The Art of Data Storytelling at PayPal with Gulrez Khan

Mining Your Own Business Podcast

Tune in as host Evan Wimpey chats with PayPal Data Science Lead Gulrez Khan about the art of data storytelling. With over two decades of experience, Gulrez has discovered how data storytelling can be an effective tool to bring clarity to the complex.
In this episode he shares lessons he’s learned and creative ways he's helping children and adults build data literacy.

Key Takeaways
🔹 The importance of truly understanding a business problem before starting a data science project
🔹 How data storytelling can help bridge the gap between business stakeholders and data science teams
🔹 The creative approach Gulrez Khan is using to help both children and adults grow in data literacy
🔹 How data scientists can become agents of change by not only fulfilling requests but also identifying alternative solutions based on their domain knowledge
Quotes
💬 “So you become a change agent—not just do what has been asked of you but understand the business and say, ‘Hey, you know what, there is another way we can do it.’”
💬 “Data is very powerful, and with a good heart, you can make change.”
💬 “I've got a few principles that I apply in terms of data storytelling … start with the problem formulation. What is the question being asked?”
Featured in This Episode
Gulrez Khan, Data Science Lead, PayPal
With almost two decades of experience under his belt, Gulrez Khan is a data-wrangling extraordinaire, who has a knack for turning boring numbers into captivating stories. When he's not busy working, you can find him digging through open datasets like they're buried treasure or passing on his data visualization skills to the next generation in the hopes of creating a world of data-literate children.

Gulrez is on a mission to improve the way people make sense of data. He's known for delivering corporate workshops that are equal parts informative and entertaining and has recently written “Drawing Data with Kids,” a book to cultivate data literacy in children and adults alike.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gulrezkhan-data
Evan Wimpey, Director of Analytics Strategy, Elder Research
Company website: elderresearch.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/evan-wimpey
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:09 Working as a data science leader at PayPal
02:17 How and why PayPal started a data science community
03:41 Creating sparks in data science projects
09:08 What it means to become a change agent
09:55 Discussing the principles of effective data storytelling.
11:27 How data storytelling facilitates better communication
15:02 Data storytelling as a marketable job skill
18:09 Gulrez’s book, “Drawing Data with Kids,” and data literacy
24:45 Using data for good
25:59 Wrapping up the show
Find more show notes, transcripts, & more episodes at:
https://www.elderresearch.com/resource/podcasts/