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When we started talking to each other on how we would want to create the most effective team structure we came to an interesting setup of teams. Rob decided to pen it down to give some extra insight.

We are passionate about building teams. The right team built from a diverse set of people is much more valuable than the sum of the individuals involved. From successful previous projects and from examining other successes and failures in the market, we know to prioritize a holistic approach to Data. Our teams are built from individuals with unique perspectives, who can support and learn from each other and operate openly, agile, in an egalitarian fashion with minimal to no hierarchy.

We recognise that excellence in the Data Analytics field is measured by real value creation. A team constructed from well-trained statistical experts and programmers alone, e.g. classical Data Scientists, will not be able to deliver this value end-to-end, and will be tripped up in building and maintaining their platform and applications, and embedding this solution for production. Business value is only realized in production. Our “SWAT” teams are built to consider the entire solution end-to-end, and dynamically: “What is necessary today to make that next leap in Business Value”. Often it is a question of embedding, people and change, communication and inreach, process, as much as it is a technical problem of infrastructure to be solved.

To meet the diverse sets of challenges of building analytics for production, at the Leap Beyond Group we recognise and combine seven disciplines which together deliver end‐to‐end products to businesses:

    1. Domain Expertise: in public, finance, healthcare, and others.
    2. Data Architecture: design secure and efficient systems
    3. Data Engineering: build systems to move and process data efficiently
    4. Cluster Administration: support the distributed infrastructure and IT of the client
    5. Data Science: statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence
    6. Analytics Ops: bringing analytics to production, continuous integration and deployment
    7. Delivery Lead: ensure project success, interface with business and deliver business value quickly

When building teams the technical skill set is not the only consideration we bring. We look at teams together, their dynamics, their roles, and ways of working. We use tools such as the Belbin model of teams to understand and complete teams with missing pieces, and we build teams covering a dynamic range of experience. We recognise three levels of expertise within our company, and formulate teams with a measure of each of these levels to provide a dynamic experience:

  • Principal: A multi‐disciplinary expert. 10+ years of experience
  • Senior: A super‐expert in their discipline. 5+ years of experience.
  • Consultant: A talented and inspiring self‐starter. 3+ years of experience.

We also are quick recognise that we are not doing this alone. We build our teams to work in harmony with your existing experts. Support and complement them. We are passionate about helping our clients with their own teams, in building them from scratch or enhancing them with training or new members. We want to be your partners in creating and supporting your self-sustainable capabilities, and work together for several years on your transformative journey.

Written by Rob. Rob Lambert is one of our Founders, currently based in Amsterdam.