41. Solmaz Shahalizadeh - Data science in high-growth companies

One of the themes that I’ve seen come up increasingly in the past few months is the critical importance of product thinking in data science. As new and aspiring data scientists deepen their technical skill sets and invest countless hours doing practice problems on leetcode, product thinking has emerged as a pretty serious blind spot for many applicants. That blind spot has become increasingly critical as new tools have emerged that abstract away a lot of what used to be the day-to-day gruntwork of data science, allowing data scientists more time to develop subject matter expertise and focus on the business value side of the product equation.

If there’s one company that’s made a name for itself for leading the way on product-centric thinking in data science, it’s Shopify. And if there’s one person at Shopify who’s spent the most time thinking about product-centered data science, it’s Shopify’s Head of Data Science and Engineering, Solmaz Shahalizadeh. Solmaz has had an impressive career arc, which included joining Shopify in its pre-IPO days, back in 2013, and seeing the Shopify data science team grow from a handful of people to a pivotal organization-wide effort that tens of thousands of merchants rely on to earn a living today.