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Data and The One with Kitchen
Data in most organizations looks like a messy kitchen at first glance. In my mind, this kitchen combines both modern and traditional features: a black stone floor, grey walls, low ceiling with many spot lights, an old fridge in the far right corner and an island in the middle where a black, shiny, marble counter is placed on top of antique wooden cabinet doors. Although it looks brand new, sturdy and fascinating at first, the shadows of cracks on the newly painted walls, rusty joints and pipes hidden beneath the cabinets and structural abnormalities in the infrastructure are hard to miss once you start looking closer. And the early meetings between technical and business people are when we, data scientists, have a glimpse of these kitchens and are asked for a full-course feast to be ready for the dinner party the owner is going to throw by the end of the day.
‘Feast’ indeed refers to different things for each organization. For some, it means ‘an improvement in their existing processes’, for others it means ‘a discovery of new ways’. But for all of them, it consists of three main items: 1) understanding of data; 2) creating an analytical, customized solution and 3) still being within the budget and time they are willing to spend on this project. In other words, before getting started, with that feast in mind, we, data scientists, need to know 1) What is in the kitchen?, 2) What are the…
