Maybe no one used what you had built. Perhaps the project was canceled before it even launched because it got too complicated or ran over-budget. Or it merely failed to meet customer expectations. Maybe it was just "re-prioritized," but deep down you knew, that the project was unlikely to be restarted. Why did you even bother to do all that hard work? Everything you had so carefully tweaked — did it matter? The numerous analyses you had performed and meticulously researched — was all that effort wasted? The difficult conversations where you asked for more time to address blocking issues — was the effort futile? Well, not entirely.
I realized that working hard, even if it's well-intentioned, isn't enough — you not only need to get things done but get the right things done. If your project fails to launch or if you build the wrong product and no one uses it, your impact is limited — no matter how hard you worked on it.
Work smarter, not harder - More effort DOES NOT necessarily mean more impact.
Over the years, I collected stories throughout my professional career and in discussions with peers. Stories about the most valuable insights they've learned and the most common and costly mistakes that they've seen data scientists make. Knowing these basic principles would have saved me a lot of time, effort, and frustration earlier in my career.
Matt von Rohr, Analytics Consulting Manager, Teradata, will be talking about "The Data Scientists Survival Guide": 10 things that might save your next analytical project" @ #TIF_CH2019!