ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shares lessons learned having worked for over 25 years growing and leading analytics functions across eight corporate environments, multiple industry sectors, and both within manufacturer (client) and supplier companies. Large corporations seeking to grow a function may create a role that multiple employees will fill. A mid-sized firm may assign a unique individual to each role. Having built data-driven analytics and product groups across organizations large and small, the author identifies a core set of roles that any manager should consider in building their teams. In the author's experience, product development teams are multi-disciplinary, because a range of technical and management disciplines are critical. An effective company will have close collaboration across the advanced analytics team, and in smaller companies an individual may hold multiple roles. The business development function is responsible for selling analytics products and solutions, and is naturally more critical in a service organization than in a client manufacturer or advertiser firm.
