What have you seen that makes you think data execs lose their data identity? I very much still think of myself as a data scientist first (sssshh...don't tell my AE and DE teams...)
Eh, it's anecdotal. A lot of folks seem to aspire to some other identity (company leader, strategy person, etc). I think part of that is because there's no senior analytics role, so that aspiration feels like the only way to progress.
I think you are spot on Benn. Even as a former analyst who was active duty Army… the question was always rank up as an NCO and eventually become management too busy to do the work of an analyst. Or go Warrant Officer and become the Chief Analytics Officer with no supervisory responsibilities you describe. Even then, you butt heads with the other side of the coin and risk losing sight of the process when you remove yourself from the chain of command.
Interesting post - I see myself languishing in the seven IC levels for a long time...
A perspective here - are you describing an analytics X chief of staff hybrid role? CoS are privy to a lot of that information you specified and if you add a wicked set of analytics skills, that could be a proxy of what you are looking for but definitely that's not what a budding analyst wants to work towards to...
Eh, I don't think that'd work. In theory, anyone in the room *could* to the job. A chief of staff maybe be analytical, but they're unlikely to be as good as someone who's been an analyst for their whole career. And if a company decides to promote a lifelong analyst to be an executive CoS, they're just trying to backdoor their way into this role, without the pay or status.
The other issue is time. Part of what makes this work is the freedom and time to explore. You can't do that if you're also responsible for tons of other things (just as a CTO can't do their job if they're also responsible for site reliability, or the eng team's budget, or whatever).
What have you seen that makes you think data execs lose their data identity? I very much still think of myself as a data scientist first (sssshh...don't tell my AE and DE teams...)
Eh, it's anecdotal. A lot of folks seem to aspire to some other identity (company leader, strategy person, etc). I think part of that is because there's no senior analytics role, so that aspiration feels like the only way to progress.
I think you are spot on Benn. Even as a former analyst who was active duty Army… the question was always rank up as an NCO and eventually become management too busy to do the work of an analyst. Or go Warrant Officer and become the Chief Analytics Officer with no supervisory responsibilities you describe. Even then, you butt heads with the other side of the coin and risk losing sight of the process when you remove yourself from the chain of command.
Interesting post - I see myself languishing in the seven IC levels for a long time...
A perspective here - are you describing an analytics X chief of staff hybrid role? CoS are privy to a lot of that information you specified and if you add a wicked set of analytics skills, that could be a proxy of what you are looking for but definitely that's not what a budding analyst wants to work towards to...
Eh, I don't think that'd work. In theory, anyone in the room *could* to the job. A chief of staff maybe be analytical, but they're unlikely to be as good as someone who's been an analyst for their whole career. And if a company decides to promote a lifelong analyst to be an executive CoS, they're just trying to backdoor their way into this role, without the pay or status.
The other issue is time. Part of what makes this work is the freedom and time to explore. You can't do that if you're also responsible for tons of other things (just as a CTO can't do their job if they're also responsible for site reliability, or the eng team's budget, or whatever).
Yes that's true, so much of an analysts' skill is derived from exploration time (an underrated superpower).
Benn, I didn't know you're living the dream already at Mode - I'm definitely more optimistic :)