When does one become the other?| wrongbutuseful.substack.com
There’s a truism in the data community that companies always make the mistake of hiring an analyst before a data engineer. I understand why this is such a common thing to say—many companies start hiring data teams without the right tools or support systems to set them up for success, and early data hires often end up doing a lot of data engineering work whether they want to or not. Running analysis and developing metrics without well-curated datasets and data models is like hiking a rocky...| wrongbutuseful.substack.com
It seems like it happened slowly, then all at once. For some time it was the consensus that new data tools and technologies were going to be the thing that finally helped data teams break through, get executive buy-in, and drive the successful outcomes that we all knew they could. But in the past year or so, I’ve been seeing dissent. Commentators and thought-leader-types started asking if we’ve focused too much on technology, at the cost of staying in touch with the needs of the businesse...| wrongbutuseful.substack.com
I was recently talking to a friend who, through a dramatic turn of events, has found herself as the senior-most data leader at her company. Where she previously managed a small team, she is now abruptly responsible for supporting and growing the careers of every individual contributor in the organization, roadmapping and coordinating across three separate data teams, and generally trying to create a sense of stability for the everyone else during a chaotic time. It’s the type of situation t...| wrongbutuseful.substack.com