60 seconds with… Senior Director of Data Science, Mike Shores, on how data is helping Vista become a simpler, smarter business.

With data, automation and machine learning playing an increasing role in our daily lives via the brands and experiences we engage with, we spoke to Mike Shores, who leads the Data Science chapter within DnA, to discover how data science is helping to power Vista on our JDCV journey.

Let’s start with the key question – what?actually?is?Data Science?

I broadly describe it as math and statistics with a bit of computer science horsepower in there too. Ultimately, our aim is to provide answers to complex questions, using data to do so. Where you’ve got a complex set of inputs and variables, Data Science helps identify patterns using equations to make smart predictions and identify solutions. That in turn can help simplify and automate some processes.

So, really, it’s a form of problem solving?

Yes, exactly. It takes a creative brain as well as a mathematical one. As much as we like to think of data scientists as nerdy math people who work with models, they spend a lot of time collaborating with their stakeholders to help translate real-world business challenges into something we can test and explore using statistical models.

From a data science viewpoint, where can Vista improve?

People being comfortable to challenge the status quo; to take a step back and ask: “how can we do this better?”, “would my job be easier if I could automate this?”, “do I see another context where people are using data successfully and could we do the same?” Data Science can help explore these answers, with the potential for highly valuable solutions.

Do you see this as replacing roles with tech and automation?

Absolutely not! There’s a reason why companies keep people and don’t replace them with a robot. While data science helps simplify and automate tasks, amongst its greatest value is freeing up people’s time to focus on the unknown. The example I like to use; imagine if every time you used Google it was a human at the other end manually doing the search for you. Clearly that would make it impossible for Google to operate the way it does today – but equally, we’d never have the many other cool products their teams have developed in that time.

How does all of this translate to Vista’s transformation journey?

Customer expectation is greater now; people want a personalized experiences delivered at speed. We simply cannot have that kind of great customer experience at scale if we don’t use data science. We have too many customers and we’d fail to serve them in meaningful ways. It’s a competitive world and many other companies will come after us. But we have huge tech expertise and a running start; so, if we can leverage both our tech know-how and data science, we can stay at the top of the pyramid.

What does Vista’s vision mean to you (Deliver JDCV by becoming the expert design and marketing partner for the world’s small businesses)?

I once worked for a credit card company but struggled with the fact I couldn’t picture my customer. Whoever they were, I couldn’t picture them or know my work was making a meaningful impact to them. By contrast, at Vista – especially amongst the data scientists – we have a very strong sense of small businesses and get real energy from wanting to make it better for our customers. Many of us live in neighborhoods packed with small businesses, some even have families with small businesses, and that’s a big motivator.

What are your current priorities?

My role is to create a best-in-class data science chapter, and that comes in a variety of forms; the people we hire, the models we build, and the whole culture around data science. Across the whole of Vista, people should feel data science is accessible to them and their roles. But to achieve that, they need a base understanding of how and where data can be used.

Interested in Data Science? Check out our openings!