Data scientists can frequently run up against a wall from their legal department when they try to innovate based on sensitive customer data. It makes sense — after all, data science teams and legal teams are natural antagonists. Data scientists take risks and innovate with big data. Lawyers avoid risks at all cost and act as the letter of the law.
But when we are forced to collaborate with people with radically different mindsets, there is the potential to grow – and, in the best of scenarios, create dynamic teams that drive results neither could have created singlehandedly.
That’s what happened with our team at Intuit when we decided to put the dueling forces of our data science team and our legal team together into one group, hoping that the outcome would be a much smarter use of our big data. And we’ve seen some amazing results.
Our data engineering and analytics team now reports into the legal department. It was a shaky start, with both sides eyeing each other warily. On one hand, the data team was eager to push ahead and harness the power of data from our 50 million customers. On the other, the legal team was well aware that this was highly sensitive data and any mistake or misuse could do serious damage to both our customers and the company. The challenge for both sides was to come together to safeguard the data while untapping its potential and delivering tangible benefits to our customers. Both sides want to solve the most important customer problems with data.
Even though many on the outside thought we were crazy, the two teams grew together to become one – and along the way we learned a few key lessons that can be of help to other companies and organizations exploring how to bring together their own odd couples. To learn more about these five key insights, read the original post in Venture Beat.
Bill Loconzolo is vice president of Intuit’s Data Engineering and Analytics big data team. Laura Fennell is chief counsel and head of the Legal, Data, Compliance and Policy Division at Intuit.