Inside the Tech Giants: Analytics, AI, and Bootstrapping Success
Feb 9, 2024
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Join Kirsten Lum, Chief Product Officer at Storytellers.ai, as she shares her career journey, challenges and success in bootstrapping her company, fascinating use cases of AI and ML, advice for aspiring data scientists, fostering innovation in tech teams, and exciting trends in analytics and AI.
The data science field is constantly evolving and lacks well-established best practices, even for large companies, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and adaptation.
Storytellers.ai was founded to help organizations lacking resources and expertise in data disciplines leverage data for decision-making, transforming their ability to utilize data effectively.
Deep dives
Key Takeaway: Data Science Field is Evolving
One of the key takeaways from Kirsten Lum's time at Amazon and Expedia is that the data science field is constantly evolving, and even large companies struggle to navigate it effectively. This means that whether you are entering the data field or using data as a business owner or user, it is important to understand that the field is complex and lacks well-established best practices. It also means that imposter syndrome is not necessary, as even large companies are still discovering and refining their data frameworks.
Transition from Corporate to Founding Storytellers.ai
Kirsten Lum's journey from working at Amazon to founding Storytellers.ai began with her observation of the challenges faced by different businesses with data management and analytics. She saw the opportunity to help organizations that lacked resources and expertise in data disciplines, and developed a model that allowed smaller companies to leverage data for decision-making. By providing guidance in areas such as data collection, analysis, and integration into systems, Kirsten and her husband built Storytellers.ai into a successful company that has transformed these organizations' ability to utilize data effectively.
Favorite Part of Role: Empowering Organizations through Data
Kirsten Lum's favorite part of her role as CPO at Storytellers.ai is twofold. Externally, she enjoys working with organizations that initially believe data usage is impossible or out of reach. By breaking down how data science can improve decision-making and offering guidance, she helps organizations realize that they are only steps away from effectively utilizing data. Internally, Kirsten is passionate about pushing the boundaries of machine learning model development. Through questioning assumptions and finding more efficient methods, she aims to make data science more applicable and transformative for a wider range of organizations.
Advice for Aspiring Data Scientists and Entrepreneurs
For aspiring data scientists, Kirsten Lum advises taking small steps to dive into the field. This can include choosing a cloud platform (such as AWS, GCP, or Azure) to gain hands-on experience with data sets and manipulation using tools like SQL. She emphasizes the importance of breaking down the journey into achievable tasks and continuously learning. For entrepreneurs, Kirsten encourages holding ideas loosely and validating them through fast iteration and feedback from potential users or customers. She also advises questioning assumptions and being open to adapting and refining entrepreneurship strategies based on feedback and market demands.