Data Scientist to Data Science Manager
Making the transition
There is a step in every data scientist’s (otherwise mostly smooth) career that feels more like a profession change than a career progression, and it’s moving from data scientist to a data science manager. In my experience, it’s also the most dreaded level-up: I’ve guided a dozen people into this role by now and can only remember maybe a couple cases where the person embraced this change without serious doubts.
And no wonder. The skillsets for data scientists and data science managers are so intensely different that it does feel like you changed career and are now starting at the bottom of a new field with no experience and a whole lot of rookie mistakes to make. With real people now looking to you to take care of their careers. And your stakeholders holding you accountable for results. Oh, and no pressure.
So I’ve decided to write up some pointers on how to do it right. Or at least how to not mess it up completely.
Are You Sure You Want It?
As with most things in life, success in this transition depends on avoiding big pitfalls. And here’s the biggest one in this situation: stepping into the manager role solely because it’s the next step in your career, only to find out that you’ve exchanged doing what you’re great at and love for something that you’re not good at and don’t really like.
Don’t get me wrong, the role can be great. Heck, I’ve been doing it for 6 years now and love it. You get to:
Develop as a leader and learn people management - a very interesting skillset in and of itself
Work on data science strategy at a level you definitely would not be able to as a data scientist
Lead, develop and nurture a lot of people and take part and joy in their success
Work on a very wide range of problems (admittedly at a much more shallow level than before)
But hey - with rain comes some mud too. And here’s the mud of data science management you have to consider before taking the role:
Zoom and Outlook will become your main tools: or put it another way, you’ll spend most of your time in meetings (and planning meetings), not actually coding solutions.
You won’t be able to be hands-on anymore: if you manage over 10 people and you’re still meaningfully (>30%) hands-on day-to-day, you’re probably doing something wrong.
You’ll have to network a lot more: As a data science leader, you’ll constantly have to be in the spotlight. On meetings with stakeholders, on corporate events, on conferences, with vendors… you name it.
You’ll be responsible for career development of your reports: Suddenly you’re in charge of humans with very different temperaments, abilities and aspirations. And there’s no library you can download to abstract away this complexity. You’ll find out pretty quickly that we’re not an easy bunch to manage.
You’ll have much wider responsibility for business success: You’ll be the face of your teams and solutions in the wider company. That means that a lot of times, you’ll have to take and absorb the heat from stakeholders, so that it does not reach and affect the team.
You’ll have to have some tough conversations regularly: Sometimes you’ll have to let stakeholders know they’re overstepping boundaries, other times you’ll have to deny promotion requests, at times you’ll even have to let people go.
How About Becoming a Staff Data Scientist?
Before we talk about your transition to data science manager role, I want to cover an important point: let’s say you looked at all the pros and cons of this move and have decided that you don’t like it that much. Are you stuck?
Fortunately, you are not. Most sophisticated companies offer a staff data scientist (or similar) role, which is a more technical leadership role compared to data science manager role. As a staff data scientist, you’ll get to:
Remain hands-on: Not only will you have the opportunity to stay mostly hands-on, but be expected and required to do so. After all, it’s in everyone’s best interests to employ your immense technical expertise for solving problems.
Tackle the hardest problems: In this role you’re basically the navy seal of your data science org - you’re called to work on the hardest problems and are expected to deliver quality solutions.
Be a leader: You’ll get to mentor and lead data scientists on a very personal level, all the while being free from people management and admin work.
Have the same compensation opportunities: salaries for staff data scientist and data science manager roles are virtually identical, so you can be sure that you’re not missing out on compensation by staying in a more technical role
In short, staff data scientist role is every bit as important (and senior) for a mature data science org as data science manager role is. What’s different between them is the focus: staff data scientists mostly work on solving problems, while data science managers are mostly busy with managing people, stakeholders and strategy.
Making the Transition
And now to the main part of this post: you’ve found (or have been offered) a data science manager role, you’ve looked at the tradeoffs, decided that this is the right fit for you and are ready to dive in.
How do you set up yourself for success? It’s obviously an endless topic, but here are some big things to get right.
Network, network and then network some more
One of the largest new responsibilities you will have will be aligning your new team to business value. To do that, you will need to do two things.
Firstly, you should learn as much as you can about how your company works: how it makes (and loses) money, what are the biggest pain points, what’s the business development strategy for next three to five years, etc. The more knowledgeable you are about these matters, the better you can align with business strategy and enable your team to deliver results and earn them a good name inside the company.
Secondly, develop great relationships with your stakeholders. I mean be-the-biggest-hit-at-their-wedding kind of relationships if you can, but regular coffee sessions will do too. Your team’s success depends on how much business trusts you personally, so make sure you have them covered.
Learn People Management
If you’ve come this far, you’ve already read this a couple times, but this bears repeating: don’t get fooled by the fact that you’re formally “just stepping up to next level”. As already said, this is more like changing a profession than just stepping up. And you’ll need to learn tricks of this new trade from scratch.
Here are some ways to get ahead:
Take leadership courses (Coursera is always a not-too-bad option) for general sense about what leadership is and how you should go about managing people.
Find and use leadership development tools (such as Know Your Team) for more tailored approach and community you can ask questions to.
Delve into psychometrics (like PrinciplesYou) to understand basic types of people, how to approach them and what are your strengths and development areas
Read like there’s no tomorrow: there’s no shortage of great books on leadership and I won’t list them here since you can find endless great lists online, but I’ll mention one very unlikely book that is a great primer for new leaders: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
And last but definitely not the least…
Find a Mentor
Having a mentor is generally a really good idea, but it is especially important in the context of transitioning to people management: since there are a lot of unique situations you might have to deal with, there is only so much you can learn from formal courses (or online resources). Most of your people management skills will come from on the job training and if you’re not careful, it’ll mostly be learning-from-big-mistakes kinda training.
So, it’s especially important to have someone experienced you can discuss your unique people management situations with, get advice and bounce ideas. Ideally, this would be someone in your org. If you have a born-to-be-a-mentor type of manager, count yourself very, very lucky. But if not, try to find someone whose people management skills you really admire and consciously cultivate a mentor-mentee relationship with them.
Conclusion
Stepping up into a management role can look daunting, and it is. You’ll be given more power than you’re ready to handle, and certainly much more responsibility than you’re comfortable living with. You’ll make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes will painfully affect people you care about. The professional world is full of stories of horrendous managers. One can’t help but ask: what if I slip into being one?
But it’s also a role that gives you the opportunity to be a positive force in a lot of people’s lives. The professional world is also full of stories of great leaders whose vision and care have been absolutely key to success of their people. So the real question you should be asking is this: what if you could become one?
Good luck on this journey.