When a business user takes on the new role of Citizen Data Scientist, it is often with misgivings and concerns. If their business and management team have not adequately explained the expectations of this new role, or made the workflow and cultural changes required to ensure that this new role is successful, the business user and team member is likely to fail, and the Citizen Data Scientist initiative is likely to fail.
Gartner has rightfully predicted the rise of Citizen Data Scientists. Coming from the ranks of business users, Citizen Data Scientists continue to function in their primary roles and fulfill their responsibilities as they take on the tasks of aligning with Digital Transformation initiatives and improving data literacy. Their new role does require that they embrace some new concepts and become comfortable with analytics and with making decisions using augmented analytical tools.
When a business considers the wisdom and benefit of Digital Transformation, it often thinks first of the cost and the chaos it anticipates and may think that the investment and disruption is not worth the effort. But, the benefits of Digital Transformation cannot be ignored. There are many reasons to consider this type of initiative, and we look at some of those in this article.
Your business users probably fight you on improving data literacy and on implementing digital transformation. Many business users have a fear of analytics and envision having to become a business analyst or a data scientist in order to fulfill the vision of the business and its Citizen Data Scientist goals.
eCommerce and online shopping businesses employ professionals in many roles including sales managers, marketing professionals, social media experts, product and service professionals and others. Together, every role in a business is designed to create a team that will ensure business success and, with eCommerce exploding, it is easy to think that the right people can get the job done.
If your business wishes to enable Digital Transformation, it must create a roadmap to achieve results using new or modified technologies, streamlined workflow and processes that will leverage these technologies to enhance information sharing and ensure a consistent, uniform approach to business objectives and goals. It must also encourage and advance Data Literacy within the ranks of its teams. Why is data literacy important?
When a business initiates a Citizen Data Scientist movement within its ranks, it is important to recognize the other changes that will be required in order to reinforce the value of the program by reviewing and modifying team member evaluation and merit programs to reward Citizen Data Scientists for their collaboration, use of data-driven information in decisions and recommendations and work with Data Scientists, IT and others involved in the new initiative.
When a business user is given the mantle of Citizen Data Scientist, they being a journey that can help to advance their career, provide leadership experience and improve visibility across the organization. But, in order to embrace this new part of their position, they must understand a number of things.
When Gartner talks about expanding data analytics to business users, they also talk about how the analytical tools must be suitable for business users. If a business wants to implement a Citizen Data Scientist initiative and encourage their business users to become more productive and valuable within the business environment, that business must provide tools that are easy enough for the average business user and will allow them to easily adopt these tools to make day-to-day decisions.
What Are Citizen Data Scientists?
Citizen Data Scientists represent a new breed of business analysts – a group of individuals with diverse business responsibilities and training, who wield sophisticated analytical tools, and employ complex methods of analysis to improve business results – all without the training or assistance of data scientists or IT team members. Citizen Data Scientists are business users who leverage the knowledge and skill they have developed through professional training and business roles to navigate business intelligence and advanced analytical tools to answer business questions, identify trends and patterns and develop new competitive strategies to support business decisions.
