People

When discussing the people related to a data-driven organization, we should not only mention the specialists that create the data products. The members of the data science team possess the competencies shown in the Conway diagram in Figure 1.3. They also need to be able to communicate the results of their work to colleagues or clients and convince them to implement the findings.

Data science does not only exclusively happen within the specialized team. Each data project has an internal or external customer that has a problem in need of an answer. The data science team and the users of their products work together to improve the organization. This implies that a data scientist needs to understand the basic principles of organizational behavior and change management and be a good communicator. In reverse, the recipients of data science need to have enough data literacy to understand how to interpret and use the results.

The Data Science Team

Contemporary folklore portrays...