Klaviyo Data Science Podcast

Klaviyo Data Science Podcast EP 33 | How to found a (data science) team


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Welcome back to the Klaviyo Data Science podcast! This episode, we dive into…

Starting from scratch

We’ve talked about a lot of aspects of data science on this podcast — building software features, conducting research, learning new methods and skills, recruiting new members — but there’s one we’ve always avoided: building a new team from the ground up. A large reason for that is personnel — while your cohosts may be intrepid, they are not experts in this area.

This month, we bring on two people who are: Eric Silberstein and Ezra Freedman, who founded the Data Science team at Klaviyo. We draw on their wealth of experience, knowledge, and lessons learned the hard way while founding a young team.

As you might expect, these lessons extend beyond data science teams in particular — whether you’re founding another team or starting a new business, or looking to join a team in its early stages, you might be able to learn from our discussions, such as:

  • How setting concrete goals is key for a new team
  • How to think about your first hire, and your next five
  • How to steer a team through large organizational changes while maintaining its culture and essence
  • “When you view the world, do you think of it as ‘if-then’ statements, or do you tend to think of it as some sort of function to optimize? Our team needed both.”
    - Eric Silberstein, VP of Data Science


    Read the full writeup on Medium!


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    Klaviyo Data Science PodcastBy Klaviyo Data Science Team

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