Our Interview With Shorful Islam
Dr Shorful Islam has a PhD in Psychology, specialising in Health Psychology and his dissertation focused on predicting accidental injuries in children, taking into account the individual, societal and environmental impacts on well-being and health outcomes.
He has over 20 years of industry experience in data analytics, having used machine learning during his PhD before the term data science was popularised. With knowledge of advanced analytical and statistical techniques, and data science technologies, he has helped some of the world’s largest companies with their data strategies and built predictive, prescriptive, and operational models that answer fundamental business questions.
Currently, he is CEO of Be Data Solutions, a data strategy, engineering and analytics company. He is also Founder of Subatomic Analytics, a data analytics and data science consultancy and serves as the Chief Data Scientist at Tribal Worldwide and Chief Product and Data Officer at OutThink.
His previous roles included Co-founder and Managing Director at Stream Intelligence, Managing Partner, Data and Insights at Wunderman, Head of Data at DDB, and Head of Business Information and Customer Data Strategy at ITV. He has also worked across the NHS and local government and started his career as a lecturer.
What made you pursue a career in technology?
I had a slightly unusual route into technology. I studied psychology as a degree and followed that up with a Masters and PhD in Psychology. I was interested in applied research and landed a roll with the NHS to study why children were turning up at A&E. Rather than use pure survey data, which can be flawed or biased depending on how it was collected, I thought I would look at the IT systems used by the NHS to register patient admittance and see what data and patterns existed there. This allowed me to build some models and I discovered that the closer to A&E the doctor’s surgery was, the more likely you were to be referred to A&E. It was simply easier for the GP to refer cases, with less logistical challenges for the patient as they were closer. There were other patterns in the data, specifically around languages spoken in the area, but it was the process of analysing the automated data collected by administrative systems and discovering patterns that got me interested in the underlying technologies.
Which of your previous roles has had the biggest impact on your career as Technology Leader?
In most of my previous roles I have had to build teams, but it was at Wunderman where I was also responsible for the IT infrastructure. This gave me a new-found appreciation for what it takes to keep servers and databases up and running. Up to that point, I had only to raise a ticket if I wanted something new, or if something was wrong, but at Wunderman, I was suddenly responsible for the team that had to deliver that service. This enabled me to get closer to the technologies and certainly build an appreciation of what happens downstream.
In your current role(s), what are your top 3 priorities?
Helping companies understand the value of data and how this could be core to their operation. Helping them really explore where the value lies and how it could transform their business.
Talent – Getting the right talent is really-hard but so important, especially if you want people who have both the deep technical skills we need but who can also translate that into business speak. We need people who can be the hook between the business and technology and this issue of talent only seems to be getting harder post-pandemic.
Keeping up with the latest trends in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). We have now moved on from the old school approaches, which were really building on advanced statistical analysis, to the more advanced computer automation approaches that process data as a stream, analyse it, and then use those statistics to come up with decision-making without human intervention in almost real-time. These are truly “recommender” type systems that can use external data on the weather, or traffic, to provide operationally critical business decisions.
What are the 3 best things about your role?
Since setting up my own consultancy, the opportunity to work with different types of companies and importantly their data. It’s fascinating to see how different business are incorporating data into their operations. For example, we are working with a medical equipment manufacturer who supplies equipment to hospitals. It isn’t a high-volume transactional thing, but what you don't realise is, that when they supply a piece of equipment, there are a lot of supplies and services that go with it, like needles and tests, and other logistical services. So you've got the one off shipment of that big machine and then you've got all these other things that need to happen alongside to support that, including engineers to provide maintenance. Through the data I am getting incredible insight into how these businesses operate and that is fascinating.
Another thing that I enjoy about my role working in the data space, is getting to meet and work with incredibly smart people. This allows me to learn new things and tends to fuel a lot of what I do.
Finally, I also work as a data product officer for a cybersecurity firm and have been developing products from data, using algorithms. i.e., using data to generate different products. This is so interesting because if we get the algorithms right and keep feeding in data, this will generate more data, which then feeds the algorithm again. A continuous circle of learning and innovation.
How do you see the role of the Technology Leader changing over the next 3 years?
I think the importance of technology leaders is now fairly well understood, but the importance of data needs more championing. With business units able to procure SaaS services like CRMs, it is more important than ever that the CTOs and data leaders stay across all the technologies and systems. It is only then that businesses will be able to connect their different data sources and deliver transformational value. IT leaders are going to have to spearhead the data space in businesses; explaining the different technology choices, finding ways to bring opportunities to life and even working with business units to champion new data projects.
Data Specialists are also going to have to grow into leaders, who are then in turn going to have to develop new data expertise in their businesses, finding ways to mentor, coach and upskill people.
What 3 technology trends are you most excited about and why?
Computer vision, specifically the ways it can be embedded into consumer technologies. We have had facial recognition in smartphones for a while now but as computing power continues to grow and be embedded in all sorts of devices, I can see a whole new world of capabilities. For example, imagine a world where your smart doorbell is also connected to your Facebook; it could then use facial recognition to determine who is at your door and alert you. Visual is such a dominant sense for us, imagine if your car is analysing you and can determine that you are tired, then recommend or even mandate a break.
What 3 skills should a Technology Leader look to develop?
Mentoring or coaching – we have been obsessed with building our technical skills but we need a new generation of data leaders.
Innovation – we need to be careful not to keep doing the same thing and expect different results. The world is changing, so the same data models will not work, we need to use different tools and different approaches to truly extract value from the data.
Who (individual) do you follow or which sites do you use as a source of trusted technology information & inspiration?
It's hard as I read from a wide source, probably due to my academic background where you need to cast your net far and wide. I use LinkedIn quite a lot as I am linked to quite a few senior leaders in the data and analytics space, and they are great source of information.
What book would you recommend for someone looking to get on in their Technology career?
Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull; as someone who is quite logical, this really helped me think a little more creatively. Well worth a read!
If you could tell your 20 year old self one bit of information that would enable them to get on in their career, what would it be and why?
I would like to tell myself to ask more questions, especially of senior people. There is this notion that we are all ready-made people; that we should know everything. I would like to encourage myself to ask more questions; it’s not a weakness, people won’t think worse of me. As a senior leader, I really enjoy people asking questions, especially junior people, as it shows real interest.