Well, my brain is mush now, and I only got 3.5 of my 5 goals for the week done.
But I think I managed to get a stakeholder onboard with getting the data science team involved much earlier on in the development cycle. I've been pushing to get in at the handoff from design to engineering for a while now, and going through my manager hasn't been productive on this front (due to no fault of his own, I've come to learn). I had a opportune meeting with a project manager, though, where they were looking for guidance, and I was able to raise it with him.
And his eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas.
It's hard to change process, especially when you don't like to rock the boat. Selling an idea up channels can be a slow endeavour, and it's a path that takes you through many people who are not invested in the problem. Indeed, often they are invested in there not being a problem, and so don't care to hear ideas to change things.
We're a story telling species. Everyone has a narrative, and rewriting it is challenging and uncomfortable.
I, as a person, like consensus. There's comfort and security in consensus. Even if you're wrong about something, you're wrong as a *community*. It's not an isolating experience. So, I like to work to get people on side with my ideas, and do so in ways that don't step on other people's toes.
But often the easier way forward is just to go straight to the other side of the line and discuss the common pain point.
I'm sure I've learned nothing from this experience. Except I now know for certain that there's at least one person on the other end who will support my pitch.
And who will hopefully back channel invite me to the meetings I want to be invited to going forward, of course.
#Data #DataScience #WeeklyWins #VideoGames #GameDev
Edit: My phones keyboard now creates as many typos as it fixes. Sigh.