My goal is to cover the 3Ps: People, Projects and Process. In that order of importance. And my target is the “50:50” rule.
Are you a newly promoted manager? Or, if you already are a manager, do you remember your transition coming from an individual contributor role? As of the time of writing, I have been leading data science teams for the past 4 to 5 years, but I still remember one the my main struggles at the beginning of my journey as a manager: time management.
Data Scientists or Sr Data Scientists individual contributors tend to focus on 1 or 2 problem spaces. The IC role is supposed to provide you the space to deliver on a deep problem, removing noise from other projects and admin work. You will probably have some ad-hoc chats with engineering colleagues or other data science peers, but these are the necessary because technical designs and system dependencies are important for delivery. Of course, one must attend weekly meetings with stakeholders, but probably you get 1 of these per week. Therefore, let’s say that as an IC, your week is around 20% meetings with 80% technical work.
Now… what would happen if, instead of working on 1 project, you oversee 3 to 5 projects and 6 to 12 direct reports? If you are not careful…
