Main Takeaways: - Bridge the communication gap between science and the business. - Avoid going down the rabbit hole. - Prioritise people over processes.

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Working as a Team: Data Scientists and
PMs by Zalando PM

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5. Working as a Team:
Data Scientists & Product Managers
Arathi Philips Roy, Product Manager at Zalando

6. Agenda
Introduction
The Elements of a Strong Data Science Platform
Challenges & Lessons
01 Communication gap with stakeholders
02 Going down the rabbit hole
03 Silo mentality

7. Hi, I’m Arathi Philips Roy 👋
Mobile Apps Economics &
Experimentation
- Applied Scientists
- Research Economists
- Research engineers

8. The Elements of a Strong Data Science Team
Credible
Ensure that your team has the
capabilities and tools to find insights
that are relevant and valuable.
Your teams can communicate these to
stakeholders in a way that builds trust
and understanding.
Enable data scientists to quickly develop
and iterate those insights to share with
stakeholders in a timely manner.
Agile
To deliver lasting value, it must be easy to
reuse and reproduce work to deliver
up-to-date insights.
Durable

9. Challenges & Lessons
01 Communication gap with stakeholders
02 Going down the rabbit hole
03 Silo mentality

10. “People tend to overlook what they don’t really understand. People will
only remember the number.” - Analyst
01 Challenge: Communication gap with stakeholders

11. “At the end of the day, it’s not about you. It’s about the insight. The
simplicty and the clarity” - Andrew Mangano, Data Intelligence Lead at
Salesforce
01 Challenge

12. 01 Challenge
How might we build trust and understanding with our stakeholders and
bridge the communication gap between science and the business?

13. 01 Lesson
Know your Audience
“What makes me trust [research] is always understanding how things are
done and being able to challenge the approach with the knowledge I have
[of the markets]” - Head of Commercial and Market Strategy

14. 01 Lesson
Know your Audience
As a PM is to help scientists understand the needs and pain points of your
stakeholders:
Speak the same language and avoid jargon. When not possible, a glossary of
terms.
Write specifically for your audience. E.g. TL:DR, Abstract
Make insights actionable. Understand what kind of decisions your stakeholder
needs to make.

15. 02 Challenge: Going down the rabbit hole
Slow (& long) path to value

16. 02 Challenge: Going down the rabbit hole
How might we produce insights in a timely manner and be flexible to
respond to changes?

17. 02 Lesson
Be flexible to change.
As a PM, your role is to establish ways of working that help scientists be agile by:
Sharing work early and getting feedback.
Breaking down research work into iterations with clear definitions of done for
each iteration.
Iteration Objective Definition of Done
1 Review existing literature of possible methods Main methods surveyed and compared
2 Develop criteria for selecting the most suitable method A paper with the recommendation for the
most suitable method, reviewed by the
team.
3 Deploy MVP to production and use for one experiment Experiment completed with significant
findings

18. 03 Challenge: Working in silos
How might we break down the silo mentality and create dynamics of team
effectiveness?

19. 03 Lesson
Prioritise people over processes
As a PM, you should enable your team to do their best work most efficiently
together as a team by ensuring that there is a common understanding of:
Customer/stakeholder: Do we have a shared understanding of who our
customer is and what their needs are?
Purpose: Do we have a shared understanding on why our team exists?
Impact: Are we clear on what success looks like for our team?
Collaboration: Does our team have ways of working that enable us to deliver
impact?

20. Key takeaways
01
Know your audience in order to bridge the communications gap between science
and the business.
02
Get feedback early and be flexible to change to avoid going down the rabbit hole.
03
Create an effective team by prioritising people over processes.

21. THANK YOU!

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