Timestamps
(01:55) Jessica shared the formative experiences of her upbringing — being born in a triplet with two other sisters and growing up in an immigrant family from Russia.
(05:45) Jessica shared her experience being part of UC Berkeley’s first cohort of Data Science majors.
(09:56) Jessica talked about her campus involvements with student-run organizations such as the Mobile Developers of Berkeley and the Data Science Society at Berkeley.
(13:02) Jessica walked through her participation in initiatives like researching the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, sitting on the leadership board of the TAMID Group, and being an Accel Scholar.
(15:31) Jessica shared valuable lessons from her summer internships.
(19:08) Jessica discussed her decision to join Ironclad, a Series D digital contracting startup building software to take legal teams to the next level.
(22:39) Jessica provided a brief explanation of digital contracting for the uninitiated.
(24:59) Jessica talked about challenges that in-house legal teams typically face and how Ironclad helps address them.
(27:04) Jessica gave a tour of Ironclad’s Contract Lifecycle Management software offerings.
(30:00) Jessica walked through her journey of building the analytics function from scratch and providing data insights to inform business decisions cross-functionally.
(33:40) Jessica shared tidbits about her time management and goal-setting systems.
(34:45) Jessica walked through the end-to-end data analysis process for Ironclad’s first legal analytics benchmark report analyzing economic trends caused by COVID-19.
(38:38) Jessica discussed the learning curves as she took on bigger analytical responsibilities at Ironclad.
(43:05) Jessica unpacked her 3-level framework for building a data analytics culture from the ground up.
(48:07) Jessica shared concrete advice on positively influencing a company’s culture to be data-driven.
(50:27) Jessica unfolded the drive behind creating the Data Angels Community, a Slack group connecting women interested in data to resources for support, education, and opportunities.
(52:25) Jessica revealed her community playbook to engage the members of Data Angels.
(57:01) Jessica shared a bit of her guilty pleasure in using data for beauty and fashion.
(01:00:44) Closing segment.
Jessica’s Contact Info
Mentioned Content
Resources
"How to use contract data during COVID-19" (Ironclad Report)
"Building data analytics culture from the ground up" (Women In Product 2020 Talk)
"Building a data-centered culture at Ironclad" (Ironclad Article)
People
Emily Robinson and Jacqueline Nolis (Co-Authors and Co-Hosts of “How To Build A Career in Data Science” the book and the podcast)
Cassie Kozyrkov (Chief Decision Scientist at Google)
Shreya Shankar (Ph.D. Student at UC Berkeley and Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Amplify Partners) (Check out my interview with Shreya as well!)
Book
“Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What The Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are” (by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz)
Notes
My conversation with Jessica was recorded back in May 2021. Jessica is now a Senior Data Analyst and Ironclad's Data Analytics team has grown to 4 so she is no longer a 1-woman show! Also, the Data Angels Slack community has over 500 members in it now!
About the show
Datacast features long-form, in-depth conversations with practitioners and researchers in the data community to walk through their professional journeys and unpack the lessons learned along the way. I invite guests coming from a wide range of career paths — from scientists and analysts to founders and investors — to analyze the case for using data in the real world and extract their mental models (“the WHY and the HOW”) behind their pursuits. Hopefully, these conversations can serve as valuable tools for early-stage data professionals as they navigate their own careers in the exciting data universe.
Datacast is produced and edited by James Le. Get in touch with feedback or guest suggestions by emailing khanhle.1013@gmail.com.
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Episode 79: Analytics Culture, Digital Contracting, and Data Angels with Jessica Cherny