Sidney Minassian is an entrepreneur who runs, among other things, Contexti and Actionable Insights
A few months after this interview in March 2019 Contexti was acquired by Versent. Sidney has now launched ImpactLadder – a global people development company.
Find the podcast on 
You’ll find a transcript of this entire podcast here.
He’s been thinking about the problems of data science and analytics for a while now, and this podcast is a few of his thought nuggets, including:
- 7 ways to increase your value as a data scientist (who doesn’t love a good listicle?)
- Some classics on how to run meetings more effectively
- And why you need to say no, and be a Narrow Niche Ninja
Sidney Minassian also talks about:
- Disruption and change and how it affects data science
- It’s never the technology that’s the problem, it’s the people
- Why it’s not just about the data and the tools – it’s also about how we take advantage of the tool?
- What the c-level need to know about data
- Why you don’t need to know EVERYTHING to work in data science
- Seven ways to increase your value as a data scientist
- Why it’s important to take control of your own relevance
- How he makes health a theme in his family
- Being a stickler for time: and how it works in meetings: why you need to set tone and expectation for meetings, and how pizzas figure in that
- How values figure in his company and the way they work
- Nothing is forever – and what that means at work
- Having the fight early
- What to do when you have too many things to do: managing your to do list
- Why he has more than 56,000 unopened emails in his inbox: if something’s important you have to step into the client’s office to get attention and action
Hints and tips
- Here’s a link to Sidney Minassian’s article Seven ways to increase your value as a data scientist
- He mentions the 4 hour body from Tim Ferris
- The Amazon two pizza rule for meetings
Podcasts
- Sidney Minassian’s podcast for entrepreneurs is here
- Mixergy is one of his favourite podcasts
- and he also mentions the Tim Ferris podcast
- I mention Shane Parrish’s podcast interview with Toby Lutke from Shopify
Charity
Sidney Minassian’s favourite charity is Cure Brain Cancer Foundation
Find the full transcript of this episode here.
Talk to me about building your analytics capability through soft skills for data science.