Keynote talk at the WiDS Claremont 2022 conference

2. Things you need to do
data science well that
no one tells you about

3. https://r4ds.had.co.nz/explore-intro.html

4. https://r4ds.had.co.nz/explore-intro.html

14. https://multithreaded.stitchfix.com/blog/2018/06/28/latent-style/

15. Designing new
experiences can lead
to the biggest
innovations

18. https://r4ds.had.co.nz/explore-intro.html

20. Statisticians are
systems engineers.

21. Statisticians are
systems engineers.
How can you get data from point A to point B
with as little error as possible?

23. Overall Data System:

24. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data

25. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data
Individual-level
models:
P(vote for Biden)
P(turn out to vote)

26. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data
Individual-level
models:
P(vote for Biden)
P(turn out to vote)
Individual voter
coefficients

27. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data
Individual-level
models:
P(vote for Biden)
P(turn out to vote)
Individual voter
coefficients
State campaign HQ

28. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data
Individual-level
models:
P(vote for Biden)
P(turn out to vote)
Individual voter
coefficients
State campaign HQ
State-level predictions:
P(state votes for Biden)
P(state swings election)
Campaign manager, etc.

29. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data
Individual-level
models:
P(vote for Biden)
P(turn out to vote)
Individual voter
coefficients
State campaign HQ
State-level predictions:
P(state votes for Biden)
P(state swings election)
System
Engineering
Campaign manager, etc.

30. Focus on generic
principles, not tools

31. “Excel is the worst.”

32. “Excel is the worst.”
“Excel does make it hard to create scripts. If you want to redo
your analysis frequently, writing a script will take time now but
save you lots of time later.”

33. Incident-based system
evolution

35. Blameless attitude:
system failed you, not
the other way around

36. Blameless-postmortems:
A constructive way to
respond to incidents

38. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data
Individual-level
models:
P(vote for Biden)
P(turn out to vote)
Individual voter
coefficients
State campaign HQ
State-level predictions:
P(state votes for Biden)
P(state swings election)

39. Voter files
3rd party data
aggregators
Internal polling data
Individual-level
models:
P(vote for Biden)
P(turn out to vote)
Individual voter
coefficients
State campaign HQ
State-level predictions:
P(state votes for Biden)
P(state swings election)
QC
QC
QC
QC
QC
QC
QC
QC
QC
Campaign manager, etc.
QC

41. “Our data team is devastated and embarrassed. And so am I.”

42. “Our data team is devastated and embarrassed. And so am I.”
“While we came up short as a result of simple human error, I’m happy to
report that there was no evidence of any ethical breaches in this mistake.”

43. “Our data team is devastated and embarrassed. And so am I.”
“While we came up short as a result of simple human error, I’m happy to
report that there was no evidence of any ethical breaches in this mistake.”
“While the miscalculation is inexcusable, they have re-examined the
process to prevent this type of error from happening again.”

44. “Our data team is devastated and embarrassed. And so am I.”
“While we came up short as a result of simple human error, I’m happy to
report that there was no evidence of any ethical breaches in this mistake.”
“While the miscalculation is inexcusable, they have re-examined the
process to prevent this type of error from happening again.”
B+

48. “We need to fit 50
more chairs into the
auditorium”

50. “Some people say give the customers what they want, but
that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're
going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, 'If
I'd ask customers what they wanted, they would've told me a
faster horse.' People don't know what they want until you show
it to them.”
- Steve Jobs and/or Steve Jobs lore

51. Reframing the problem
is a (big) part of the
solution

52. “Can you get me this number?”

53. “Can you get me this number?”
“Tell me more about your experiment.”

54. Listen, and don’t let the
fun get the best of you

55. All statistical methods

56. Methods you find
interesting

57. Methods you find
interesting
Methods
they are
familiar
with

58. Methods you find
interesting
Methods
they are
familiar
with
Where you
should
operate

59. Extract your ego as
much as possible
(this is very hard)

60. Design in Statistics
- Data collection experiences & products
- System engineering
- Understanding your collaborator, and
designing solutions for them

62. Design ability is, in fact, one of the three fundamental
dimensions of human intelligence.
Design, science, and art form an ‘and’ not an ‘or’
relationship to create the incredible human cognitive ability.”
Nigel Cross