The Corporate Fantasy That’s Creating Time Bombs in Your Data
A marketing manager named Sarah felt a surge of pride. Her company’s new analytics platform promised to make her a “Citizen Data Scientist.” With a few clicks, she built a model predicting customer churn. It was 95% accurate. She presented her findings. The company acted. They launched a costly retention campaign targeting the customers her model flagged.
It was a disaster. The campaign annoyed loyal customers. It missed the real at-risk groups. Sarah’s model was a statistical mirage. It had learned to associate high churn with a software bug that had already been fixed. She didn’t know how to check for this. She was a citizen. Not a scientist.
The “Citizen Data Scientist” is a seductive idea. It promises democratization of data. It suggests that anyone can do data science with the right tool. This is a dangerous fantasy. It confuses using a dashboard with doing science.
The Allure of the Myth
Companies love this idea. It suggests a shortcut. They can avoid hiring expensive experts. They can upskill their existing workforce. They can move faster. This is a false economy. It is like giving a toddler a scalpel and calling them a “Citizen Surgeon.”…
