My goal is to cover the 3Ps: people, projects and processes, in that order of importance. And my goal is the “50:50” rule.
Are you a newly promoted manager? Or, if you are already a manager, do you remember how your transition from an individual contributor role was? As of this writing, I have been leading data science teams for the past 4-5 years, but I still remember one of my main struggles at the beginning of my managerial journey: time management.
Data scientists or senior data scientists who contribute individually tend to focus on one or two problem spaces. The IC role is supposed to give you the space to work on a deep problem, cutting out the noise of other projects and administrative work. You will likely have some Ad hoc discussions with engineering colleagues or other data science colleagues are necessary, but they are necessary because technical designs and system dependencies are important for delivery. Of course, one should attend weekly meetings with stakeholders, but you probably have one of these per week. So, let’s say that as an IC, your week consists of about 20% meetings and 80% technical work.
Now… what if, instead of working on one project, you were overseeing 3-5 projects and 6-12 direct reports? If you're not careful…
