SCALE: SF Data Science Leaders

SCALE: SF Data Science Leaders was the event exclusively for Senior Directors and VPs of data science leaders. We maintain and grow a community of leaders in the field. We want to foster collaboration and conversations between our members. We assembled leaders from various industries, from startups to large corporations, to share their challenges while managing data science teams at scale.

Two prominent leaders in the data science field from Clario & Strava shared their valuable insights on how to:
- Best Approach to C-suite buy-in
- Foster diverse teams
- Leading remote teams in AI
- Successful Collaboration with domain experts

We invited two attendees on stage for a fireside chat: Shyam Banuprakash (Clario's Vice-President of Data Science) who talked about successful collaborations with domain experts. Shailvi Wakhlu (Strava's Head of Data) discussed getting C-suite buy-in and building diverse teams.

They generously shared their management struggles with the audience and tips on how to solve them:
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Building Trust in the Organization
Shyam Banuprakash, Vice President of Data Science @ Clario: "Building trust is very important. One approach is to avoid complex models, at least in the beginning." Shyam revealed one way to build trust among teams is to start by using a simpler model for which the outputs can be easily explained and then build off of that"

The Challenge of C-Suite Buy-In
Shailvi Wakhlu (Strava's Head of Data): "Getting buy-in from executives is about understanding everybody's motivations. CFOs focus on the business ROI, while CMOs have marketing budgets and want to show how those initiatives also bring value to the company." Shailvi explained how the key to executive buy-in is to help every person look better in their role.