From Data Science to Action: Humanizing Analytics & Digital Trust | DisrupTV Ep. 160
In DisrupTV Episode 160, hosts R “Ray” Wang and Vala Afshar are joined by:
- Anushka Anand, Senior Product Manager at Tableau Software, who works on data products aimed at making analytics accessible and usable.
- Xiao-Li Meng, renowned Harvard Data Scientist and author, known for her work on statistical model fairness, trust, replication, and bias in data science.
- Jon Reed, Co-Founder at Diginomica, who brings a critical view of how enterprise tech uses data, reporting on trends and real‐world impact.
Together, they dive into how data science can be more trustworthy, human, and actionable in enterprise settings.
Key Takeaways
- Humanizing Analytics – Anushka Anand emphasizes that data tools become valuable when people trust them and can understand them. Usability and interpretability matter not just model performance.
- Trust and Bias in Models – Xiao-Li Meng discusses how bias, reproducibility, and fairness are essential for analytics models to be trusted. Skipping this leads to mistrust, bad outcomes, and risk.
- From Insights to Influence – Jon Reed underscores that insight isn’t enough; what matters is connecting analytics to business decisions, telling stories around data, and making data actionable.
- Transparency and Accountability – All guests agree that transparency (about data sources, model limits, decision logic) increases accountability and helps avoid misuse.
Final Thoughts
Episode 160 is a strong reminder that analytics without human context is just numbers. To unlock impact, organizations must build trust, embrace fairness, ensure interpretability, and use insights to influence decisions—not just report them. As data science continues to evolve, humanization, transparency, and action will be the hallmarks of leaders in this space.
Related Episodes
- Episode 161 – Deepak Padaki, Tina Moen & David Chou
- Episode 162 – Connected Strategy: Siggelkow, Terwiesch, Shawn Mandel & Cindy Zhou
- Episode 163 – Retention, Leadership & Content Strategy: Marion, Medina & Nicole France
