I recently attended a Kellogg alumni workshop on “Big Data Doesn’t Make Decisions, Leaders Do”.  Coincidentally I also came across this WSJ article on b-schools re-vamping curriculums to include data analytics.

My takeaways:

• Business leaders need a working knowledge of data science to be effective in leading with analytics.  In other words, they must be able to nterpret analytics to inform their decision making.
• You can outsource the infrastructure of big data and data analytics; you cannot outsource product management.  A good product manager is essential to connect business problems with data science findings.

Data science is about discovery – learning about what’s going on in your business.  Product management is about innovation – taking the business to the next step and use data to experiment along the way.

I came across a number of online courses to learn more about data science.  Here’s a link to Cousera’s data science specialization.  I welcome your input and comments are to what courses you’ve taken and found valuable.