White Paper – The Potential of the Citizen Data Scientist Approach and Augmented Analytics

White Paper – The Potential of the Citizen Data Scientist Approach and Augmented Analytics

Understanding the role of a Citizen Data Scientist and the opportunities provided by this approach is the first step in leveraging the Citizen Data Scientist approach. Engaging a vendor and choosing the right Augmented Analytics Business Intelligence tools, services, training and deployment will ensure success. The prospect of transforming business users into Citizen Data Scientists may seem daunting but, with the appropriate planning and support, and the appropriate Augmented Analytics solution, the initiative can be extremely successful.

Analytics and Citizen Data Scientists Ensure Business Advantage

Fact-Based Analytics and Citizen Data Scientists = Results

So, you want your business users to embrace and use analytics? You want your business to enjoy the benefits of fact-based decision making? You want your business to use the tools of business intelligence to improve market presence, customer satisfaction and team productivity and collaboration?

‘Whether you are trying to solve a business problem, get to the heart of that problem, find a business opportunity, predict the need for resources, new products or locations or understanding changes in your customer buying behavior, you don’t have time to learn complex tools or take training in analytics.’

Gartner has predicted that, ‘a scarcity of data scientists will no longer hinder the adoption of data science and machine learning in organizations.’ And that is the good news. But, if the business is to leverage the potential of analytics within the organization, it must choose the right analytics tools to ensure that business users will adopt analytics in day-to-day tasks.

If your enterprise wishes to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists and use augmented analytics to gain a competitive advantage, it must provide easy-to-use tools that do NOT require team members to be business analysts or IT professionals – tools that allow users to quickly gather data using self-serve data preparation, using data integrated from disparate data repositories with smart data visualization to view, format and share results that are clear, concise and actionable.

The business market is more competitive than ever and in today’s environment it isn’t enough to simply analyze historical data. To make good business decisions, adjust strategies and forecast and plan, you must use that historical data to plan for the future.

Businesses that can gather data from disparate sources and use historical data to understand trends and patterns and forecast for the future can establish and sustain a competitive advantage and plan more effectively and accurately, avoiding missteps in the market and costly mistakes.

If your business wishes to sustain a competitive advantage, if you as a user wish to advance in your career and build your value to the organization, it is incumbent upon you to embrace the trend of data democratization, data literacy and self-serve, augmented analytics.

For Competitive Advantage, Enable Citizen Data Scientists with Augmented Analytics

Today, augmented analytics and smart data discovery make it easier for business users, data scientists, IT staff and the organization to benefit from fact-based decision-making, collaboration, data literacy and the ability to easily, gather, integrate and analyze data.

Whether you are trying to solve a business problem, get to the heart of that problem, find a business opportunity, predict the need for resources, new products or locations or understanding changes in your customer buying behavior, you don’t have time to learn complex tools or take training in analytics.

What you need are apps and solutions that allow you to ask easy questions in your own words and receive guidance and recommendations on how to best visualize and present your data and what techniques to use to gain the most insight.

Use a simple low-code, no-code analytics platform and augmented analytics and BI tools designed for business users with real-world business cases to find answers and solve problems. You can untangle quality and maintenance issues, refine customer targeting and marketing optimization, make appropriate financial investment decisions, and even use external data to analyze trends and patterns and make forecasts and predictions, helping users and the business to achieve success in industries and businesses like retail, pharmacy and wellness, insurance, manufacturing, government and public sector, utilities, and other industries.

‘If your enterprise wishes to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists and use augmented analytics to gain a competitive advantage, it must provide easy-to-use tools that do NOT require team members to be business analysts or IT professionals.’

To find out more about how to ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) results, gain a competitive market advantage, and enable user adoption, read our free White Paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI.’ Explore The Benefits of our Augmented Analytics And BI ToolsContact Us. Keep pace with changing enterprise needs and support business agility. Let us help you realize your business goals and objectives with fact-based information, and flexible, scalable technology solutions that will support Citizen Data Scientist initiatives, and improved data literacy and data democratization.

Is the Citizen Data Scientist Approach Right For My Business?

Find Out the How of the Citizen Data Scientist Approach

In 2016, the technology research firm, Gartner, coined the term ‘Citizen Data Scientist,’ and defined it as ‘a person who creates or generates models that leverage predictive or prescriptive analytics, but whose primary job function is outside of the field of statistics and analytics.’

‘When business users make the transition to Citizen Data Scientists with access to augmented analytics solutions, they can provide additional value to the team, to managers and executives and allow IT and data scientists to focus on strategic goals.’

In the ensuing years, the Citizen Data Scientist role has become more refined, and those businesses that embrace this approach have seen real benefits. But just who are Citizens Data Scientists, and how does a business recognize candidates and benefit from enabling this role?

What Does the Citizen Data Scientist Concept Entail, and Can My Business Capitalize On Its Potential?

How Do I Find Citizen Data Scientist Candidates Within My Business? You will find your Citizen Data Scientist candidates among your business users and team members. They are curious and eager to learn new skills to contribute to the organization and to hone their skills for career advancement. Team members who make great Citizen Data Scientists are often power users, and are acknowledged as leaders within their own team. They are NOT IT professionals, analysts or data scientists but they share a common characteristic for precision and wanting to get it right the first time.

What Does a Citizen Data Scientist Do? Within the context of their roles and responsibilities, every business user needs clear, meaningful information to make fact-based decisions and recommendations. Citizen Data Scientists use data to create reports on a daily basis. As the Citizen Data Scientist role evolved, team members have leveraged the advantages of this data to share reports, to create and format presentations for recommendations and suggested changes to support pricing decisions, hiring, production, new products and services, financial investments, marketing and advertising campaigns, and many other decisions. As the movement grows within your organizations, you can enable data democratization and improve data literacy. Citizen Data Scientists can also work with IT, data scientists and business analysts to share their research and analytics when the business feels it is necessary to take the analytics to another level to ensure credibility for strategic decisions.

What Tools and Training Does a Citizen Data Scientist Need? One of the primary reasons the Gartner predictions have come to fruition is he evolution of the business intelligence (BI) and augmented analytics market to support the concept of Citizen Data Scientists. Today’s analytics solutions are easy-to-use, self-serve tools driven by Natural Language Processing (NLP), and machine learning, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI). All of these technologies come together to support the business user and provide tools that are sophisticated in their functionality, yet intuitive and easy for a business user. These tools do not require IT skills or data science knowledge. When the team uses these tools, they can adopt a common language and techniques to work with IT and data scientists to create use cases and refine and share reports, formats and outcomes. The more complete, and intuitive the solution, the less training and onboard time the user will require. There are simple, Free Training Courses available that can help your business and your team understand the uses and benefits of this approach and enable user adoption.

When business users make the transition to Citizen Data Scientists with access to augmented analytics solutions, they can provide additional value to the team, to managers and executives and allow IT and data scientists to focus on strategic goals. Using Augmented Analytics Tools like self-serve data preparation to gather and prepare data, and smart data visualization to receive suggestions and recommendations on how to best view data, users can combine predictive analytics to forecast and model, and sophisticated tools like anomaly monitoring, key influencers, and sentiment analysis to gain crucial insight into changes in customer buying behavior, supplier issues, product time-to-market, trends, patterns and opportunities with dependable metrics to make data-driven decisions.

‘The Citizen Data Scientist role has become more refined, and those businesses that embrace this approach have seen real benefits.’

If your business wishes to capitalize on the potential of the Citizen Data Scientist approach, it important to work with an IT Partner who can help you define your requirements and strategize for optimal success, providing the augmented analytics tools and knowledge of the industry that is required to position you for success.

Original Post : Is the Citizen Data Scientist Approach Right For My Business?

Why Should Business Users WANT to be a Citizen Data Scientist?

Making the Case for Citizen Data Scientists!

When a business decides to undertake a data democratization initiative, improve data literacy and create a role for Citizen Data Scientists, the management team often assumes that business users will be eager to participate, and that assumption can cause these initiatives to fail.

An IT Partner Can Help Your Citizen Data Scientist Initiative

Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Program Results with a Partner

If your business has embraced the Citizen Data Scientist approach and are trying to get started with your initiative, you want to plan for success.

Gartner predicts that, ‘…automation of data science tasks will enable citizen data scientists to produce a higher volume of advanced analysis, than specialized data scientists.’

But if you are to achieve the results this prediction promises, you must ensure that your business has the expertise and the resources to plan for, execute, monitor and upgrade your environment so that you can achieve your goals now and in the future.

‘Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite.’

For those businesses that are planning a Citizen Data Scientist initiative, it is wise to choose an IT consulting partner. You don’t have to go it alone! The right partner can help you with strategies and walk you through the process to build a new foundation and to support your future growth and adapt to changing market environs.

Engage a Skilled IT Partner and Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success

Capabilities

Choose an IT consultant that can provide data science, analytics, technology, and soft leadership skills to ensure that your project is well staffed, and that you have what you need 24/7. The right IT consultant will have a plan to keep the augmented analytics products evergreen and grow with the field of technology and innovation.

Services

Choose an IT consultant that can help you plan and implement your Citizen Data Scientist initiative with workshops, webinars, and other resources designed to jump start data democratization, help you achieve appropriate data governance and do it all with minimal training and time investment. Services should include onsite, offsite or hybrid delivery, requirements planning, project management, architecture and data management, data science support, business user support, training.

Skills and Experience

Be sure the IT consultant you choose has a wealth of experience and references and a proven track record. Compare their services, fees and staffing capabilities to other vendors and consultants and choose wisely. You will want an IT consultant that can:

  • Encourage Collaboration
  • Engender Accountability
  • Improve user adoption, improve Business Intelligence ROI and overall organizational value
  • Improve Data Literacy
  • Increase Fact-Based Decision-Making
  • Optimize IT, Data Scientist and Business User resources
  • Transform Business Users into Citizen Data Scientists!
  • Provide Mobile Access for Business Users – Anytime, Anywhere!
  • Support rapid implementation and deployment

Select the Right Augmented Analytics Solution

Not all augmented analytics solutions are equal! Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite that includes:

‘If you are to achieve the results this prediction promises, you must ensure that your business has the expertise and the resources to plan for, execute, monitor and upgrade your environment so that you can achieve your goals now and in the future.’

The right augmented analytics solution can make or break your Citizen Data Scientist program. Your users do not want a solution that is hard to learn or takes too much time. They want something that will support their needs and make their job easier – a solution that will give them clear, concise data without the need for advanced skills or knowledge. If you provide them with tools that are easy to learn, and a clear path to complete their transition to Citizen Data Scientist, they are more likely to embrace the concept and support the initiative, and your business will achieve the goals it has established.

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘The Importance And Benefits Of A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist And How Has Their Role Changed?’ ‘Planning And Preparing For A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

Plan Carefully for a Citizen Data Scientist Program

Create a Plan for Citizen Data Scientists

The term, ‘Citizen Data Scientist’ has been around since 2016, when the world-renowned technology research firm, Gartner, coined the phrase. Whether you want to know more about the concept, understand the concept and would like to know if your business can leverage this approach to improve its market position and customer visibility, or you have embraced the Citizen Data Scientist approach and are looking for ways to expand and refine the concept within your own business environment, we are here to help.

As Gartner research states, ‘Early adopters of augmented analytics have the potential to realize more strategic and differentiating business benefits from their analytics investments than those who wait until these technologies are widely adopted.’

Planning and Preparing for a Citizen Data Scientist Initiative

One of the most important aspects of any new, large scale initiative, is preparation and when it comes to the Citizen Data Scientist approach, preparation is equally important. Let’s look at some of the primary factors and considerations you must include in your planning process.

‘Will you deploy the augmented analytics solution across the entire enterprise at once, or will you roll it out by division, department, location, etc.? Who will be in charge of the deployment?’

Review Technology and Business Processes

Look at your current technology and all the places your data resides (data warehouses, the cloud (private or public), best-of-breed software, legacy software, ERP, CRM, HR, SCM, and other focused solutions that support a particular division, team or department. You will want to integrate data from all possible sources in order to give your users the information they need to perform analytics.

Work with your IT team, and (if you have already chosen an IT consultant) with your advisors to analyze the technology and infrastructure and establish a plan of attack. Consider the network, hardware and software, and decide whether you will want Embedded BI within any popular software solution to allow users to leverage a single sign-on environment to access data and analyze it all in one place.

Review business processes, workflow, approval loops etc., and see where you can gain advantage by including analytics and technology to improve productivity and the quality and speed of decisions.

Involving Stakeholders, Customers, Users, IT, etc.

Management and/or IT cannot plan for and execute this type of change alone. You will need to understand how cascading analytics throughout the organization will impact your users, your customers and others. Establish a team that includes representatives from the various functions, levels and areas within the enterprise.

Listen to their concerns and address those concerns with an appropriate plan for deployment, training, ongoing support, etc. Otherwise, you are unlikely to succeed. User adoption is important but you can also use this time to identify and highlight those areas where you can find opportunities and thereby improve the success metrics and outcomes you hope to achieve.

Choosing an Augmented Analytics Solution

Choosing the right augmented analytics and business intelligence (BI) solution will drive success of a Citizen Data Scientist initiative. These solutions are key to helping you achieve your goals and to supporting your business users as they make the transition to Citizen Data Scientists. Look for a full suite of features and functionality to support your users.

Not all augmented analytics solutions are equal! Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite that includes:

Planning for Deployment

Will you deploy the augmented analytics solution across the entire enterprise at once, or will you roll it out by division, department, location, etc.? Who will be in charge of the deployment? Your team should include representatives from the various groups that have a vested interest in the outcome. When you choose an IT consultant, they can help you plan for and execute your strategy so that it is successful and you are not overwhelmed.

Depending on the solution you choose, you will have to consider citizen data scientist training. While there are citizen data scientist certification courses, if you choose the right augmented analytics solution you are not likely to need this type of training but, rather a simple introduction that will explain the new role, how to work with and collaborate with data scientists and IT and how to use the augmented analytics solution to get the information the business user needs in a way that is meaningful to them.

‘One of the most important aspects of any new, large scale initiative, is preparation and when it comes to the Citizen Data Scientist approach, preparation is equally important.’

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘The Importance And Benefits Of A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist And How Has Their Role Changed? ‘Engage A Skilled IT Partner And Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

What Are the Benefits of a Citizen Data Scientist Initiative?

Understand the Benefits of Citizen Data Scientists

Businesses are discovering the importance and the value of using Citizen Data Scientists within the organization to collaborate and share data and to learn from each other and from the patterns, trends and insights data can provide and use that insight to solve problems and to identify opportunities.

The Importance of Citizen Data Scientists has become a focus for the wise business executive and manager. Understanding Citizen Data Scientists and how they can supplement analytics and help the organization to be more successful, can be a real competitive advantage for a business, whether that business is in a local market, a global industry, a vertical niche or a broad corporate footprint.

‘There is ample research to illustrate the value of an educated team, and the more information your team has to make the right decision, the less rework and missteps the organization will experience.’

In this article, we focus on the Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists, assuming a well-conceived program. These benefits assume the identification and selection of an appropriate augmented analytics solution to support business users and the business organization.

Benefits to the Enterprise

  • Turning business users into Citizen Data Scientists can have many benefits for the business organization.
  • Allows the organization to improve data democratization and leverage all-important data to make objective decisions
  • Creates a metrics-based decision-making process that is measurable and can be easily adapted and managed
  • Improves the value of team member contribution
  • Optimizes professionals skills of data scientists and IT professionals and allows them to focus on strategic and operational tasks and goals
  • Improves Competitive Advantage by optimizing resources, skills, knowledge and data
  • Allows the organization to be agile and to adapt quickly to the market and to changing customer behavior
  • Identifies challenges and issues before they become a real problem
  • Identifies opportunities for growth and customer engagement

Benefits to Data Scientists

  • Allows Data Scientists to focus on strategic initiatives, rather than constantly responding to business user requests
  • Allows Data Scientists to collaborate and engage with business users in a meaningful way to build teams and expand knowledge and understanding of the business
  • Creates the foundation for additional tools and techniques that can be leveraged by Data Scientists with advanced skills

Benefits to IT Professionals

  • Enables IT professionals to focus on day-to-day and strategic objectives and tasks without having to respond to business user requests for reports and information from data repositories
  • Provides additional data governance and the ability to monitor and track ‘popular’ data and reports and to create environs that offer users and data scientists the right support
  • Allows IT professionals to collaborate with business users and data scientists to better support the organization and to identify opportunities for their own growth and potential

Benefits to Business Users

  • Builds an understanding of data in a way that is meaningful to a business user role and responsibilities
  • Supports fact-based decision-making and alleviates issues resulting from decisions made by guesswork and opinion
  • Allows users to easily integrate and gather data for analytics and to leverage sophisticated tools in an intuitive environment
  • Improves business user data literacy and data democratization providing information that is crucial to team members and to the successful completion of tasks and workflow
  • Supports day-to-day analytics and allows business users to make clear, concise recommendations and suggestions to improve outcomes
  • Allows business users to collaborate with data scientists and It professionals for refinement of analytics to take data insight to the next level for strategic decisions
  • Enables career advancement and expands knowledge, team visibility and success
  • Ensures that all team members within the enterprise have the right information to do their jobs and to support organizational goals and objectives

The Risks Of Empowering Citizen Data Scientists are often discussed in industry publications, so it is important to mention this side of the argument. Citizen Data Scientist pros and cons typically fall into these general categories:

  • Business Users should not be given access to data because of security or data governance concerns
    Note: The right augmented analytics tools and solutions will provide multi-layered security and allow IT to create appropriate access to data and ensure the security and privacy of the data the executive management team wishes to isolate or guard.
  • Analytics is not appropriate for business users because they can’t understand the data or reports and may use the data in appropriately
    Note: While every business users may not need to use data analytics every day, many will. Roles and responsibilities will dictate this need and, with the right solution, even users with average technology skills can gather and create analytics that are easy to understand and will guide the team to clear, concise results and decisions.
  • The use of analytics in the general business community is not necessary and does not provide value
    Note: There is ample research to illustrate the value of an educated team, and the more information your team has to make the right decision, the less rework and missteps the organization will experience. Think of your team as an army. Everyone has to know what direction they are headed, and have the information they need to get the job done, or your success will be at risk. Provide the support your team needs to learn the new approach and trust them to apply their market, industry and functional knowledge to analytics to achieve the best outcome and the clearest decisions.
  • The cost of providing analytics to business users is too high and is not supported by the value it provides
    Note: The right augmented analytics solution does not have to be expensive, or difficult to implement or learn. Assess your current situation and your needs and choose a solution that will support your team and your budget and schedule. It IS possible and it will provide numerous benefits and add value far beyond the cost of the solution.
Minimum Viable Products (MVP) Produces Better Business Start-Up Results

Turning Business Users Into Citizen Data Scientists is a process that should not be taken lightly – but that doesn’t mean it is impossible or even daunting. It simply means you must prepare and, like any other shift within your organization, you must adapt your culture, your technology, your business processes and your workflow.

‘Understanding Citizen Data Scientists and how they can supplement analytics and help the organization to be more successful, can be a real competitive advantage for a business, whether that business is in a local market, a global industry, a vertical niche or a broad corporate footprint.’

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist And How Has Their Role Changed?’ ‘Planning And Preparing For A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘Engage A Skilled IT Partner And Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

What is a Citizen Data Scientist and How Has the Role Changed?

Defining and Understanding the Citizen Data Scientist

The world-renowned technology research firm, Gartner, first introduced the concept of the Citizen Data Scientist in 2016. Since then, the idea has grown in popularity, and the role has grown in importance and prominence.

‘To fulfill the role of a Citizen Data Scientist, business users today can leverage augmented analytics solutions; 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.’

Gartner defines a citizen data scientist as, ‘a person who creates or generates models that leverage predictive or prescriptive analytics, but whose primary job function is outside of the field of statistics and analytics.’

Who is a Citizen Data Scientist? The role of a citizen data scientist is played by a business user or team member 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. In any case, these candidates will typically be uniquely curious, interested in data analytics and devoted to fact-based decisions and team collaboration.

The Definition and Evolution of the Citizen Data Scientist Role

Who are Citizen Data Scientists within your own organization? You will know them by their willingness to learn new things, and to advance their own visibility and their own careers by using new skills to improve results within your organization. What are Citizen Analysts? They are team members who are not IT professionals, data scientists or business analysts but are willing and able to leverage analytics and data science tools to solve business problems.

It took a while for the global business community to embrace the concept of Citizen Data Scientists and, even today, there are those naysayers who believe that the only correct approach to analytics is by using Data Scientists or business analysts or engaging the internal IT team to create reports and provide analytics for decision-making.

But the race to compete and the complexities and rapid rate of change have forced businesses to look for alternatives and the Citizen Data Scientist role has become more popular as those leading the charge prove the value of the role to the organization and to the business users, data scientists and IT professionals.

The role of the Citizen Data Scientist began as a simple augmentation to gather data and create reports for daily use but Interest In The Role Has Tripled Over The Past Decade, and the responsibilities and visibility of the Citizen Data Scientist have evolved.

Much of the evolution and the potential of the role has been driven by the evolution of business intelligence (BI) tools and the introduction of augmented analytics and solutions that employ natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to enable those with average technical skills to gather and analyze data and produce results for clear insight, using sophisticated tools that are designed to be simple enough for the average business user to understand.

As team members perform these tasks, share data and collaborate, the business can engender data democratization and improve data literacy across the enterprise.

To fulfill the role of a Citizen Data Scientist, business users today can leverage augmented analytics solutions; 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.

One of the most important lessons learned in the past decade is that the Citizen Data Scientist role can be rewarding to the organization and to the business user. But to succeed, the enterprise must plan carefully. It must understand how to use Citizen Data Scientists and create an environment that allows for this transition. Selecting a business intelligence or augmented analytics tool and deploying that tool does not, in and of itself, solve your problems. You must plan for the cultural shift and ensure that the business users have the support they need to transition into the citizen data scientist role.

‘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.’

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘The Importance And Benefits Of A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘Planning And Preparing For A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘Engage A Skilled IT Partner And Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!

Citizen Data Scientists Can Partner With Data Scientists!

A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative Can Optimize Data Scientists and Encourage a Data-Driven Culture!

According to some estimates, the average salary of a Data Scientist in the United States is over $150,000 per year. If your business wishes to accommodate a ‘data-first’ strategy to improve metrics and measurable success and avoid guesswork and strategies that are based on opinion rather than fact, it can either employ a team of expensive professionals, or it can take a different approach.

‘Citizen Data Scientists can use their knowledge of a business sector, industry, function or market to drive questions and develop reports and presentations to illustrate issues, identify problems and find opportunities for growth and competitive positioning, and share this data (and the search and analytical techniques) with other users.’

Citizen Data Scientists are business users who have a place on your team and are hired because of their professional and career experience in a particular industry, business function or discipline. When they are given access to data analytics, they can merge their knowledge of an industry, e.g., research, healthcare, law, finance, sales, supply chain, production, construction etc., with data integrated from databases, best-of-breed software programs, ERP, SCM, HRM and other systems and use sophisticated analytical tools in an easy-to-use, intuitive environment to gather and analyze data and produce insightful, concise results that are meaningful to their role.

Leverage Citizen Data Scientists to Augmented Data Scientist Teams

Depending on the size, market and industry of your business, you may choose to augment your staff with one or more data scientists to refine results produced by Citizen Data Scientists on a day-to-day basis. So, if a power user or business users discovers a challenge or an opportunity and your management team wishes to further explore the issue to understand its strategic or operational value, a Data Scientist can take the predictive model or other analytical report produced by a Citizen Data Scientist and refine the results for executive review.

Whether you choose to employ the services of a Data Scientist, provide business analysts or IT professionals to support your business users, you can create a comprehensive foundation for analytics across your organization.

By democratizing data analytics you can achieve many benefits, including:

  • Improved Data Literacy Across the Enterprise
  • Improved Productivity of Data Scientists, IT and Business Analysts (who can spend time on strategic initiatives rather than producing daily reports)
  • Optimized Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for all software and systems
  • Fact-Based Decisions and Metrics-Driven Strategies, Goals and Objectives
  • Team Member Career Advancement
  • Optimization of Resources and Improved Team Productivity

A comprehensive self-serve augmented analytics solution will include Modern Business Intelligence (BI) and Reporting with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Self-Serve Data PreparationAssisted Predictive Modeling, and Smart Data Visualization with auto-suggestions to drive the analytical techniques and illustration of data based on data type, volume, etc., and other tools like Embedded BIMobile BIKey Influencer AnalyticsSentiment Analysis, and Anomaly Alerts and Monitoring.

With these tools, the Citizen Data Scientist can leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP) and search analytics with machine learning to ask questions using simple human queries and receive insightful answers. They can use their knowledge of a business sector, industry, function or market to drive questions and develop reports and presentations to illustrate issues, identify problems and find opportunities for growth and competitive positioning, and share this data (and the search and analytical techniques) with other users.

Citizen Data Scientists can predict customer responses to new product features, and to new marketing campaigns, analyze the likelihood of fraud or risk, identify supply chain issues, etc. These tools can also help the organization to foster collaboration and data sharing and encourage business users to innovate, create and explore opportunities using data-driven, factual information.

‘When Citizen Data Scientists are given access to data analytics, they can merge their knowledge of an industry, e.g., research, healthcare, law, finance, sales, supply chain, production, construction etc., with data integrated from databases, best-of-breed software programs, ERP, SCM, HRM and other systems and use sophisticated analytical tools in an easy-to-use, intuitive environment to gather and analyze data and produce insightful, concise results that are meaningful to their role.’

These are just a few of the factors you must consider when implementing a Citizen Data Scientist approach. Business users who are interested in becoming a Citizen Data Scientist must be willing to embrace new technology and tools and working at the leading edge of a new approach to collaboration and decision-making. initiative. Consider engaging an expert for your Citizen Data Scientist. IT consultants with experience and skill in this area can provide crucial support to help you succeed with your Citizen Data Scientist initiative and can provide simple Training Programs to bring your team on board and help them see the value to themselves and to the organization.

Original Post : Leverage Citizen Data Scientists to Augmented Data Scientist Teams!

Should I Start a Citizen Data Scientist Program?

Is it the Right Time for My Business to Initiate a Citizen Data Scientist Program?

Whether you are a business owner, a business executive or a business manager, or you just like to keep up with industry trends, you no doubt have read about the transition of business users to Citizen Data Scientists. The topic has been in industry journals and publications for years, and it is still relevant today.