Building Analytic Momentum with Alex Cunningham

Mining Your Own Business Podcast

Welcome to Mining Your Own Business Podcast. Each episode will bring in data and analytics gurus from around the world as they regale us with their data analytics stories and enlighten us with their secrets for how to turn data into actionable insights.
In this episode, we are joined by Alex Cunningham, Manager of Advanced Analytics at Church & Dwight. Alex and Evan have a thought-provoking discussion about how to drive analytics successes, build momentum, and develop partners. He also discussed their strategy to develop a good product and the team's secret to integrating that process. Alex also touches on what makes the analytics team at Church & Dwight special and the most important traits they look for when growing their team.
Key Takeaways
What the analytics center of excellence group of Church and Dwight is.
How to build momentum and develop partners early on.
How to prioritize projects and implement them into production.
What traits they value in their analytics team.
Where Alex would use a "analytic success" button if he had one.
Quote Takeaways
We went out to folks and invited them to join the circle as partners. Then, once we've established ourselves, it gets better. We don't need to do much to attract people; they're drawn in because they've heard about our successes and achievements and want to be a part of it. - Alex
Empathy and humility. Two closely related traits are what allow us to become those good partners to folks in the business in that internal consulting type capacity. - Alex
Being a lifelong learner is one of the qualities I believe is essential for a successful data scientist. The learning component is something that strong data science groups truly value. - Alex
Speakers of this Episode

Evan Wimpey | Director of Analytics Strategy at Elder Research
www.elderresearch.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-wimpey-40469b47
Alex Cunningham | Manager, Advanced Analytics at Church & Dwight Co., Inc.
Churchdwight.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-cunningham-297a8a39
Timestamp
00:00 - Intro
01:43 - Alex's background and career history
04:50 - How Church & Dwight structures their analytics capability
06:06 - How the analytics group has integrated in the business & built momentum
11:33 - How they prioritize & implement projects
19:05 - The important aspects of their team
23:43 - If there was a magic "analytic success" button, where would Alex use it?

Find more show notes, transcripts, & more episodes at:
https://www.elderresearch.com/resource/podcasts/