Ch 8. What Makes a Great Analytic Professional? Taming The Big Data Tidal Wave 7 June 2012 SNU IDB Lab. Jee-bum Park

Outline  Who Is the Analytic Professional?  The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals  Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception  The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional  Is Analytics Certification Needed, or Is It Noise? 2

Who Is the Analytic Professional? (1/2) Analytic Professional  The most common names used traditionally – Analyst – Data miner – Data scientist – Predictive modeler – Statistician  Analytic Professional – Spend a lot of time analyzing big data and using tools 3

Who Is the Analytic Professional? (2/2) Analytic Professional  Great analytic professional – Have no problem picking up a new programming language or tool – Learn about a new data source and how it can be applied 4 Analytic professional Big data

Outline  Who Is the Analytic Professional?  The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals  Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception  The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional  Is Analytics Certification Needed, or Is It Noise? 5

The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals (1/3) The Common Misconceptions  It is usually assumed that – A great analytic professional is going to need  A statistics, math, computer science, or similar degree – Success will require a master’s or PhD degree – Programming experience  The logic behind this criterion is that – A great analytic professional must be able to use tools well 6

The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals (2/3) The Common Misconceptions  Having skills is certainly necessary to be a great analytic professional  But they are not sufficient to make a person a great analytic professional  While those skills are important, they are not the most important factors in distinguishing a great analytic professional 7 Statistics Math Programming Great analytic professional

The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals (3/3) The Common Misconceptions  A great analytic professional – Understand the business problems an organization is trying to solve – Understand how to generate the analysis needed to address the organization’s business problems effectively 8 Analytic professionalBusiness problems Solving effectively

Outline  Who Is the Analytic Professional?  The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals  Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception  The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional  Is Analytics Certification Needed, or Is It Noise? 9

Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception (1/3) Education  Don’t focus exclusively on formal education  Focus on whether an analytic professional has learned what is required to do the job 10

Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception (2/3) Industry Experience  A great analytic professional in one industry can learn about another and become great there  Getting some outside perspectives from another industry can be quite beneficial  A team can learn a lot from somebody outside the industry 11

Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception (3/3) Beware “The List”  Hire knowledge and skills, not check boxes  Many aspects of a great analytic professional involve factors that aren’t technical in nature at all 12

Outline  Who Is the Analytic Professional?  The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals  Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception  The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional  Is Analytics Certification Needed, or Is It Noise? 13

The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional (1/4) Commitment  Commitment is a trait that benefits every profession  This trait tends to come across in an interview based on how the candidate describes hos or her past work and successes 14

The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional (2/4) Creativity  Creativity is how to get around those barriers and still get to an end result that hits the mark  A creative analytic professional will have a good story to tell you  For example – Clean data is only in textbooks – Clean-enough data 15

The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional (3/4) Business Savvy  Great analytic professionals have the ability to understand the business model – How analytics can address that business’s problems  Great analytic professionals are going to be able to focus on what the important metrics and outcomes  For example – The right level of granularity – Focusing on the important 16

The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional (4/4) Presentation and Communication Skills  A great analytic professional is going to be able to engage non- technical people  Analytic professionals must get the results across to them effectively, or the results may as well not exist 17

Outline  Who Is the Analytic Professional?  The Common Misconceptions about Analytic Professionals  Every Great Analytic Professional Is an Exception  The Often Underrated Traits of a Great Analytic Professional  Is Analytics Certification Needed, or Is It Noise? 18

Is Analytics Certification Needed, or Is It Noise? Analytics Certification  It’s not a bad thing that they have the skills and motivation to pass a relevant exam  But certainly they will only be a starting point in assessing a candidate 19

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