11: Sachin Kumar: Smart is the new sexy

Sachin Kumar’s most important value is problem-solving. He wants the work he does to add value to the business.

Here’s his linked in profile. It was a great pleasure to have him on the podcast today. 

Find the podcast on

Some of the key ideas he discusses:

• how smart is the new sexy
• why business acumen matters in a data analyst / decision scientist
• Einstein’s idea: if I have an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes understanding the question
• the importance of mirroring the client’s language back to them when explaining a solution (this is a fundamental of rapport: see here)
• what makes a data scientist succeed or fail
• why being smarter isn’t always better
• who owns data science – is it IT, Business, Consulting? 
• the gap between the business and data science and what needs to happen with it
• how values power his day and help him manage time
• why we should be solving the problems which are a priority for the business 
• why he’s given up reading books
• his dream to be a travelling problem-solver
• his advice to prospective data scientists (don’t fall in love with super-hero tech!)
• why you should ask all 20 questions next time you play that game

Interesting side ideas

Here are the links:

• Sachin works with Aaron Artery and Christina Igasto at Customer Crunch
• The Sherlock Holmes films and TV shows: the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock 

• And the comic Holmes and Watson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTwDkHwEKgs

• I refer to Annette Slunjski from IAPA whose podcast is yet to be released
• Sachin talks about the Breakthrough Experience by John de Martini