I DoorDash about 5 months in the past. That is my first time beginning at a brand new firm as a Knowledge Science Supervisor. DoorDash strikes quick, expectations are excessive, and the area context is deep, which makes onboarding difficult. Nevertheless, it has additionally been one of many fastest-growing durations of my profession.
The primary three months at any new job are essentially a constructing section — constructing connections, area understanding, and information information — and a easy onboarding units the inspiration for later success. Due to this fact, on this article, I’ll share what mattered most at first months and my guidelines for any information science onboarding.
I. Construct Connections
Earlier than anything, let me begin with constructing connections. Once I was in school, I pictured information scientists as individuals spending all day lengthy heads-down writing code and constructing fashions. Nevertheless, as I grew to become extra senior, I spotted that information scientists make actual impacts by embedding themselves deeply within the enterprise, utilizing information to establish alternatives, and driving enterprise selections. That is very true as we speak with tighter DS headcount and AI automating fundamental coding and evaluation workflows.
Due to this fact, constructing connections and incomes a seat on the desk must be a high precedence throughout onboarding. This consists of:
- Frequent onboarding classes along with your supervisor and onboarding buddy. These are the individuals who greatest perceive your future scope, expectations, and priorities. In my case, my supervisor was my onboarding buddy, and we met nearly every day through the first two weeks. I at all times got here with a ready checklist of questions I encountered throughout onboarding.
- Arrange meet-and-greet calls with cross-functional companions. Right here is the agenda I often comply with in these calls:
- 1. Private introductions
- 2. Their focus space and high priorities
- 3. How my group can greatest help them
- 4. Any onboarding recommendation or “issues I ought to know”
- I particularly just like the final query because it persistently gives nice insights. 5 years in the past, after I onboarded at Brex, I requested the identical query and summarised the responses into classes here. The most effective I acquired this time is “Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions. Play the new-hire card as a lot as doable within the first three months.”
- For these key companions, arrange weekly/bi-weekly 1:1s and get your self added to recurring undertaking conferences. Chances are you’ll not contribute a lot at first, however simply listening in and amassing the context and questions is useful.
- In case you are onboarding as a supervisor like me, you must begin speaking to your direct stories early. Throughout onboarding, I purpose to be taught three issues from my direct stories: 1. Their initiatives and challenges, 2. Their expectation of me as a supervisor, 3. Their profession targets. The primary helps me ramp up on the world. The latter two are important for establishing belief and a collaborative working relationship early on.
II. Construct Area Context
Knowledge scientists succeed after they perceive the enterprise properly sufficient to affect selections — not simply analyze outcomes. Due to this fact, one other precedence throughout onboarding is to construct your area information. Frequent methods embrace speaking to individuals, studying docs, looking out Slack, and asking numerous questions.
I often begin with conversations to establish key enterprise context and initiatives. Then I dig into related docs in Google Drive or Confluence, and browse Slack messages in undertaking channels. I additionally compile the questions after studying the docs, and ask them in 1:1s.
Nevertheless, one problem I bumped into is digging into the rabbit gap of docs. Every doc results in extra paperwork with quite a few unfamiliar metrics, acronym names, and initiatives. That is particularly difficult as a supervisor — if every of your group members has 3 initiatives, then 5 individuals means 15 initiatives to catch up. At one level, my browser’s “To Learn” tab group had over 30 tabs open.
Fortunately, AI instruments are right here to rescue. Whereas studying all of the docs one after the other is useful to get an in depth understanding, AI instruments are nice to supply a holistic view and join the dots. For instance,
- At DoorDash, Glean has entry to inside docs and Slack. I typically chat with Glean, asking questions like “How is GOV calculated?”, “Present a abstract of the undertaking X, together with the objective, timeline, findings, and conclusion.” It hyperlinks to the doc sources, so I can nonetheless dive deeper rapidly if wanted.
- One other device I attempted is NotebookLM. I shared the docs on a particular subject with it, and requested it to generate summaries and thoughts maps for me to gather my ideas in a extra organized approach. It could actually additionally create podcasts, that are typically extra digestible than studying docs.
- Different AI instruments like ChatGPT may connect with inside docs and serve an analogous goal.
III. Construct Knowledge Information
Constructing information information is as vital as constructing area information for information scientists. As a front-line supervisor, I maintain myself to a easy commonplace: I ought to be capable of do hands-on information work properly sufficient to supply sensible, credible steerage to my group.
Here’s what helped me ramp up rapidly:
- Arrange tech stack in week one: I like to recommend establishing the tech stack and developer surroundings early. Why? Entry points, permissions, and bizarre surroundings issues at all times take longer than anticipated. The sooner you have got all the pieces arrange, the earlier you can begin taking part in with the info.
- Make full use of AI-assisted information instruments: Each tech firm is integrating AI into its information workflows. For instance, at DoorDash, we have now Cursor related to Snowflake with inside information information and context to generate SQL queries and evaluation grounded in our information. Although the generated queries usually are not but 100% correct, the tables, joins, and previous queries it factors me to function glorious beginning factors. It received’t exchange your technical judgment, however it dramatically reduces the time to first perception.
- Perceive key metrics and their relationships: Knowledge information not solely means having the ability to entry and question the info, however perceive the enterprise from a knowledge lens. I often begin with weekly enterprise critiques to search out the core metrics and their pattern. That is additionally an effective way to contextualize the metrics and have an thought of what “regular” seems like. I’ve discovered this extremely useful when gut-checking analyses and experiment outcomes later.
- Get your palms soiled: Nothing enforces your information understanding greater than doing a little hands-on work. A very good onboarding program often features a mini starter undertaking. Whilst a supervisor, I did some IC work throughout my onboarding, together with alternative sizing for the planning cycle, designing and analyzing a number of experiments, and diagnosing and forecasting metrics motion. These initiatives accelerated my studying excess of passive studying.
IV. Begin Small and Contribute Early
Whereas onboarding is primarily about studying, I strongly suggest beginning small and contributing early. Early contributions sign possession and construct belief — typically sooner than ready for a “excellent” undertaking. Listed below are some concrete methods:
- Enhance the onboarding documentation: As you undergo the onboarding doc, you’ll run into random technical points, discover damaged hyperlinks, or discover outdated directions. Not simply overcoming them your self, however enhancing the onboarding doc is an effective way to indicate that you’re a group participant and need to make onboarding higher for future hires.
- Construct documentation: No firm has excellent documentation — from my very own expertise and chatting with my mates, most information groups face the problem of outdated or lacking documentation. As you might be onboarding and never busy with initiatives but, it’s the excellent time to assist fill in these gaps. For instance, I constructed a undertaking listing for my group to centralize previous and ongoing initiatives with key findings and clear factors of contact. I additionally created a group of metrics heuristics, summarising the causal relationship between completely different metrics we realized from previous experiments and analyses. Be aware that every one these paperwork additionally turn into worthwhile context for AI brokers, enhancing the standard and relevance of AI-generated outputs.
- Counsel course of enhancements: Each information group operates in another way, with professionals and cons. Becoming a member of a brand new group means you convey a recent perspective on group processes and would possibly spot alternatives to enhance effectivity. Considerate ideas based mostly in your previous expertise are tremendous worthwhile.
For my part, a profitable onboarding goals to determine cross-functional alignment, enterprise fluency, and information instinct.
Right here is my onboarding guidelines:
- Week 1–2: Foundations
– Meet key enterprise companions
– Get your self added to core cross-functional conferences
– Perceive group focus and priorities at a high-level
– Arrange tech stack, entry, and permissions
– Write your first line of code
– Learn documentation and ask questions - Week 2–6: Get your palms soiled
– Deep dive into group OKR and generally used information tables
– Deep dive into your focus space (extra docs and questions)
– Full a starter undertaking end-to-end
– Make early contributions: Replace outdated data, construct one piece of documentation, or recommend one course of enchancment, and many others. - Week 6–12: Possession
– Be capable to converse up in cross-functional conferences and supply your data-informed standpoint
– Construct belief because the “go-to” particular person in your area
Onboarding seems completely different throughout corporations, roles, and seniority ranges. However the ideas keep constant. When you’re beginning a brand new function quickly, I hope this guidelines helps you ramp up with extra readability and confidence.
