I’m going to ignore my problems with the term “data scientists” and focus on the actual topic. This is going to be the first of several posts on the subject.
Cathy O’Neil of Intent Media talked about hiring data scientists at today’s Strata Summit. To attract someone good, remember they are looking for interesting projects and good data. She says, and I agree, that you don’t need a PhD, but rather someone with hands-on experience working on independent projects.
When interviewing the person, you need someone who understands stats. If you don’t understand the topic, it would be worthwhile to hire a consultant or borrow a friend to help out. Of course, make sure that the person is a good communicator. If they can’t explain the stats in lay terms, then maybe they aren’t going to work out, especially if they’re going to be a team leader.
In terms of using the new hire, make sure that he/she is solving business problems and are thus deeply involved with company decision-makers. If that actually happens, I’m skeptical about. Most executives say they are data-driven, but in reality
Also, you can use these folks to create reports. This allows the company to not rely on canned BI reports and/or relying on the IT team to create these reports, which are often created using knowledge of SQL.