For over a decade I’ve worked as an Ecommerce Director and Chief Digital Officer at a range of B2C and B2B ecommerce businesses, where I’ve led ecommerce, marketing, development, and BI teams. Data science has always been a major part of my work and has helped my teams produce far better results.
Like most other people working in the field, I kind of stumbled into it. Although I originally trained as a biologist, both of my Master’s degrees were in numerate data-driven subjects - first taxonomy, then bioinformatics. It was the latter subject that saw me develop a love for software engineering and data analysis.
After a decade or more applying my biological knowledge and software engineering skills to writing, editing, and developing various magazines and websites, I decided to move to the field of ecommerce and marketing, where I found my skills were in high demand. I then did a third Master’s degree in Internet Retailing to brush up on the specifics.
When I’m not working (or fly fishing), I’ll be found learning new data science techniques or reading about new things to try. Practical Data Science serves as my notepad for the side projects I do at home, and helps me remember how to do things when I forget in the future. I hope you find it useful.