Your First 90 Days as a Data Scientist

I DoorDash about 5 months in the past. That is my first time beginning at a brand new firm as a Information Science Supervisor. DoorDash strikes quick, expectations are excessive, and the area context is deep, which makes onboarding difficult. Nevertheless, it has additionally been one of many fastest-growing durations of my profession.

The primary three months at any new job are essentially a constructing section — constructing connections, area understanding, and information information — and a easy onboarding units the muse for later success. Due to this fact, on this article, I’ll share what mattered most at first months and my guidelines for any information science onboarding.

I. Construct Connections 

Earlier than the rest, let me begin with constructing connections. After I was at college, I pictured information scientists as individuals spending all day lengthy heads-down writing code and constructing fashions. Nevertheless, as I grew to become extra senior, I spotted that information scientists make actual impacts by embedding themselves deeply within the enterprise, utilizing information to establish alternatives, and driving enterprise choices. That is very true at the moment with tighter DS headcount and AI automating fundamental coding and evaluation workflows. 

Due to this fact, constructing connections and incomes a seat on the desk ought to be a prime precedence throughout onboarding. This consists of:

• Frequent onboarding classes along with your supervisor and onboarding buddy. These are the individuals who greatest perceive your future scope, expectations, and priorities. In my case, my supervisor was my onboarding buddy, and we met virtually each day throughout the first two weeks. I at all times got here with a ready record of questions I encountered throughout onboarding. 
• Arrange meet-and-greet calls with cross-functional companions. Right here is the agenda I often comply with in these calls: 
  • 1. Private introductions
  • 2. Their focus space and prime priorities
  • 3. How my workforce can greatest assist them
  • 4. Any onboarding recommendation or “issues I ought to know”
  • I particularly just like the final query because it constantly gives nice insights. 5 years in the past, after I onboarded at Brex, I requested the identical query and summarised the responses into classes here. The perfect I acquired this time is “Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions. Play the new-hire card as a lot as potential within the first three months.”
• For these key companions, arrange weekly/bi-weekly 1:1s and get your self added to recurring undertaking conferences. You might not contribute a lot at first, however simply listening in and amassing the context and questions is useful.
• If you’re onboarding as a supervisor like me, it is best to begin speaking to your direct reviews early. Throughout onboarding, I intention to be taught three issues from my direct reviews: 1. Their initiatives and challenges, 2. Their expectation of me as a supervisor, 3. Their profession objectives. The primary helps me ramp up on the world. The latter two are important for establishing belief and a collaborative working relationship early on.

II. Construct Area Context

Information scientists succeed after they perceive the enterprise properly sufficient to affect choices — not simply analyze outcomes. Due to this fact, one other precedence throughout onboarding is to construct your area information. Frequent methods embody speaking to individuals, studying docs, looking out Slack, and asking loads of questions.

I often begin with conversations to establish key enterprise context and initiatives. Then I dig into related docs in Google Drive or Confluence, and skim Slack messages in undertaking channels. I additionally compile the questions after studying the docs, and ask them in 1:1s.

Nevertheless, one problem I bumped into is digging into the rabbit gap of docs. Every doc results in extra paperwork with quite a few unfamiliar metrics, acronym names, and initiatives. That is particularly difficult as a supervisor — if every of your workforce members has 3 initiatives, then 5 individuals means 15 initiatives to catch up. At one level, my browser’s “To Learn” tab group had over 30 tabs open.

Fortunately, AI instruments are right here to rescue. Whereas studying all of the docs one after the other is useful to get an in depth understanding, AI instruments are nice to offer a holistic view and join the dots. For instance,

• At DoorDash, Glean has entry to inside docs and Slack. I usually chat with Glean, asking questions like “How is GOV calculated?”, “Present a abstract of the undertaking X, together with the purpose, timeline, findings, and conclusion.” It hyperlinks to the doc sources, so I can nonetheless dive deeper shortly if wanted. 
• One other instrument I attempted is NotebookLM. I shared the docs on a particular subject with it, and requested it to generate summaries and thoughts maps for me to gather my ideas in a extra organized means. It may additionally create podcasts, that are typically extra digestible than studying docs. 
• Different AI instruments like ChatGPT may also hook up with inside docs and serve an analogous objective.

III. Construct Information Data

Constructing information information is as necessary as constructing area information for information scientists. As a front-line supervisor, I maintain myself to a easy normal: I ought to have the ability to do hands-on information work properly sufficient to offer sensible, credible steering to my workforce. 

Here’s what helped me ramp up shortly:

1. Arrange tech stack in week one: I like to recommend establishing the tech stack and developer surroundings early. Why? Entry points, permissions, and bizarre surroundings issues at all times take longer than anticipated. The sooner you have got every part arrange, the earlier you can begin enjoying with the information. 
2. Make full use of AI-assisted information instruments: Each tech firm is integrating AI into its information workflows. For instance, at DoorDash, we now have Cursor linked to Snowflake with inside information information and context to generate SQL queries and evaluation grounded in our information. Although the generated queries should not but 100% correct, the tables, joins, and previous queries it factors me to function glorious beginning factors. It received’t change your technical judgment, nevertheless it dramatically reduces the time to first perception.
3. Perceive key metrics and their relationships: Information information not solely means having the ability to entry and question the information, however perceive the enterprise from an information lens. I often begin with weekly enterprise evaluations to search out the core metrics and their pattern. That is additionally an effective way to contextualize the metrics and have an concept of what “regular” appears to be like like. I’ve discovered this extremely useful when gut-checking analyses and experiment outcomes later.
4. Get your arms soiled: Nothing enforces your information understanding greater than performing some hands-on work. A great onboarding program often features a mini starter undertaking. At the same time as a supervisor, I did some IC work throughout my onboarding, together with alternative sizing for the planning cycle, designing and analyzing a number of experiments, and diagnosing and forecasting metrics motion. These initiatives accelerated my studying way over passive studying.

IV. Begin Small and Contribute Early

Whereas onboarding is primarily about studying, I strongly advocate beginning small and contributing early. Early contributions sign possession and construct belief — usually quicker than ready for a “good” undertaking. Listed below are some concrete methods:

• Enhance the onboarding documentation: As you undergo the onboarding doc, you’ll run into random technical points, discover damaged hyperlinks, or discover outdated directions. Not simply overcoming them your self, however enhancing the onboarding doc is an effective way to indicate that you’re a workforce participant and need to make onboarding higher for future hires.
• Construct documentation: No firm has good documentation — from my very own expertise and chatting with my buddies, most information groups face the problem of outdated or lacking documentation. As you’re onboarding and never busy with initiatives but, it’s the good time to assist fill in these gaps. For instance, I constructed a undertaking listing for my workforce to centralize previous and ongoing initiatives with key findings and clear factors of contact. I additionally created a group of metrics heuristics, summarising the causal relationship between totally different metrics we discovered from previous experiments and analyses. Notice that each one these paperwork additionally develop into priceless context for AI brokers, enhancing the standard and relevance of AI-generated outputs.
• Recommend course of enhancements: Each information workforce operates in a different way, with execs and cons. Becoming a member of a brand new workforce means you deliver a contemporary perspective on workforce processes and would possibly spot alternatives to enhance effectivity. Considerate ideas based mostly in your previous expertise are tremendous priceless. 

For my part, a profitable onboarding goals to ascertain cross-functional alignment, enterprise fluency, and information instinct.  

Right here is my onboarding guidelines:

1. Week 1–2: Foundations
   – Meet key enterprise companions
   – Get your self added to core cross-functional conferences
   – Perceive workforce focus and priorities at a high-level
   – Arrange tech stack, entry, and permissions
   – Write your first line of code
   – Learn documentation and ask questions
2. Week 2–6: Get your arms soiled
   – Deep dive into workforce OKR and generally used information tables
   – Deep dive into your focus space (extra docs and questions)
   – Full a starter undertaking end-to-end
   – Make early contributions: Replace outdated data, construct one piece of documentation, or recommend one course of enchancment, and so on.
3. Week 6–12: Possession
   – Be capable of converse up in cross-functional conferences and supply your data-informed standpoint
   – Construct belief because the “go-to” particular person in your area

Onboarding appears to be like totally different throughout firms, roles, and seniority ranges. However the ideas keep constant. For those who’re beginning a brand new position quickly, I hope this guidelines helps you ramp up with extra readability and confidence.