Episode 5: Jon Francis

On his first day as Chief Data and Analytics Officer at General Motors, Jon Francis sat down with Barr Moses and Anda Gansca to discuss his career in data: from the early days of site performance testing to now, with machine learning and AI as valuable tools. Amid all of it is a foundation of generating excitement and acceptance around data, and empathy for your teams and your customers.

In this episode…

00:00 – Introduction
02:01 – How did you fist get interested in data and analytics?
05:37 – What did stats mean in “the early days” at companies like Amazon and Expedia?
08:50 – How has this role of the data analyst/scientist evolved?
13:12 – Where did the data function report into at Jon’s previous roles, and now?
15:20 – What will Jon do first at GM, and what does he recommend new CDOs do to set teams up for success?
20:31 – How does Jon approach disparate data sources?
24:30 – What’s the hardest thing about data to explain to non-data people?
26:54 – How do you hone your data storytelling skills?
28:20 – The promise of AI and Machine Learning
33:18 – Rapid fire questions!