What they need is (1) a strategic roadmap toward building data science skills and (2) an effective hiring and resourcing plan..In coming up with a roadmap to use data science effectively at your company, you need to first examine your specific needs..The fact is that many businesses, especially small- and medium-sized businesses, don’t actually require cutting-edge data science techniques to get a leg up on the competition..Still, there are some skills that every data science function at every company needs..You can think about data science team skills as on a continuum spread from the business side to the engineering side, as seen in the image below: Are there areas on this spectrum where your team is particularly weak?.Identifying where your resources are lacking and where you’re already strong is key to building out your roadmap to taking advantage of everything data science has to offer..Once you’ve figured out your skill-building strategy, your next step is to hire for and resource the roles that will support it..As the data science space is relatively new in comparison to other fields in the business world, you may have some trouble sorting out all of the different titles created in recent years to identify what different data science roles do..Don’t get too hung up on titles; in some companies, one person fulfills many roles..Here’s a look at some of the main titles you’ll encounter when building out your data science function, arranged along the same continuum of business to technical roles as the skill sets were in the image above: Hiring for the roles that match up with the skill areas you’re currently lacking will help you head down your strategic roadmap..Just remember that in the hiring process, finding the right person does not come down to who can solve every tough data problem you throw at them in an interview..It’s much more useful to be highly selective about figuring out which problems can impact your business most, then hiring relevant candidates to support solving them.. More details