Building Analytics Teams

Master the skills necessary to hire and manage a team of highly skilled individuals to design, build, and implement applications and systems based on advanced analytics and AI

▶Book Description
In Building Analytics Teams, John K. Thompson, with his 30+ years of experience and expertise, illustrates the fundamental concepts of building and managing a high-performance analytics team, including what to do, who to hire, projects to undertake, and what to avoid in the journey of building an analytically sound team. The core processes in creating an effective analytics team and the importance of the business decision-making life cycle are explored to help achieve initial and sustainable success.

The book demonstrates the various traits of a successful and high-performing analytics team and then delineates the path to achieve this with insights on the mindset, advanced analytics models, and predictions based on data analytics. It also emphasizes the significance of the macro and micro processes required to evolve in response to rapidly changing business needs.

The book dives into the methods and practices of managing, developing, and leading an analytics team. Once you've brought the team up to speed, the book explains how to govern executive expectations and select winning projects.

By the end of this book, you will have acquired the knowledge to create an effective business analytics team and develop a production environment that delivers ongoing operational improvements for your organization.

▶What You Will Learn
⦁Avoid organizational and technological pitfalls of moving from a defined project to a production environment
⦁Enable team members to focus on higher-value work and tasks
⦁Build Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AA&AI) functions in an organization
⦁Outsource certain projects to competent and capable third parties
⦁Support the operational areas that intend to invest in business intelligence, descriptive statistics, and small-scale predictive analytics
⦁Analyze the operational area, the processes, the data, and the organizational resistance

▶Key Features
⦁Learn to create an operationally effective advanced analytics team in a corporate environment
⦁Select and undertake projects that have a high probability of success and deliver the improved top and bottom-line results
⦁Understand how to create relationships with executives, senior managers, peers, and subject matter experts that lead to team collaboration, increased funding, and long-term success for you and your team

▶Who This Book Is For
This book is for senior executives, senior and junior managers, and those who are working as part of a team that is accountable for designing, building, delivering and ensuring business success through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence systems and applications. At least 5 to 10 years of experience in driving your organization to a higher level of efficiency will be helpful.

▶What this book covers
⦁ Chapter 1, An Overview of Successful and High-Performing Analytics Teams, sets the stage and describes the fundamental organization and principles involved in building and managing an analytics team.

⦁ Chapter 2, Building an Analytics Team, discusses and describes who to hire, how to construct and manage a team, and the building blocks of beginning analytic operations.

⦁ Chapter 3, Managing and Growing an Analytics Team, begins the discussion of engagement with other parts of the organization. The chapter delves into engaging functional managers, creating internal interest and beginning the cadence of building analytical applications.

⦁ Chapter 4, Leadership for Analytics Teams, outlines how to lead an analytics team and how to represent analytics leadership to the organization.

⦁ Chapter 5, Managing Executive Expectations, provides an overview of and guidance on how to engage with C-level executives to gain their support, buy-in, and funding for analytics teams, projects, and a corporate wide analytics engagement and process.

⦁ Chapter 6, Ensuring Engagement with Business Professionals, describes the best way to engage with functional business leaders and managers to gain their support and to ensure that they guide their teams to engage in the analytics process.

⦁ Chapter 7, Selecting Winning Projects, outlines the process of selecting projects and the optimal method of building a portfolio of projects for each team member and the team as a whole.

⦁ Chapter 8, Operationalizing Analytics – How to Move from Projects to Production, outlines the pitfalls and problems associated with moving from a project mode into a production cycle. The chapter describes how to move through and past the challenges in a successful manner.

⦁ Chapter 9, Managing the New Analytical Ecosystem, discusses how to manage the organization and the analytics team in a manner that enables the team to continue to innovate while supporting the growing body of analytical applications and models that are built and deployed.

⦁ Chapter 10, The Future of Analytics – What Will We See Next?, outlines what we can expect to see in analytics in the coming years.