Inside the Black Box
An introduction to QuantumBlack
We’re kicking off our 2018 blog series.
And before we get going on everything that is happening (and going to happen) in our machine learning, engineering and design world, we thought it would be helpful to share a bit of context about QuantumBlack.
So if you already know us, be patient :)) or head back to our Instagram feed for our latest news and candid shots. We’ll be sharing more thoughts on Medium very soon, starting with some reflections on Davos 2018, but for those of you that don’t here’s the York Notes (or should we say ‘red O’Reilly guide’).
Why do we get out of bed in the morning?
We get out of bed in the morning to help our clients be the best they can be. At QuantumBlack that means harnessing all sorts of data, using bleeding-edge tech to generate insights, and taking a design-led approach to turning those insights into real change.
Where have we come from?
We were founded back in 2009, when not many people had heard of machine learning, wanting to reimagine how organisations could outlearn and outperform their rivals using data, technology, and design. Our vision was to bring together technology and human judgement to reimagine and rework how a business operates in the future (not replace humans with robots).
Our founders had strong experience in Formula 1, so that’s who we began working with in the early days of QuantumBlack. In Formula 1, teams live and die by their ability to understand and respond to data — today, we are still fascinated by how the smallest edge or marginal gain can have a major impact.
Over the years we have experienced extraordinary growth, from a small basement in Shoreditch to a team of over 200 across the UK (our home), the USA, India, Australia and Brazil. In 2015, we were acquired by McKinsey & Company and work closely with our friends there while maintaining our unique culture and tech-driven ways of working.
What do we do?
We work with clients all over the world to help them transform and unlock their performance using data, machine learning analytics and information design. We have learned that our approach is relevant in most industries around the world, but we focus on data-rich and tech-intensive industries like Pharma, Banking, Aerospace and other ‘advanced industries’, and of course we continue to work in sports like F1, sailing and basketball.
For some stories that bring our work to life, have a nose around our work section, on our website.
Who are we?
We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive organisation. Gender matters. At one point we were over 50% women in our technical roles; that’s dropped below half, but we’re shooting to get back there this year. And we also like think a lot about diversity in other ways: there’s over 200 of us bringing 200 different perspective including data scientists, designers, data engineers, engineers, engagement managers and to glue this all together we’ve got a fantastic leadership team (with all our founders still here) and an awesome operations team.
What can you expect from us on Medium?
You can expect articles from members of the QuantumBlack team about the issues and topics that matter the most to us. Our talented team will be sharing our latest thinking on data science, machine learning, engineering, product management and design.
We’d also like to hear from you if there’s topics or questions you’d like us to cover. Just let us know in the comments section below.
