CDO Matters Podcast

CDO Matters Ep. 38 | It’s Crunch Time for CDOs with Mark Stouse

Nov 30, 2023

Mark Stouse, Founder and CEO of Proof Analytics, discusses the frustration organizations face in realizing benefits from data management investments. He highlights the need for CDOs to prioritize specific business needs and outcomes. The podcast covers challenges of operationalizing analytics, the value of automation and targeted AI, establishing causality in predictive analytics, and the current state of data science functions.

50:39

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Episode guests

Mark Stouse

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

CDOs should prioritize delivering insights and answers to the 20 key questions that business leaders care about, even if the confidence scores are in the 40-50% range.

Data analytics needs to move away from a shell game approach and focus on providing clear, pragmatic, and actionable answers to the business's pressing questions.

Deep dives

The Importance of Operationalizing Analytics for Business Success

Data leaders and Chief Data Officers (CDOs) need to focus on operationalizing analytics to help their organizations become truly data-driven. This involves overcoming challenges such as latency issues in data science, scalability, cost, and cultural differences between precision and pragmatism. The goal is to deliver value to the business now and earn the opportunity to generate further value in the future. CDOs should prioritize delivering insights and answers to the 20 key questions that business leaders care about, even if the confidence scores are in the 40-50% range. Data science teams should adopt a T-shaped approach, understanding the business and using business language to communicate analytical insights.

Introduction

2min

Mispronounced Names and Ancestral Origins

2min

Exploring MRA, Analytics, and Operationalizing Data Science

4min

Automation, Targeted AI, and Optimization

10min

Establishing Causality in Predictive Analytics

10min

The Current State of Data Science Functions

23min

Episode Overview

In this 38th episode of the CDO Matters Podcast, Malcolm interviews Mark Stouse, the Founder and CEO of Proof Analytics. An accomplished business leader with decades of experience in leading data science initiatives, Mark shares his perspectives on the growing frustration that many organizations are experiencing because of an inability to realize significant benefits from investments in data management and data science.

The risks of CDOs saying they aren’t ‘ready’ to provide business value from AI and data science are real and increasingly unwelcome from companies looking for more immediate returns from their data teams. This is producing an immediate need for CDOs to be unabashedly lean, with an unrelenting focus on a very limited number of specific business needs and outcomes.