned, championed, and built data analytics organizations, processes, and technologies from concept to design in implementation and through execution. His vision has created significant culture changes while shifting information delivery methodologies — including innovative agile execution approaches — ensuring appropriate controls and governance focused on a data-driven experience and empowering business outcomes.

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The Data Chief is brought to you by ThoughtSpot. For more on how the most successful data leaders are driving value in their organizations, join Cindi and the ThoughtSpot team at Beyond 2020, the leading data & analytics event of the year. Go to www.thoughtspot.com/beyond2020 for more information.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Federal Government's Suzette Kent on Federal Data Strategy and IT Modernization Nov 11, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Suzette Kent, the former US Federal Chief Information Officer. Suzette joined the Federal Government in 2018 from the financial services industry with two key goals: drive IT modernization and overcome the challenges in federal IT budgeting and funding alignment.

On this episode, Suzette and Cindi discuss the creative friction between the public and private sector, the pros and cons of how the public and private sectors operate and what they can gain by collaborating with one another, and the challenges of avoiding minutiae and focusing on the big picture when working with massive datasets. Plus, Suzette shares the origin story of the federal data strategy and how she hopes it can be used to solve the problems we face today.

Key Takeaways & Discussion Points:

Creative friction happens when private and public sectors collaborate and each side benefits from the experience.
You can't drive change only from a technology side; people need to be involved in the process, and this requires adaptation to the pace necessary for the task at hand.
Why striking a balance between indexing details and focusing on outcomes can be particularly challenging when you're dealing with the overwhelming number of datasets available to the public sector, the laws that govern their use, and the sometimes conflicting purposes of multiple agencies within that structure.
How the federal data strategy came about, what it strives to accomplish, what private sector CDOs can learn about it at strategy.data.gov, and how they can utilize the resources available at resources.data.gov.
The outcome-driven approach to getting students truly interested in pursuing careers in data.

More About Suzette:

Suzette Kent served from 2018 to 2020 as US Federal Chief Information Officer, spearheading a wide range of technology and workforce initiatives. Her tenure was devoted to setting governmentwide standards while also giving agencies the freedom to tailor efforts in mission-appropriate ways.

Suzette was selected from the financial services industry to replace outgoing Federal CIO Tony Scott. She was a principal with Ernst & Young and had been a managing partner at Accenture and worked in other capacities at JP Morgan and the Carreker Corp. This background allowed her to see the challenges in federal IT budgeting and funding alignment and its IT modernization.

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The Data Chief is brought to you by ThoughtSpot. For more on how the most successful data leaders are driving value in their organizations, join Cindi and the ThoughtSpot team at Beyond 2020, the leading data & analytics event of the year. Go to www.thoughtspot.com/beyond2020 for more information.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Ensemble Health Partners' Jon Osborn and Snowflake's Todd Crosslin on Cloud Innovation in Healthcare Oct 28, 2020

Joining Cindi today are two guests: Jon Osborn, Software Technology Executive and former SVP, Chief Technical and Data Officer at Ensemble Health Partners, and Todd Crosslin, the Global Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Snowflake.

On this episode, Jon, Todd, and Cindi discuss how people in the healthcare chain of command can collaborate with one another more freely than ever before thanks to cloud innovations that make sensitive data safely and instantly available to all parties, why the countless benefits of moving to the cloud far outweigh the seemingly hefty upfront price tag (provided you adapt your strategy to fit your budget), and how a data chief can build a case to make these points evident to the stakeholders and higher-ups responsible for paying the bills.

Key Takeaways:

Experiment with internal and external stakeholders. The level of collaboration between people involved in the chain of providing healthcare is enhanced by the cloud in ways that have only recently become possible.
Choose based on value. The price tag for moving to the cloud is real, but the benefits are too substantial to pass up - and there are hacks to adapt your strategy to align with your budget.
Be brave. The ROI for innovation pays back with interest, but you need the courage to make a case for all your various stakeholders.

More About Jon:

Jon Osborn is a Software Technology Executive and the former SVP, Chief Technical and Data Officer at Ensemble Health Partners, with a proven ability at the executive level to build technical organizations, direct and manage technical projects and architecture, manage agile software development teams, and work with business owners to deliver value and modernize technology.

More About Todd:

Todd Crosslin is the Global Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Snowflake, with a history of success in start-up and high-growth/complex environments. He specializes in strategic business planning, agile lifecycle management, liaison and mediator activities, team building and leadership, key contract negotiations, and software development lifecycles.

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The Data Chief is brought to you by ThoughtSpot. For more on how the most successful data leaders are driving value in their organizations, join Cindi and the ThoughtSpot team at Beyond 2020, the leading data & analytics event of the year. Go to www.thoughtspot.com/beyond2020 for more information.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Medibanks' Craig Rowlands on Saving Lives with Data Literacy Oct 14, 2020

Today's guest is Craig Rowlands, the General Manager of Medibank. Craig is an ambitious leader with a proven track record for delivering major projects including data management, production, and business intelligence solutions.

On this episode, Craig and Cindi discuss the life- and cost-saving benefits of leveraging data to improve decision making in healthcare, how moving from financial services to healthcare has given Craig a more holistic view of what's possible with data, why an individual should never stop learning and broadening their skills at any age, and establishing beneficial relationships with vendors that make you partners in each others' success.

Key Takeaways:

There's nothing like a life-changing event to demonstrate how data from the patient's perspective can be used. Craig demonstrated how he was able to research options for his own heart bypass surgery informed by the available data.
Always broaden your skills. In Craig's case, this has meant moving across industries -- from banking to the medical field -- to maximize his knowledge of what's being done versus what can be done with data.
Establish a two-way partnership with vendors. Ensure they understand the value of being a partner invested in the welfare of both sides rather than merely filling the traditional, transactional vendor role, and that you're invested in keeping that relationship ongoing as well.
Have a clear strategy when starting a new role. Look at the outcomes that you want and make sure that they align with your business goals.

More About Craig:

Craig Rowlands is the General Manager of Medibank. He is an ambitious leader with a proven track record for delivering major projects and managing data management, production, and business intelligence solutions, enabling optimal performance via leading-edge warehousing infrastructure, improved functionality, and best in class data quality controls and checks.

Leading a large, multi-site team that constantly exceeds business expectations and thrives in a testing, team-focused environment that drives improved individuals' performance and career progression.

Craig remains a highly experienced and technical analyst with a clear understanding of the strategic importance of data warehousing, business intelligence, and analytical software within an information-dependent business.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Bernard Marr on A.I. Strategy and Change Management Sep 30, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Bernard Marr, internationally bestselling author, futurist, and keynote speaker. He advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organizations and was voted by LinkedIn as one of the top five business influencers in the world and the number-one influencer in the UK.

On this episode, Bernard and Cindi discuss why businesses should treat AI as a focused strategy rather than a resource-draining experiment, five ways to determine how to implement AI as a strategy that addresses the needs of your business, and overcoming a company culture's resistance to change. They also talk about how to ensure that AI augments rather than replaces humans and what it means to nowcast versus forecast in a post-pandemic world.

Key Takeaways:

Use AI as a strategy, not an experiment. AI should be applied strategically to the needs of your business, not treated as an experiment. Here, Bernard presents five lenses that will help you determine how AI can be focused appropriately.
Don't reinvent the wheel. Chances are pretty good there's an existing AI tool -- from Salesforce, Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, etc. -- that will suit the needs of your company without having to invest the time, energy, and money to start from scratch.
Overcoming a company culture's resistance to change. What it takes to get the top levels of your organization aware of what AI is capable of doing for the business, and communicating to all levels that it's a tool for augmenting -- not replacing -- human staff.

More About Bernard:

Bernard Marr is a futurist, big data expert, storyteller, visionary, keynote speaker, and strategic business and technology advisor to companies and governments. He advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organizations, helping them improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things. LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top five business influencers. He is a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Vertafore's Chad Hawkinson on Cloud Data Security and Streamlining Workflows Sep 16, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Chad Hawkinson, the Chief Product and Data Officer at Vertafore, the leader in creating modern insurance technology. A seasoned data and analytics guru, Chad has seen first-hand the profound impact data-driven insights can have on customers’ success.

On this episode, Chad and Cindi discuss how the cloud makes it safer to use sensitive data, when it was long-feared it might do just the opposite. They cover everything from alleviating client concerns about the use of this data and securing this data from cyberattacks, to the value of streamlining data collection into everyday workflows rather than making it an additional headache for the client to manage. Plus, Chad shares the three components responsible for the 38 percent failure rate of analytics investments in insurance and what can be done to fix them.

Key Discussion Points:

The cloud gives us more power over our data, not less. Qualified availability unlocks a level of control over that data that would be impossible on a purely local level.
Having a clear direction where data can be brought to bear. The three problems most responsible for a high failure rate in analytics investment and how to solve them.
The value of insights in context. Data is most useful when streamlined into the everyday workflow rather than existing as a number of separate processes that bring that workflow to a grinding halt.

More About Chad:

Chad Hawkinson is the Chief Product and Data Officer at Vertafore, the leader in creating modern insurance technology. A seasoned data and analytics guru, Chad has seen first-hand the profound impact data-driven insights can have on customers’ success. He brings deep experience with AI and ML technologies in the energy, aerospace, defense, automotive, and construction industries to help agencies and carriers discover new opportunities to drive dramatic business growth by leveraging insights previously hidden deep within their data.

Prior to Vertafore, Chad spent seven years as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Engineering & Product Design division at IHS Markit. An experienced go-to-market strategist in both the software and data analytics industries, Chad also held leadership roles at Progress Software, PTC, and Intel.

He earned a BA in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, as well as an MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

San Francisco County's Jason Lally on Clarity and Better Serving People with Data (pt. 1) Sep 04, 2020

This is Part 2 of our interview with Jason Lally, the Chief Data Officer for the City and County of San Francisco.

[Listen to Part 1 here.]

In Part 1, Cindi and Jason talked about the kindness of data clarity and the power of a declarative mission statement. In this episode, Jason discusses making the government's data work for the people it serves, the key gateway to better communication, and how to turn problems into opportunities.

Key Takeaways:

Improving communication. Part of becoming a better communicator is just listening to what people don't understand and then figuring out a different way to explain it. And if you're trying to turn problems into opportunities, communicating one on one or in smaller groups allows everyone present to contribute to solving the problem which builds trust between them for the success of future efforts.
Making data work for the people: Government data has the power to transform the services citizens experience, and can improve numerous facets of the lives of citizens.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

San Francisco County's Jason Lally on Clarity and Better Serving People with Data (pt. 1) Sep 02, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Jason Lally, the Chief Data Officer for the City and County of San Francisco. On this episode, Jason and Cindi discuss the kindness of data clarity, why open data is just the tip of the iceberg, and the power of a declarative mission statement. Plus, they dive into Jason’s 10+ years of experience and unique career trajectory that brought him to his current role.

This is Part 1 of our interview with Jason Lally. Stay tuned for Part 2 (releasing on Friday) where Jason discusses making the government's data work for the people it serves, the key gateway to better communication, and how to turn problems into opportunities.

Key Takeaways:

As Brené Brown would say: clarity is kindness. A declarative mission statement outlining your department's intentions can act as a powerful liaison between the work you're doing and the people you're serving.
Open data is really just the tip of the iceberg. This is what people in the outside world see; what they don't see is all the work that goes on underneath that data -- all the internal collaboration, getting the stakeholders on the same page, and the massive range of data sources that make it all possible.

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To be notified when Part 2 of this interview is available, be sure to subscribe in your podcast player.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Alight Analytics' Michelle Jacobs on Data-Driven Marketing and Respecting Customer Privacy (pt. 2) Aug 19, 2020

This is Part 2 of Cindi's interview with Michelle Jacobs, President and co-founder of marketing measurement agency Alight Analytics.

In Part 1, Michelle shared tips for keeping up with the rapid pace of change in the industry and explained in what ways data can transform marketing departments for the better. In this episode, Michelle and Cindi discuss how to bring more women into analytics, why messy data tends to be directionally accurate, and what Michelle predicts for the future of analytics.”

Key Discussion Points:

Avoid the Data Death March. Like single-use plastics, individually prepping massive amounts of data using yesterday's methods (like Excel and PowerPoint) for each and every meeting, presentation, and report is wasteful. The right technology can free up time and resources by centralizing this data and allowing it to be multi-purposed on-demand across all departments.
Form top-to-down best practices. Think about the question you want to answer first, then look for the data that can find that answer.
Data turns marketing from an expense into an investment. With the right data to trace factors that go into lead generation, clients can quantify exactly how their marketing dollars make a difference beyond black-and-white sales figures.
Messy data vs. clean data vs. no data. Data quality is good enough when it's directionally accurate.
Consolidation is your friend. If you're a marketer and you're looking to make educated decisions, get your marketing data in one place so that you can look at it holistically and understand how your entire ecosystem is performing.

More about Michelle:

Michelle Jacobs is the president and co-founder of Alight Analytics, and she’s on a personal mission to revolutionize how marketers use data.

Before co-founding Alight, Michelle drove marketing, advertising, and Web analytics strategies for leading companies such as H&R Block, American Century Investments, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Toyota. Michelle is a sought-after speaker and panelist with a unique perspective both on marketing analytics generally and being a woman in data and MarTech specifically.

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Listen to Part 1 of this interview here.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Alight Analytics' Michelle Jacobs on Data-Driven Marketing and Respecting Customer Privacy (pt. 1) Aug 19, 2020

This is Part 1 of Cindi's interview with Michelle Jacobs, President and co-founder of marketing measurement agency Alight Analytics.

On this episode, Michelle and Cindi discuss how data can turn marketing from a regretful expense to a worthwhile investment, the benefits of learning to ask the right questions of your data, and how to determine a customer's wants and needs without invading their privacy. Plus, they talk about how to flip the 80 percent of the time we spend preparing data with the 20 percent of the time we spend analyzing it, share tips for adapting to the rapid pace of change in technology, and much more.

Key Discussion Points:

Avoid the Data Death March. Like single-use plastics, individually prepping massive amounts of data using yesterday's methods (like Excel and PowerPoint) for each and every meeting, presentation, and report is wasteful. The right technology can free up time and resources by centralizing this data and allowing it to be multi-purposed on-demand across all departments.
Form top-to-down best practices. Think about the question you want to answer first, then look for the data that can find that answer.
Data turns marketing from an expense into an investment. With the right data to trace factors that go into lead generation, clients can quantify exactly how their marketing dollars make a difference beyond black-and-white sales figures.
Messy data vs. clean data vs. no data. Data quality is good enough when it's directionally accurate.
Consolidation is your friend. If you're a marketer and you're looking to make educated decisions, get your marketing data in one place so that you can look at it holistically and understand how your entire ecosystem is performing.

More about Michelle:

Michelle Jacobs is the president and co-founder of Alight Analytics, and she’s on a personal mission to revolutionize how marketers use data.

Before co-founding Alight, Michelle drove marketing, advertising, and Web analytics strategies for leading companies such as H&R Block, American Century Investments, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Toyota. Michelle is a sought-after speaker and panelist with a unique perspective both on marketing analytics generally and being a woman in data and MarTech specifically.

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Listen to Part 2 of this interview here.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Just Eat's Alberto Rey Villaverde on Machine Learning, A.I., and Bridging the Imagination Gap (pt. 2) Aug 05, 2020

This is Part 2 of Cindi's interview with Alberto Rey Villaverde, the Chief Data Officer at British online food order and delivery service Just Eat.

Listen to Part 1 of their interview here.

On this episode, Alberto and Cindi discuss how machine learning allows data to speak for itself, why artificial intelligence is more effective when it's led with the guiding hand of a human than without, three components crucial to the success of data products and services, adjusting business practices and expectations during pandemics and economic downturns, the talent gap versus the imagination gap in the data industry from a European perspective, data lakes versus data warehouses, and much more.

Key Takeaways:

AI allows the data to speak for itself. Alberto's application of simple neural networking algorithms to massive sets of data efficiently and consistently optimized price points and saved his company money, justifying an expanded budget for AI adoption and development.
AI + humans is better than AI alone. AI augments human abilities, but it doesn't replace them. In unprecedented times (as we're experiencing on multiple fronts in 2020), algorithms especially rely on human imagination to fill in the blanks where there's no historical data to inform an outcome.
Three components crucial to the success of your data products and services. How Alberto sees access, model, and delivery fitting together to justify the cost of innovation necessary to implement new technologies and methodologies for handling data.

More about Alberto:

Alberto Rey Villaverde is the Chief Data Officer at British online food order and delivery service Just Eat. He is a pricing and revenue management professional with extensive experience within the data science field, particularly on BI and advanced analytics, data mining, machine learning techniques, and scenario modeling.

Alberto started his career in advanced analytics as a member of the pricing and revenue management team at easyJet, working in the development of one of the most advanced pricing engines within the industry, where his team pioneered the implementation of machine learning techniques to drive pricing. He holds an MSc in data mining and an MBA from Cranfield University.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Just Eat's Alberto Rey Villaverde on Machine Learning, A.I., and Bridging the Imagination Gap (pt. 1) Aug 05, 2020

This is Part 1 of Cindi's interview with Alberto Rey Villaverde, the Chief Data Officer at British online food order and delivery service Just Eat.

On this episode, Alberto and Cindi discuss how machine learning allows data to speak for itself, why artificial intelligence is more effective when it's led with the guiding hand of a human than without, three components crucial to the success of data products and services, adjusting business practices and expectations during pandemics and economic downturns, the talent gap versus the imagination gap in the data industry from a European perspective, data lakes versus data warehouses, and much more.

Key Takeaways:

AI allows the data to speak for itself. Alberto's application of simple neural networking algorithms to massive sets of data efficiently and consistently optimized price points and saved his company money, justifying an expanded budget for AI adoption and development.
AI + humans is better than AI alone. AI augments human abilities, but it doesn't replace them. In unprecedented times (as we're experiencing on multiple fronts in 2020), algorithms especially rely on human imagination to fill in the blanks where there's no historical data to inform an outcome.
Three components crucial to the success of your data products and services. How Alberto sees access, model, and delivery fitting together to justify the cost of innovation necessary to implement new technologies and methodologies for handling data.

More about Alberto:

Alberto Rey Villaverde is the Chief Data Officer at British online food order and delivery service Just Eat. He is a pricing and revenue management professional with extensive experience within the data science field, particularly on BI and advanced analytics, data mining, machine learning techniques, and scenario modeling.

Alberto started his career in advanced analytics as a member of the pricing and revenue management team at easyJet, working in the development of one of the most advanced pricing engines within the industry, where his team pioneered the implementation of machine learning techniques to drive pricing. He holds an MSc in data mining and an MBA from Cranfield University.

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Listen to Part 2 of Cindi's interview with Alberto here.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Moffitt Cancer Center's Dr. Dana Rollison on Accelerating Scientific Discovery with Data Jul 22, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Dr. Dana Rollison, Vice President, Chief Data Officer, and Associate Center Director of Data Science at Moffitt Cancer Center. Dana has been with Moffitt for over 16 years in varying capacities since earning her PhD in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University in 2004. In this episode, she and Cindi discuss her work at Moffitt, how data is accelerating scientific discovery, and what leveraging data from the lab to the clinic looks like in practice.

Key Discussion Points:

What makes Moffitt Cancer Center unique? Moffitt is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the state of Florida, and its level of data and analytics maturity leads in healthcare, a field that traditionally lags.
Moffitt's Total Cancer Care protocol seeks to enroll every one of the center's patients in a research study to find new prevention and treatment strategies through collection of unique data sets.
Trust matters. Dana's win/win approach to data collection earns trust from patients with privacy concerns. This helps her gather the most complete and useful set of information for doctors and researchers to arm themselves in the battle against cancer.
Data has a place in every department. Leveraging data to work in the best, practical interests of all departments and partners provides better integration for everything from clinical effectiveness to operational logistics.

More About Dana:

She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2010, and became a Senior Member in 2017. Her independent research focuses on the application of data science techniques to enhance cancer surveillance and etiologic studies of cutaneous viral infections, environmental exposures, and immune function.

Building upon her experience with linking Cancer Registry data to other administrative, research, and clinical data, Dr. Rollison began serving as Moffitt’s Vice President, Chief Data Officer (CDO) in 2010, setting an executive vision for Moffitt’s enterprise-wide data warehouse and analytics strategy to support team science, clinical pathways, accountable care analytics, data sharing partnerships and the practice of personalized medicine. As CDO, she oversees three Departments within Health Data Services, including the Cancer Registry, Data Quality, and Business Intelligence, and Health Informatics. Current initiatives within Health Data Services include the use of artificial intelligence for mining text within the electronic health record, platform-agnostic curation of molecular data, and migration of enterprise analytics to the cloud.

Recognizing the need to grow intellectual capital in parallel with technical infrastructure, Dr. Rollison expanded her leadership portfolio in 2017 by becoming Moffitt’s first Associate Center Director (ACD) of Data Science and Division Chief for Quantitative Science, overseeing the academic departments of Integrated Mathematical Oncology and Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, as well as two data-related Shared Resources. To better facilitate the development of novel quantitative methods and foster team science, Dr. Rollison pioneered the creation of a new academic track, the Integrated Scientist track, and established a new, third Department of Machine Learning, focused on advancing cancer research through the analysis of complex data sets, including imaging and the IoT.

Leveraging her dual role as CDO and ACD, Dr. Rollison seeks to optimize Moffitt’s extensive data assets across clinical and research areas of the organization, thus accelerating scientific discovery and translational research across the cancer continuum, and ultimately advancing the prevention and cure of cancer.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

The Hartford's Sully McConnell on Data Infrastructure Innovation Jul 08, 2020

Sully McConnell serves as the Chief Data Officer of The Hartford, where he has been since 2018. In this episode, Sully discusses the challenges he faced as a new data chief trying to innovate the infrastructure of an established company. He shares what worked, what hasn’t, and how he’s helped shift the team’s mindset so they can all make the changes needed to modernize the company.

Key Discussion Points:

How an established company stays modern. The challenges a 21st-century data chief faces when trying to innovate and modernize the infrastructure of a 210-year-old insurance company that tends to err on the side of risk-aversion.
Countering one big reason transformation efforts fail. Tips for getting an entrenched team on board with the changes that need to be made in order to move forward.
Is the cost of cloud worth it? Weighing the cost of cloud versus the agility it brings, and the ethics of AI technology when it adds unintentional bias to the results.

More About Sully:

Sully McConnell serves as the Chief Data Officer of The Hartford, where he has been since 2018. He is an innovative technology executive and change agent with deep subject matter expertise in business intelligence, big data, and analytics domains.

Sully has an unusual blend of technical depth, a strong orientation towards customer and employee satisfaction, excellent motivational skills, and broad experience implementing and scaling agile delivery principles in large, complex organizations.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Wunderman Thompson Data's Jacques van Niekerk on Culture, Innovation, and Diversity Jul 01, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Jacques van Niekerk, the Global CEO of Wunderman Thompson Data. On this episode, Jacques and Cindi discuss why data is not the new oil, as many in the industry have proclaimed, but instead should be thought of as ‘the new oxygen’ for businesses. They also explore what it means to focus on your customers' terms over your own, how fostering a culture of curiosity inspires innovation and keeps you ahead of competition, and how encouraging diversity of thought within your organization can lead to unexplored and untapped markets.

Key Takeaways:

Data is not the new oil -- it's oxygen. If you don't take your first-party customer data seriously, your organization runs the risk of asphyxiating before you're even aware of the danger.
Foster diversity of thought and a culture of curiosity. You never know what potential markets you're leaving untapped by excluding unexplored, overlooked, and neglected demographics you could otherwise be serving, or the new ways you can examine and expand upon existing data by viewing it through a new lens.
Want to stay personally relevant? Focus on your customers' terms, not yours, and you'll build experiences that generate a lifetime of loyalty.

More About Jacques

Jacques van Niekerk is the Global CEO of Wunderman Thompson Data, where he is responsible for leveraging his unique experience building global marketing, media, data, and technology businesses to develop and expand the agency’s vision for delivering comprehensive global data platforms, products, analytics, data sciences, and consulting solutions.

Prior to Wunderman Thompson, Jacques was the CEO of Wunderman Data. He has always been considered a pioneer in the digital marketing space, as one of the founders of Acceleration, the premier marketing technology consultancy that helps brands harness the power of marketing technology to maximize growth and enhance the consumer brand experience. Acceleration became part of WPP Digital in 2012 and Wunderman in 2016.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

14 West's Grace Epperson on using data to improve customer experience Jun 24, 2020

On this episode of The Data Chief, Cindi is joined by Grace Epperson, the Chief Analytics Officer at 14 West, an Agora Company. They discuss what Grace's learned in that role, and how her and her team’s mindsets have evolved over the years. Grace also shares her take on why a liberal arts education is valuable in technology industries, plus how data can help marketers create personalized and impactful customer experiences.

Key Takeaways:

Include your customers in the design process. Changing the design process to be consultative, collaborative, and more of a conversation with the customer ensures that the end result meets their needs. Such a minor mindset shift can lead to exceptional results.
Critical thinking matters. In such a rapidly changing field as marketing, being able to intuitively bridge the gap between knowledge and expertise has become an even more valuable skill. With some simple tips, you can cultivate that type of thinking in your team.
How art complements technology. Approaching a career in tech with an education in the liberal arts is an asset, not a hindrance to success.

More About Grace

Grace Epperson is the Chief Analytics Officer at 14 West, an Agora Company. With over 20 years in data, analytics, marketing, and people leadership, she helps folks get value out of data that enable insights, stronger business decisions, and more powerful actions.

Over the years, Grace has held many marketing and operational leadership roles. Since 2011, she has had the privilege of leading 14 West's Business Intelligence team in working with 700+ users across 30+ publishing affiliates worldwide. Whether it's a conversation, an Excel report, a dashboard, an ad hoc question, a data feed, a predictive model, or a means of automated marketing activation, Grace and her team will be there to help affiliates leverage the value of their data.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Schneider Electric's Gustavo Canton on optimizing human potential with AI and automation Jun 10, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Gustavo Canton, VP of People Analytics at Schneider Electric. Gustavo has been with Schneider Electric for nearly three years, where he’s been a change agent driving innovation across Schneider’s growing data initiatives. In today's episode, Cindi and Gustavo discuss using automation to augment (not replace) humans, rebranding HR, scaling pandemic adaptation, the impact of staff well-being on performance, intuiting what customers really need, and team-building.

Key Takeaways:

People aren't machines (and vice versa). Organize the structure so people are doing the work that only humans can do, and allow algorithms to take care of repetitive, mundane, report-driven tasks.
Monitor employee well-being and the impact on performance. We now have the technology to monitor and adjust the variables -- such as workplace air quality -- that contribute to (or detract from) staff well-being and overall performance.
Give the customer what they need (even if they don't know what that is). Only by initiating clear communication and establishing trust with our clients can we best understand and serve their needs -- because they're not always going to know what those needs are.
Leadership at all levels. No matter your role in an organization, you can have an impact. A graduate student made the case to Sam’s Club’s CFO on why they should have fuel stations, based on data.

More About Gustavo:

Nearing his third year at Schneider Electric, Gustavo Canton is the change agent responsible for developing and maturing the company's Global People Analytics and Metrics function. He also co-leads people analytics and data initiatives that sit across the talent lifecycle to help the company improve the way it works and ensure that HR is maximizing the value of data, predicting talent needs, and driving actionable insights.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Avnet's Max Chan on digital transformation and IT innovation May 27, 2020

Today’s guest is Max Chan. Max is the CIO of Avnet where he is responsible for the delivery of all strategic business IT and digital transformation initiatives.

Max sits down with Cindi to discuss Avnet’s long history, digital transformation and innovation in IT, and why the companies that leverage data to find valuable insights are miles ahead of the pack. Plus, Max shares some of the strategies he’s used to keep his team sharp in today’s fast-paced technology landscape.

Key Discussion Points:

A Little About Avnet. Avnet may not be a household name, but it’s a company that’s about to celebrate its 100th anniversary — and the technological components it distributes are in everything from your iPhone’s charging connector to various IoT devices.
From Collected Data to Insightful Data. How the technological leaps of the past five to eight years have allowed Avnet to truly leverage the wealth of data it has at its disposal.
Complimenting Your Internal Team with External Experts. The challenges faced when blending the hands-on experience of Avnet’s long-standing team with the technical savvy of external experts to utilize new tools in a way that’s best for business and morale.

More About Max:

Max Chan is the CIO of Avnet. Max and his team work closely with senior executives to translate business strategies to IT roadmaps and drive prioritization of these initiatives through a global governance process.

Max joined Avnet in 2013 as VP of IT for the Technology Solutions business in Asia Pacific. In this role, he led critical system implementations and enhancements, helping build Avnet’s Global Development Centers, while driving process improvement initiatives in the region. Max was later transferred to Phoenix, Arizona to take on global application and business relationship management roles, before being promoted to his current role in Dec 2018.

Prior to Avnet, Max held several IT leadership roles including; CIO, Asia at VF Corporation, and VP, IT building efficiency, Asia at Johnson Controls.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

PwC's Scott Peck on data storytelling and creating a culture of leadership May 13, 2020

Joining Cindi today is Scott Peck, the Senior Director of the Data & Analytics Center of Excellence at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he’s worked for the past 13 years. In that time, he’s played a vital role in revolutionizing reporting systems, as well as helped revolutionize the role of the data analyst.

In today’s episode, Cindi and Scott discuss what it means to be an ‘Analyst of the Future’, their thoughts on leadership, and why data storytelling is a must-have skill.

Key Takeaways:

Analyst of the Future. How Scott and his team transformed a report factory into proactive, business partners and analytics rock stars.
What is Your Customer Really Asking? Why design thinking and including every level of an organization in problem-solving is the key to finding answers to the questions that customers are really asking.
Creating a Culture of Leadership. How Scott empowers everyone on his team to be a leader and why he thinks cross-training employees in different skill sets is so important.

More About Scott:

Scott Peck is the Senior Director of the Data & Analytics Center of Excellence at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he has a vision to build value for the company and its clients through analytics and innovation while promoting an environment where each team member acts as a confident, motivated, innovative leader essential to that vision.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

VMWare's Stephen Harris on navigating imperfect data Apr 29, 2020

Today’s guest is Stephen Harris, the CDO of VMware. Stephen has more than 20 years in the data, analytics, and professional services fields.

He and Cindi discuss growth, diversity in tech, being a change agent within your organization, bias in AI, data for good, the talent gap, data fluency, and more!

Key Takeaways:

The importance of understanding the role of data and its potential impact when there is an absence of fact or misinterpretation of data.
How Stephen and his team at VMware are using data to navigate the current COVID-19 coronavirus crisis -- internally and externally.
What a flawed facial recognition demo tells us about AI and the risk of bias at scale.

More About Stephen:

Stephen Harris is the CDO and VP Head of Enterprise Data & Analytics of VMware, reporting directly to the company's CFO. His team takes a customer-centric approach to evolving VMware's data and analytic insight capabilities; these capabilities are anchored around four strategic pillars of execution to drive business outcomes.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

ThoughtSpot's Cindi Howson on the new role of the CDO Apr 22, 2020

Cindi Howson is the Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot and our host of The Data Chief. To kick off this new podcast, we wanted to switch the roles… today, Cindi is our guest!

Tune in for a discussion between Cindi and Ian Faison, Executive Producer of The Data Chief, about culture, leadership, innovation, data for good, and what you can expect from future episodes of The Data Chief.

Key Takeaways:

How being an aspiring writer – but a lousy typist – got Cindi into technology.
The biggest changes Cindi has witnessed over the last 20 years.
Where the new role of CDO (Chief Data Officer) fits into the hierarchy among the CIO and CAO, the barriers someone in this position can expect to face, and the ways we can expect this role to evolve in the months and years to come.

More About Cindi:

Cindi Howson is the Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot, formerly a Gartner Research Vice President in Data and Analytics, and the Founder of BI Scorecard, an independent analyst firm focused on helping customers select BI tools and manage their BI portfolio and achieve more impact with data. She is also the author of several books, including Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data and SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0: The Complete Reference.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

About The Data Chief Apr 22, 2020

Data is transforming how we think about life, work, business, healthcare, education, and everything in between. Meet the world’s top data and analytics leaders bringing this data revolution to life.

In each episode of The Data Chief, host Cindi Howson, Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot, sits down with data and analytics leaders to discuss the trends, technologies, and cultures transforming fact-driven companies around the globe.

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The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.

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For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com.

Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

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