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Data Scientists Are Thinkers

Execution vs. exploration and what it means for you

Conor Dewey
Towards Data Science
4 min readMay 12, 2019

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Data scientists serve a very technical purpose, but one that is vastly different from other individual contributors. Unlike engineers, designers, and project managers, data scientists are exploration-first, rather than execution-first.

This isn’t a surprise when you consider the origin of data science. If you quickly look over the early history of the field, you see that things got started with academics researching the possibilities of computational statistics. This researcher-like mindset is still embedded in our DNA.

We are constantly surrounded by data that represents the business, product, and customers at scale. This allows us to see things from a 30,000-foot view, where other roles spend most of their time at ground-level, working on execution. It’s important that we realize this fact, and more important that we make the most of it.

Execution vs. exploration

Most technical ICs within established companies focus on execution. This is pretty intuitive. In order for a company to be successful, it has to get things done that provide value.

Data science roles are a little different. They vary greatly depending on the team structure and size, but generally speaking…

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Towards Data Science
Towards Data Science

Published in Towards Data Science

Your home for data science and AI. The world’s leading publication for data science, data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence professionals.

Conor Dewey
Conor Dewey

Written by Conor Dewey

Product at Metabase. Previously growth at Hugo and data science at Squarespace. Writing here now: https://www.conordewey.com

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