This past week I have technically been without a job, albeit dramatic it is technically true. Whilst I start my new job tomorrow as of the time of writing this, I decided that between jobs I would challenge myself to a small hackathon - as most people do… right? Anyway the challenge I set myself was one that I have seen asked a few times “Can I use ggplot2 with pipes?
I have always had a fascination with Japan and between my undergraduate and Ph.D. I tried to learn Japanese, I didn’t get very far back then learning only useless phrases. Recently my fascination has reignited and I have decided to try and learn Japanese again, this time the way in which I am learning is first by learning the kana which are syllabic characters and then slowly progressing up to kanji which are logographic in nature.
Whilst it is important to show that a company is able to utilise the latest and greatest data technologies it is equally, if not more, important to build tools and processes that enable people without the data science skillset to regularly and consistently extract knowledge and information from their commonly used data sets. This democratisation of data not only narrows the gap between the data science teams and the other teams within a company, but it also potentially provides an educational boost meaning further collaborations are more productive and that they can speak about the company’s data science offering with more confidence.
Whilst the range of techniques and tools we can use to extract and analyse data are vast and increasing, out with the data community the process of selecting the final modelling technique is not usually of interest or applicable use to the wider organisation. As such it is important to keep in mind the final step of any analytical process, placing the results back into an interpretable and actionable context.
Over recent years, the role of data has become more prominent in business; however, the integration of data teams in businesses can be fraught and oft times ineffective due a lack of communication and willingness on both sides to adapt. The solution to get beyond this impasse is to learn to speak each other’s language; however, that is easier said than done. If we think of this like a house that requires more space, the best solution is a remodel as opposed to sticking a modern extension onto a 19th century building.
