Click to learn more about author Kartik Patel.

When Gartner talks about expanding data analytics to business users, they also talk about how the analytical tools must be suitable for business users. If a business wants to implement a citizen data scientist initiative and encourage their business users to become more productive and valuable within the business environment, that business must provide tools that are easy enough for the average business user and will allow them to easily adopt these tools to make day-to-day decisions.

There is a difference between a data scientist and a citizen data scientist. A data scientist is more productive if they can focus on those advanced analytics projects that require 100% accuracy and are strategic in nature. A citizen data scientist needs augmented analytics tools that provide suggestions and guidance to help them choose the best way to visualize data and which predictive analytics techniques to use to achieve their goals.

A citizen data scientist must use analytics to make decisions that drive tasks and collaboration on a daily basis – solving problems and identifying opportunities and bringing those solutions and suggestions into the team environment to work more productively and more efficiently to achieve the objectives set for them.

To create this kind of change within an organization, managers, HR and executives must work together to create processes, workflow, evaluation techniques and collaborative meeting and team environs that encourage and expect users to leverage data to support recommendations and conclusions.

Data scientists take the long view. Citizen data scientists are in the trenches and, in order to meet those long-term objectives, they must have the right tools and information to make progress every day! If your team needs augmented analytics, you can start your journey now!