Value Driven Data Science: Boost your impact. Earn what you’re worth. Rewrite your career algorithm.

[00:00:00] Dr Genevieve Hayes: Hello and welcome to Your Value Boost from Value Driven Data Science, the podcast that helps data scientists transform their technical expertise into tangible business value, career autonomy, and financial reward. I. I am Dr. Genevieve Hayes, and I'm here again with Kashif Zahoor, vice President of Business Intelligence at Influence Mobile to turbocharge your data science career in less time than it takes to run a simple query.
[00:00:31] In today's episode, we are going to discuss the books that have shaped our thinking as data professionals. Welcome back, Kashif. The right book at the right time can completely change your life. As a teenager, I read everything I could find by Michael Crichton and his message of focusing on solving the problem while ignoring all irrelevant distractions still influences the way I work.
[00:00:59] I. Similarly, the right business book can also completely transform the way you approach your work and create value in your career. So let's get right into it. What book or books have had the greatest impact on your development as a strategic data leader?
[00:01:17] Kashif Zahoor: Well, I wanted to talk about something I started. At Influence Mobile with my data team we started a bi book club. And as a leader of the data team, I was looking for a way for us to connect learn and grow together. So we dedicated a portion of our weekly team meeting to discuss a chapter.
[00:01:38] And it's genuinely transformed how we work and interact. So the first book we read had such an amazing impact on our team. It's called data Insights delivered seven proven Steps to Understand stakeholders, manage expectations, and deliver actual Value by Mo Villagran. Have you heard of that book or read it?
[00:02:00] Dr Genevieve Hayes: I haven't heard of that book, but I'll be looking it up as soon as this episode is over. So tell me a bit about it.
[00:02:06] Kashif Zahoor: Sure. And before I get into the specifics of that book I wanted to talk about the value I think data teams can have by having a bi book club. And some of the things I think we gained from having a bi book club and I'll interlay some of the key takeaways from the different books we've read.
[00:02:26] If that's okay.
[00:02:27] Dr Genevieve Hayes: Oh, go ahead.
[00:02:29] Kashif Zahoor: So, each week like I said, we dove into a new chapter during a team meeting. And this organic approach helped us embody principles from books like Atomic Habits. We stopped chasing perfection, started to compound progress. And instead of trying to overhaul our entire workflow at once, we focused on making small, consistent improvements.
[00:02:52] Think about refining one dashboard a week or tightening one stakeholder intake question at a time. Over time, those micro wins really added up to a big shift in how we delivered value. And then beyond the technical skills, Genevieve, this is what I was most excited about, is how we started to open up with each other.
[00:03:09] People felt comfortable sharing actual challenges they faced. Not just data problems. And that helped them normalized vulnerability within the team and genuinely built psychological safety. So we started building systems not just goals. That came from Atomic Habits.
[00:03:27] That was the second book in our book club. And rather than just saying Let's be more strategic, we created processes that made the identity. Like sprint rituals, playbooks and bi wind sharing. And these habits became our default operating systems when things got really busy. We started to craft a shared language and became data concierges, and that was in the data insights delivered book. So as we read and discussed each chapter, we naturally started using the same vocabulary in mental models. And that alignment was really huge for us. It helped us work faster and more smoothly across the board.
[00:04:07] The book introduced us to that concept of a data concierge. A flexible shared role. We're focused on translating between business needs and technical possibilities that fundamentally changed how we approached our work. So instead of asking. What do you want us to build? We started asking what problem are we trying to solve?
[00:04:29] It encouraged us to act like trusted advisors, not just dashboard builders. We shifted from measuring success by deliverables, to measuring it by adoption, decision quality, and stakeholder clarity. So it was just this low effort, high reward huge ROI as I saw it. It cost us almost nothing to buy these books.
[00:04:51] No new tools and minimal time commitment. And yet I felt like the cultural turn has been enormous. We've been able to redesign our environment to make our good habits easier. As Atomic habits suggest, we set up reminders and templates and celebrated small wins, which made the habits feel satisfying and reinforce the culture we're trying to build.
[00:05:13] And I think our team is tighter and we're thoughtful and incredibly aligned. So. I often say to my team the book club wasn't about becoming better data professionals. It wasn't just about that. It helped us become a better team.
[00:05:27] Dr Genevieve Hayes: Let's. What book are you currently reading?
[00:05:30] Kashif Zahoor: We are currently reading the AI driven Leader harnessing AI to make faster, smarter decisions.
[00:05:37] We just started on that book.
[00:05:38] Dr Genevieve Hayes: What's the key takeaway you've got from it so far?
[00:05:41] Kashif Zahoor: Well, we're only on chapter two right now, so I don't know if I have something earth shattering to share, but I think the one thing my team is starting to realize, because I was always the guy that felt like I. There's something here in ai. It's not the silver bullet, but there is something here where we can accelerate the way we work as a team.
[00:06:04] And the initial chapter or two has set it up where they are realizing the value AI can have on making a team faster and smarter and making decisions quicker. So I think the book has done a good job in its initial chapter of just. Sharing what's possible, and then I think a lot of the insights will come as we continue down this road.
[00:06:31] Dr Genevieve Hayes: Have you ever read any of the books by Benjamin Hardy?
[00:06:34] Kashif Zahoor: No, no, I haven't. Tell me about those.
[00:06:36] Dr Genevieve Hayes: I read pretty much everything he writes as it comes out. So he's written be Your Future Self. Now 10 X is easier than two x. He's got a new book coming out, which you'll probably be out by the time this is published, which is the Science of Scaling.
[00:06:51] And basically the focus of all of his work is on rapid transformation in your business and in all other aspects of your life. And. Basically the principle is you start with your end goal in sight. Give yourself an impossible deadline, and then start thinking about how could I possibly achieve this goal within this seemingly impossible timeframe.
[00:07:14] , It's very consistent with. Something you're saying in our previous episode together fast is better than perfect, how can you get to that solution faster? I've been reading his books for several years now and, I've started implementing these things in my own life and in my career and,
[00:07:36] they produce results, for example, just in my life one of his principles is, a hundred percent is easier than 98%. So if you're gonna do something, fully commit I started going to the gym and I go five days a week because it's easier than going four days a week or three days a week.
[00:07:53] And now I've got this habit going with that with my work. I start thinking about, okay, what's the end goal I wanna reach? And then working backwards and it's really transformed everything I do.
[00:08:06] Kashif Zahoor: That's amazing. I'm gonna have to go look into those books. You know, in the previous episode, we've talked a lot about how to. Move from order taker to strategic value Partner and the Mo Villagran book, I can't recommend that enough. Our team, each week when we finished up a chapter there was, how can we take this theory and put it into practice?
[00:08:28] And I saw them week after week taking a new concept, applying it in the workplace, and seeing how the stakeholders reacted in a positive way. I really think if there's. One book you wanna recommend to your listeners to help them achieve that goal? That book allowed me to take my team from, this level to you know, just in leaps and bounds as we work through that book chapter by chapter.
[00:08:54] I.
[00:08:55] Dr Genevieve Hayes: I'm gonna be looking that one up on Amazon after this episode. So what's one specific actionable takeaway from that book that listeners could implement tomorrow?
[00:09:05] Kashif Zahoor: I think the biggest thing that she points out, that was the key takeaway, is understanding the true problem. Don't just fulfill request. Go beyond what the stakeholders ask for and dig deeper to understand. I. The underlying business problem they're trying to solve because a major pitfall is if you are solving for the wrong problem.
[00:09:26] Stakeholders, particularly those without a data or technical background, might articulate a need that is merely a symptom. Or a perceived solution, not the root cause or the actual decision they need to make. So if you simply fulfill the request, you deliver data that might actually drive meaningful action or solve their core challenge.
[00:09:46] And plus, you've wasted time and effort and potentially significant resources in developing a dashboard or report that doesn't address. The real issue, and it's just a massive waste of time that leads to frustration, rework, and a perception that data teams aren't delivering value.
[00:10:03] Dr Genevieve Hayes: Yeah. Been there, done that. Yeah, I understand where you're coming from.
[00:10:07] Kashif Zahoor: Yeah.
[00:10:07] Dr Genevieve Hayes: Okay. And that's a wrap for today's value boost. But if you want more insights from Kashif, you're in luck. I. We've got a longer episode with Kashif where we explore Kashif's journey from data order taker to strategic business partner, uncovering actionable strategies you can use to transform your own data science career.
[00:10:30] And it's packed with no nonsense advice for turning your data skills into serious clout, cash, and career freedom. You can find it now wherever you found this episode, or it's your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for joining me again, Kashif,
[00:10:45] Kashif Zahoor: It's been a joy to talk to you, Genevieve.
[00:10:48] Dr Genevieve Hayes: and for those in the audience. Thanks for listening. I'm Dr. Genevieve Hayes, and this has been a value-driven data science.