#82 Why Nonprofits Need to Implement Data Science with Dr. Beverly Wright – Analytics Officer, Speaker, & Podcast Host
Beverly has spent over twenty-five years leading and executing Marketing Analytics and Modeling through corporate, consulting, and academic experience. She leads the Data Science Practice for RelationalAI for Atlanta, and serves several companies with data science strategy, insights, solutions, and training. In her role heading Georgia Tech's Business Analytics Center, Beverly managed business community engagements, as well as student experience aspects of the Center. Beverly earned a PhD in Marketing Science, a Master of Science degree in Analytical Methods, and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Decision Sciences.
Beverly has had a very deliberate data science journey. In 1989, she took a decision sciences course, it was one of the only courses in the nation at that time. She absolutely loved the class and hasn’t looked back since. Beverly has been a consultant for ten years, taught for sixteen years, and worked directly with clients by leading teams. Different types of life events have led Beverly all over the place. She is not picky about what kind of job she is doing; Beverly is just passionate about data science. Beverly says it is important to have experience before becoming a teacher, because it allows you to pull from past experiences in the workforce.
In the nonprofit sector, data scientists take the work really seriously. When they are doing a project on opioid addiction, the scientists learn everything about opioid addiction. Beverly says it is challenging to recruit people to work for the nonprofit sector. The recruits do not really understand what the company is trying to accomplish or how they can benefit. However, when asking for volunteers it becomes overwhelming; Beverly says they are constantly asking for extra space for their meetings.
Then, Beverly explains how she started her podcast. As a professor, Beverly started talking to students and asking what resources they were missing. The students said they wanted a podcast. Beverly went to a meeting about how to start a podcast; her first interview was successful and it just snowballed from there. When she stopped teaching at the university, the school decided not to continue her show. So, Beverly rebranded her show and got a sponsor immediately. She gets to interview loads of different data scientists and a big topic on her podcast is ethics in data.
Later, Beverly reveals some of the things she teaches executives about data science. Data scientists like to work on impact projects. However, Beverly tends to focus on impact, strategy, and the enablement. Strategy is the overarching big picture - the strategy should be your plan; you would be surprised how many companies do not have a big picture plan for their data scientists. A data science strategy should be C.A.S.I.: collaborative, aligned, sharing, innovation. Beverly points out that data scientists can come up with loads of insights and solutions. Unless they can come up with a way to enable those insights and solutions, they will never have an impact. In the past, executives have been awarded for having a golden gut. They make decisions based on intuition in the absences of data. Executives are relived that they no longer need to make golden gut decisions anymore because of data.
Data takes time, if you don’t understand it then you won’t know what the limitations are. One of Beverly’s clients wanted to understand their customer’s experience. The number one goal of the company was to improve experience. Beverly said the data she was given had nothing to do with the customer experience – an example of not knowing how to utilize data. Then, Beverly explains her experiences as a consultant. She loves the variety that it offers from working at different companies. One aspect Beverly has been able to help out with is improving recommendation engines. People are relying more and more on ecommerce and recommendations. Consumers are using recommendations almost exclusively for their shopping. It is essential for companies to know exactly what a single customer would like to purchase. Stay tuned to hear Beverly dive deep into strategy, enablement, and impact. Plus, Beverly explains challenges with data access, how collaboration in data science can benefit your work, and her thoughts on diversity in data science.
Enjoy the show!
We speak about:
[03:15] How Beverly started in the data space
[04:30] Should you get experience before getting a PhD?
[06:50] Beverly’s career path
[08:35] When did you start each project you’ve been working on?
[09:00] What surprises you the most about the nonprofit sector?
[10:00] How was the process of starting a nonprofit?
[11:55] What is the recruiting process for your nonprofit?
[13:40] How did you get started with a podcast?
[16:40] How has the experience been with podcast interviews?
[17:50] How executive education has been for Beverly
[19:00] How do you describe the data journey for executives?
[21:30] What about the golden gut?
[23:30] Advice for changing workplace culture to embrace data
[25:20] Do some executives want data to make all their decisions?
[27:00] About Beverly’s consulting work
[29:30] What type of industries have you been working with?
[33:00] What makes a good strategy?
[36:00] About the enablement pillar
[31:40] About the impact pillar
[46:00] What are your views on where data access is going?
[48:20] How has collaboration benefited your work?
[51:00] What would you say to people who are afraid of the amount of demand they will get for connecting with people too early?
[52:45] Beverly’s thoughts on diversity in data science
[57:00] How did you develop your communication skills?
[59:30] How do you improve your communication skills?
[62:30] What is your advice for people just starting in this space?
Resources:
Beverly’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbeverlywright/
Beverly’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/drbdub?lang=en
Beverly’s Podcast: https://tagdsa.org/tag-data-talk/
RelationalAI: https://www.relational.ai/
ATLytiCS: https://www.meetup.com/ATLytiCS-Analytics-For-Good/
Quotes:
“Old and successful companies tend to have a really hard time using data.”
“Companies that rely on data science outperform other companies.”
“I love things that are related to understanding consumers.”
“Collaboration in data science is not easy. The absence of collaboration is a whole lot of treadmill running.”
Dr. Beverly Wright is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
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