Why communication is important in Data science
It often happens that lower-level employees have long-established work habits that are required to change based on data-driven recommendations. Many times they are resistant to the change because they do not have enough context to understand why it is better that things change. That is why CLEAR communication is important.
It facilitates the flow of information. This compounds as the number of people working on a project grow.
It helps decision-makers act.
It removes misunderstandings, creates clarity, and motivates and unifies the participating teams.
It aids in preparing people to accept change.
It helps your manager coordinate with other managers and teams, so you can focus on the technical work.
All of this culminates in you making a greater impact on the organization
Things to consider:
1. What is the reason behind the request? : When someone makes a request, the outcome of that request is not usually the end goal, but rather a means to an end.
2. Once you know the reason behind the request, consider if the request is the right one. This often is not purely a data science task, but may also require domain knowledge (specific knowledge of the industry) or knowledge of operational constraints which you might not have
Why is the use of nebulous language ever so common?
People may not have the technical expertise to be more precise — not uncommon for managers and colleagues in non-technical teams (project managers and operational teams for instance).
People may not have the time to dig into the details — typical for management.
It's not other people's job to give concrete definitions to inherently vague terms
Proxies
It is a common situation in data science that when we don't know the truth — either because it's not possible to measure it or we can't afford to — we use sufficiently close approximations to the truth. These are called proxies. When a request is urgent, it is common to use proxies in place of information that would take much longer to get





















