How to Manage Remote 3rd Party Analytics Team?
In 2013, when I just graduated from my master degree in analytics, the hype for data analytics and data science is not as hype as now. It is very hard to get a position in analytics, even though I feel that in the year to come, the demand for analytics is high. Fortunately, after one year (gulp …) of working odd jobs, I land a job as Business Intelligence in a small start up company.
As year progresses, we see that trend for analytics talent that can comb vast amount of data keep increasing. With increasing demand, keeping analytics talent is not an easy task.
As an analytics leader, we hire a fresher that out of universities or boot camps. We develop them and train them to have business sense, not just technical knowledge. But eventually, when new opportunities come, they will switch easily.
If building an analytics team from the ground up is hard, how if we hire an analytic professional instead? This is not an easy undertaking too. Finding a talented analytics professional, within budget and culturally fit is like looking a needle in a haystack. In my experience, getting an experienced analytics talent can take between 4 to 6 months.
If you are an analytics leader and the board looking at your shoulder to proof the promise of analytics for the business, what can you do? One solution is by hiring 3rd party or analytics consultant. By hiring 3rd party analytics, the leader can focus on delivering the demand from the board, experiment on high-risk analytics projects without fear of firing the team when things go south, and at the same time slowly building internal capability.
When I work as an end user in a CPG company, I have been managing remote 3rd party consultants to support my delivery. While I admire their technical capabilities and turnaround time, one thing that the consultant usually misses is their business acumen to the client business. The consultants don’t understand how the client operates and the important metrics. This can cause misalignment and unexpected analytics delivery.
To reduce the above risks, I have a few tips that I think can be handy for you:
#1. Spend extra time teaching them business understanding
As analytics lead, you should talk to the business team and show ownership of the business acumen. And then, spend more time with the 3rd party if they are new to teach them how the business operates. Over time they will understand the demand of the project and can do much more quickly with the correct output.
#2. Communicate clearly and communicate often
Now you can trust the 3rd party to deliver correct output. However, even though their data and business understanding is correct, sometimes mistake happened. Oftentimes, this is happened due to misunderstanding. To reduce this, you should provide the context and communicate the ask clearly.
Not only that, you also need to communicate often. For example, when I ask for campaign analysis, I thought the demand is clear, the sample is clear, sample script also has been shared. But the delivery is still incorrect. Communicating often is required to quickly correct any misunderstanding and delivery.
#3. Create documentation
As I mentioned in the beginning, keeping analytics talent is not an easy job. The third-party consultant also has a problem with retaining talent. The good news is, they have a bank of analytics talent than can be deployed to any project in need, without waiting four to six months.
Co-create documentation with the third-party consultant and keep the documentation handy and easy to share. We will need them anytime faster than we thought.
