Finding data scientists and other highly technical resources that understand the complexity of big data is one of the most common roadblocks to getting value from big data. Typically, these resources need to understand Hadoop and new programming methods to read, manipulate and model big data.
As big data analytics tools advance, addressing these technologies will become less difficult so big data scientists must master additional skills.
To make a real business impact, data scientists must have:
1. Innate analytical skills
They must have a natural curiosity for experimenting with data and often begin analysis without a clear picture of the end goal. This is a different paradigm than solving a specific, identified problem through coding or by running a query.
2. Business finesse
Sexy dashboards ultimately fail if a business doesn’t act on what the data is indicating. To succeed, data scientists must know how to translate the impact of their insights to the business.
3. Collaboration skills
Teamwork and the ability to collaborate across an organization separate those who use data to drive change from those who merely build interesting algorithms.
Big data advancement has brought the onslaught of technology such as Hadoop to simplify and democratize big data to all. Pentaho’s innovative big data discovery application, Instaview, is a great example of a tool that is broadening data access to those without technical skills. This type of application brings a demand for a different kind of data scientist going forward — one with analytical, interpersonal and business skills.