Strategic Analytics: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

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DATA SCIENCE AND THE ART OF PERSUASION

by Scott Berinato

Data science is growing up fast. Over the past five years companies have invested billions to get the most-talented data scientists to set up shop, amass zettabytes of material, and run it through their deduction machines to find signals in the unfathomable volume of noise. It’s working—to a point. Data has begun to change our relationship to fields as varied as language translation, retail, health care, and basketball.

But despite the success stories, many companies aren’t getting the value they could from data science. Even well-run operations that generate strong analysis fail to capitalize on their insights. Efforts fall short in the last mile, when it comes time to explain the ...