Data Leaders of the North | The Podcast

In Episode 14 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by James Waterhouse, Head of BI and Data at Sky Betting & Gaming where they discuss some of the key learns that James has experienced in; Building Data Science teams for Business Success

James provides some great insight and tangible advice from his journey which has seen him build the Data Science capability at Sky Bet, while being part of the growth from a small BI team of 4 people, to a fully fledged Data & Analytics capability of 100+ people. This includes:

• How having domain knowledge within a DS team is imperative
• That you have to make the business aware of the “art of the possible” and how he went about doing that
• Why you have to be proactive in offering support to business/stakeholder problems
• The importance of having the right skills-mix and not looking for the Data Science “unicorn”
• The benefit of giving the DS autonomy to go and seek business problems and opportunities
• Why it’s important to “follow-up” to gain visibility on the value of the work that has been done
• How understanding the business strategy is essential for success and communication is key
• Why the “handoffs” and “passing of the baton” between teams is often the major challenge – the transition is equally as important as the work      itself!
• The difficulty of quantifying making better business decisions
• Advice for organisations at the start of its Data Science journey

In Episode 13 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom sat down with Steve Mills, Director of Data & Analytics at PwC to discuss; Moving to Cloud & It’s Impact on Data.

Steve provides some really tangible advice and valuable insight into:

• The benefits being realised by organisations who have moved to the Cloud
• How the industry has adopted a “Cloud First” approach
• What your decision means for your data
• Why security and privacy concerns are not as feared as they once were
• How to identify the potential pitfalls for your organization
• The internal governance challenges
• The significance of not polluting your cloud environment
• Why you should think about talent before making your decision based solely on the technology
• The benefit of failing fast and the advantage of speed and flexibility
• Single vendor versus “pic n mix”
• How the cost debate has become somewhat of a red-herring
• The key considerations before making your decision

In Episode 12 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Fiona Sweeney, Managing Director of Data IQ where they unravel; Using Analytics as a Competitive Differentiator.

Fiona provides some really brilliant advice and insights into what should be considered for organisations, it’s leaders and their teams to get the most out of its data and analytics, such as:

• Data Strategy should always align with the Busines Strategy
• Start with Why – what’s the purpose?
• The importance of benchmarking (against yourself and not others)
• Why it doesn’t need to be perfect, just “good enough” to make something happen
• How the industry has gone through a revolution and not transformation
• How to assess your Data Maturity
• The importance of Data Storytelling
• How you have to simplify and speak to your audience;  why language and communication is key
• That you don’t have to have lots of data to be “data-led”
• Why you should value internal data as an asset like you do external      data
• The Key 3 things to consider before you start

In Episode 11 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Kelvin Lee, Head of Data Science at Lloyds Banking Group, where they delve into the best way of; Creating the Data Science Ecosystem.

Kelvin gives some fantastic insight and examples into:

• How to structure an end to end Data Science capability for success
• Why you have to set up your Data Science team with more than just Data Scientists
• The frustrations that form within Data Science capabilities
• The main challenges and opportunities that comes with forming the Data Science ecosystem
• How “do some AI on that” doesn’t work
• Why you shouldn’t do Data Science just to be “on-trend”
• How to measure success and what to measure (and what not to)
• Why allowing your Data Science to understand the business context is critical
• Providing the right tools and technology is imperative to maximise success
• Advice to any organisation that is at the start of its DS journey

In Episode 10 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Craig Mackay, the CEO and Co-Founder of Sharktower AI where we discuss the relationship between Data Driven Change and Organisational Agility.

Craig gives some really valuable insights into:

• The key differences between Enterprise organisations and Challenger Brands/Disruptors when it comes to change
• Why Data has become a focal point for all organisations to make decisions
• How the complexity or simplicity of a business determines an organisations ability to change in an agile way
• Where organisations should start when considering change
• Why change keeps organisations innovative and at the forefront of its market
• Identifying critical metrics to make decisions on change
• The importance of Data Storytelling in creating “buy-in” which facilitates change
• Why change projects often fail
• The relationship between Data Literacy and change
• Understanding what problem are you trying to solve

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

In Episode 9 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Will Lowe, Chief Data Officer of Engine UK to discuss ‘The Pathway to CDO’.

Will provides some really great insight into:

• The rise of the CDO role
• The Norths position on the appointment of CDO’s
• The deliverables, responsibilities and key components of the CDO role
• What things are really important to CDO’s
• How to demonstrate value and show ROI
• Where ‘Data Monetisation’ sits on the CDO agenda
• What skills someone needs to have to take on that role?
• How, if the CDO role is your goal, how to start positioning yourself
• What organisations should be considering when looking at a potential CDO

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

In Episode 8 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, we are joined by Edward Wynn who operates as a Fractional CDO for a variety of organisations under his own consultancy business, DPI Consulting.

In this episode, we discuss the benefits of the fractional model amongst other things such as:

• The rise of the CDO role and what’s caused this?
• Why the North is behind in terms of businesses adopting the CDO role
• The role of the CDO and what they are there to deliver
• What     a Fractional CDO is and the benefits to an organisation
• How this differs from a full-time CDO
• What organisations should be considering when looking at a potential CDO (fractional or otherwise)
• The obstacles/challenges of a “fractional” CDO
• Changing the way the company; values, uses and thinks about data

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

In Episode 7 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, we are joined by Steven Keyes, Head of Data Science and Analytics at Co-op where we delve into the journey and evolution of talent within the Data & Analytics landscape and the shift in trends over the years.

Steve, gives some great insights into:

• The emergence/evolution of the Data Scientist
• How much data science, Data Scientists actually do
• The reality of working as a Data Scientist in a commercial business
• The “full-stack” Data Scientist – the need for Engineering & Science
• The “Specialist” versus the “all-rounder”
• The importance of getting balance between exploration versus business usability
• How team structure plays its part in allowing talent to succeed
• The rise of the cloud and the key considerations
• The relationship between Data, Technology and Talent
• Advice for junior/aspiring Data professionals

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

In episode 6 of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, we are joined by Ffion Turner, Group Partner of Business Intelligence at Mediacom where we discuss some of the key considerations and challenges with one of the most popular industry buzzwords; Data Literacy.

Ffion gives some key insights into:

• The key challenge of improving data literacy within an organization
• How data literacy can determine how “data-driven” an organization truly is
• Why usability of data is more important than the amount of data a business has
• The correlation between availability and literacy of data
• How “buy-in” from the top can drive literacy across an organization
• That as an industry, we need to demystify data and make it relevant/fun in order to drive the users interest/understanding
• Why educating children at a younger age will help with data literacy in business

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

In this week’s episode of Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, I am joined by Adam Sroka, Director of Data & AI at Incremental Group where we discuss ‘The Hype & Production of AI’.

As one of only a very people in the industry who has AI in his title, Adam gives an overview of how he entered the world of Data and AI and his journey to date in addition to:

• How AI isn’t the Zeitgeist
• That one of the biggest challenges is knowing where to start and what is even possible
• Why he didn’t want AI in his job title
• How AI is merely a set of tools and techniques; great for some stuff, but not always the right tool, right now
• That you don’t need to have a production-ready system to get value from AI
• How you can sometimes get more tangible and valuable results in a quicker fashion by doing more simplistic things (not AI)
• The relationship between technology and AI
• How, with investment and time, the UK will play catch up with AI
• Why scale plays a part in the AI strategy
• That an organisations AI journey should be a series of mini-projects that are easily measurable

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

This week on Data Leaders of the North; The Podcast, we are joined by Catherine Wilks, the Practice Area Lead for Data & Analytics at Slalom Consulting where we discuss the key considerations of ‘Creating a Data Culture’

Catherine provides a great insight of her journey into the world of Data & Analytics and a great overview on a brilliant career to date, in addition to:

• The key challenges and benefits of creating a culture of data
• How there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to embedding a culture of data
• Why an organisations “data maturity” is important in outlining the strategy
• Experimentation, Innovation and Literacy’ relationship with creating a data culture
• How appointing a “Data Leader” isn’t “job done”
• That to truly have a data culture, everybody in the organisation must “buy-in”
• Why the location of data talent can play a huge part
• The importance of having “Data Champions”
• That large scale transformation often isn’t the answer
• Why having a great data culture can add value beyond the classic drivers (revenue, cost, efficiencies)

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

This week we are joined by Amro Safadi who is now the Head of Data Science at Auden (but was the Head of Decision Science at NBrown Group at the time of recording this podcast) to discuss one of the biggest challenges that many Data Leaders face; Demonstrating Value and ROI.

Amro gives a technical insight into the key considerations of:

• How to put a tangible figure on the ROI of a data project by predicting uplifts and the two-step formula to do so
• The typical challenges faced when trying to demonstrate potential ROI
• How there needs to be unity between the direction of the business and the projects undertaken
• That identifying and prioritising the major the opportunities where the most value can be added is key to success
• That complex isn’t always best and simple projects can give the biggest ROI’s
• How action and change must happen to realise any ROI
• Differences between large organisations and smaller organisations
• Data Literacy’s relationship to change and therefore ROI

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

This week we are joined by Ben Nadel who is the Director of Woodhurst, a boutique consultancy business that operates across; Cloud, Big Data, Risk Management, and AI & Machine Learning, with a heavy focus on the FS industry.

In this episode, we discuss;

• Why they decided to write a whitepaper on AI within Financial Services
• How if done badly, AI can take your business backwards, not forwards
• Why AI is more applicable to the FS sector than any other sector,
• The major benefits and challenges of AI within FS
• That data is the lifeblood to any AI project,
• How most organisations fall into one of two camps regarding AI
• That AI is still just a tool to allow businesses to make better decisions and the real question is, is AI the right solution?

Get in touch: You can reach Kyle at [email protected]

This week, Kyle Winterbottom sits down with the first guest on Data Leaders of the North | The Podcast, Director of Advanced Analytics for Pets at Home, Martin Squires! 

About the podcast:
In this episode we are joined by Martin Squires, Director of Advanced Analytics at Pets at Home, one of the UK’s largest retail businesses and the market leader within the pet care industry with over 450 stores and over 310 Groom Rooms.

Martin talks us through how he ‘accidentally’ entered the Data & Analytics industry and his journey thus far. A big personality with a brilliant reputation, Martin has some really interesting thoughts on the topic of; Data Storytelling.

He gives us an insight into whether the Data Storyteller/Translator role is required as a stand-alone role, how culture plays a part in the success of telling stories with data, why the data is irrelevant to how good you are at telling stories and the relationship between storytelling and technology.

Listen now to hear how Martin believes TV series such as South Park and Game of Thrones provide a brilliant framework of how to tell stories successfully.  He gives some great advice to the next generation of data leaders on how to not only improve your storytelling skills, but how it will allow you to progress to leadership.

A really honest, informative and amusing discussion and a great episode to kick off our series! Enjoy.

Get in touch:
You can reach Kyle at [email protected]