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👏 I find myself pulling this book off the shelf frequently; Secrets of Analytical Leads (Eckerson 2012). In that book, Tim Leonard (formerly CTO at U.S. Xpress and a bunch of other impressive stuff..) says "at some point, I know just as much about the business as the business people. You know you've made it when a business person says, "You know a lot about the business for an IT guy!" The faster you can understand the problem, the faster you can talk about the problem... and the sooner you'll be heard and accepted as part of the team.

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Nice share - thanks Frank. The idea of tech people speaking business isn't new, but it doesn't seem to have fully caught on yet either.

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Really relatable anecdotes - there's some aspects of hands-on data work I love, and then there's every time I've tried to take a Python course 😅

"In short, to excite people about data, first understand their priorities and then explain how data can help them with what matters to them"

My build here is that it's also about showing them the art of the possible in an iterative back-and-forth between data and business team(s). This inherently requires a much more collaborative way of doing things than what many folks are used to, but is a game-changer once you've embraced it.

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