[Jordan Pino]

Hello Grid Analytics Community Members,

I wanted to send some of my answers to a few of these questions.

1. How do you handle expectation management when it comes to analytics projects with senior leadership? We know as data experts what our analytics can and can’t do, but there is often a disconnect between the technical folks and senior leadership. What methods do you employ?
   • On our team, we handle this via education sessions with leadership. We hold sessions that explain what analytics is and is not, how it can help the organization, and what to expect. We stress that our tools are decision-support tools only and do not completely replace domain knowledge and human interactions.
2. Have you ever had to deal with legal issues in your use cases?
   • Yes, we have. For a large pole analytics use case, we had to interface quite closely with our internal legal team to make certain our findings were not putting the company at risk.
3. How do you handle use cases related to safety?
   • Same point as above, we work closely with our legal team and stakeholders to make sure that we are not putting the company at risk.
4. How do you handle vague requests from senior leadership in regards to use cases? How do you get them to develop a solid objective list?
   • On our team, we have a very specific use case intake form which allows our internal clients to very carefully specify their objectives and overall vision. In this way, we can avoid many of the pitfalls of analytics use cases where there is no clear direction and the end user ends up not using the tool. We feel it’s important to lay the ground work BEFORE starting the work in order to minimize chaos at the end.

Thanks!
@Jordan​

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Jordan Pino
Sr. Data Scientist
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E)
Baltimore MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-18-2021 15:19
From: Leslie Cook
Subject: Change of Plans for August 18 Community Conversation – Urgent Request

What a great new format we explored today for the August 18 Grid Analytics Community Conversation! For those that did not make it to our last minute pivot to an “Ask Me Anything” interview style session, we missed you and you missed some valuable discussions. During this “Ask Me Anything” interview, we talked with @Brad and @Jordan (Thanks Brad and Jordan!) from the Grid Analytics Community leadership team on questions submitted by members of this community. Brad and Jordan answered most of the following questions. They also answered a few questions from the audience. Audience members also provided their thoughts to some of these questions. If you missed the session, @Kevin will post the recording of the session later this week.

I share the questions with you, because I don’t want the discussion to end with the session. If you have any answers or opinions to any of the following questions, please reply to this thread with your thoughts. Thanks to all!

Questions from “Ask Me Anything” Interview: 

1. Eight months into the new administration is the grid better prepared for a cyber attack?
2. When my kids were young for a day off activity I would give each a dollar and bring them to a dollar store. For a lesson in economics, how to spend wisely, see how the personality of my kids came out, and to have a lot of fun. (Today I think you need more than a dollar.) As the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act meanders through congress, there is, at least at the moment a significant amount for improvements in our industry. Imagine now Congress is giving you a few dollars. How would you spend it? You could go for more than $1. Or, another way to ask it… Where do you think the infrastructure bill money will go to in our industry?
3. How do you handle expectation management when it comes to analytics projects with senior leadership? We know as data experts what our analytics can and can’t do, but there is often a disconnect between the technical folks and senior leadership. What methods do you employ?
4. Have you ever had to deal with legal issues in your use cases?
5. How do you handle use cases related to safety?
6. How do you handle use cases that shine a light on weaknesses in your system that perhaps you didn’t intend on finding? Data ethics?
7. How do you handle vague requests from senior leadership in regards to use cases? How do you get them to develop a solid objective list?
8. When developing an analytics operation within a department what are the essential roles that must be filled?

1. When department is stood up
2. When department matures