Before You Deploy a Citizen Data Scientist Initiative, Understand What That Means!

When a business takes on the task of transforming business users to Citizen Data Scientists, they might have very clear goals mind but they may not have a firm grasp on what the role means or how to provide the business user with an understanding of what the role will be (what it will not be) and how it will change their day-to-day work.

Let’s take a look at the role, who will take on the role and how it will work.

Citizen Data Scientists are not business analysts or data scientists – they are business users and team members within the organization. The typical profile of an ideal Citizen Data Scientist is a person who is respected within the organization, and often shares data and information with other users to collaborate and produce outcomes that are designed to achieve goals and objectives and produce a successful outcome. These individuals may already be ‘power users’ of business applications and may have developed and reported or presented data to others with an eye toward clarifying their decision-making. Citizen Data Scientist candidates may also be IT team members who are interested in data science.

One of the most important tasks a Citizen Data Scientist will take on is to use augmented analytics; that is analytics that provide simple recommendations and suggestions to help users easily choose visualization and predictive analytics techniques from within the analytical tool without the need for expert analytical skills. When a Citizen Data Scientist uses these tools, the resulting analysis can be combined with the professional knowledge and specific domain skills of the individual to better understand and gain insight into trends, patterns, issues and opportunities and improve time to market, accuracy of predictions, and metrics and measurements. Adopting these tools and techniques and actively engaging in augmented analytics allows the Citizen Data Scientist to more effectively interact with and collaborate with the IT team and data scientists to prepare data and use data in use cases, and to refine outcomes and improve data-driven decision making across the enterprise. Our Article, ‘Provide the Right Augmented Analytics Solution and Features for Business Users’ will provide more detail on these tools and how to select the right augmented analytics solution for your business users.

The ideal candidate for a Citizen Data Scientist role is someone who may need external data to do their job and make good decisions, and may already be using tools like Excel at a ‘power user’ level. The organization should nominate business users who are respected members of the business community and curious by nature. Team members who are willing to act as champions for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of workflow and processes, and those who enjoy collaboration and liaison roles are ideal candidates.

If your business is planning a Citizen Data Scientist initiative, you don’t have to do this alone! Contact Us to today or Click Here to explore training for Citizen Data Scientists, designed to help you begin your Citizen Data Scientist journey.

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