Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
ADD THE DATA SCIENCE HANGOUT TO YOUR CALENDAR HERE: https://pos.it/dsh - All are welcome! We'd love to see you!
This week's guest was Olivia Hebner, Data Science Manager at Summit Consulting!
Some topics covered in this week's Hangout were transitioning from an individual contributor/analyst into a management role, strategies for leading team members who possess specialized technical knowledge, navigating the modernization of legacy code systems with federal clients, and overcoming stage fright to give a successful data conference talk.
Resources mentioned in the video and chat:
🔗 Olivia’s posit::conf talk (Same data different tools, visualizing with R and Python) → youtube.com/watch?v=OJBLpeuHQ4s
🔗 Blog: A User Guide To Working With You by Julie Zhuo → lg.substack.com/p/the-looking-glass-a-user-guide-to
🔗 Blog: Glue work and how it affects women’s career development by Camila Granella → medium.com/@granellacamila/a-few-months-ago-i-discovered-the-term-glue-work-8a003dbe7173
🔗 Blog: The Value of Curiosity (and How to Cultivate a Curious Mind) by Libby Heeren → posit.co/blog/the-value-of-curiosity-and-how-to-cultivate-a-curious-mind
🔗 PDF: Convincing your manager to let you go to posit::conf → irp.cdn-website.com/5b435773/files/uploaded/PST-Conf2026-ConvinceBoss1.pdf
🔗 Call for talks for posit::conf(2026) → posit.co/blog/posit-conf-2026-call-for-talks
► Subscribe to Our Channel Here: bit.ly/2TzgcOu
Follow Us Here:
Website: posit.co
Hangout: https://pos.it/dsh
The Lab: https://pos.it/dslab
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/posit-software
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/posit.co
Thanks for hanging out with us! 💛
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:35 "I'd love to hear a little bit about your background and how you came to coding and analytics."
04:01 "How did you decide that you were ready to make that leap from IC to people manager?"
05:31 "Do you feel like being a manager has made you a more capable data scientist in any way?"
07:06 "Because I'm not directly building things anymore (as a manager), I sometimes question whether I'm truly contributing. Do you have any advice on reframing that thought?"
08:44 "If you could give us some context on the types of problems that you solve, the types of data you work with, the types of clients you work with."
11:16 "I would love to hear what you generally work on and what your team is made up of."
12:22 "Do you do any reporting work or have reports that you deliver as a deliverable, like, through Quarto or any other publishing tools?"
14:41 "I'm curious about how privacy works with some of the data that you're using. Are there rigid protocols that you follow?"
16:35 "Some people on my team are more knowledgeable than I am in certain areas, and I worry that I shouldn't be managing them. How do you lead effectively in this situation?"
19:22 "When you're working with your federal clients, for instance, how do you go about getting buy-in to rebuild their legacy systems or code?"
22:49 "I'm curious about what how your career transition happened, what made you make the jump to focus on data work?"
24:40 "What strategies do you use to keep feedback sessions positive and helpful?"
28:08 "What skills or personality traits do you get the vibe from them that says this person can actually turn from a research analysis mindset to a production/deployment way of thinking?"
30:24 "Do you have any tips or frameworks for getting to know your team members?"
32:06 "I would love it if you could give us a little rundown on why you wanted to give a conference talk and why you chose your topic (comparing data viz output in R vs Python to show how similar they are)."
37:07 "Is there anything you do to prepare before giving a talk since they make you nervous?"
39:15 "I manage a team where some people focus on doing their job reliably while others are really high achievers. How do you keep both groups motivated and engaged?"
42:36 "I was wondering if you could talk more about the different kinds of projects that you work on, and how often you are building technical capacity on the team that you're working with?"
45:16 "In my team, some members reflect quietly while others jump straight into discussions. Any tips for making sure everyone's voice is heard?"
48:33 "Is there a piece of career advice that has really helped you or that you like to give other people or maybe something you wish you had been told or learned much earlier in your career?"
51:01 "Have you tried pyspark.sql? And do you validate ML pipelines or just for end results?"
ADD THE DATA SCIENCE HANGOUT TO YOUR CALENDAR HERE: https://pos.it/dsh - All are welcome! We'd love to see you!
This week's guest was Olivia Hebner, Data Science Manager at Summit Consulting!
Some topics covered in this week's Hangout were transitioning from an individual contributor/analyst into a management role, strategies for leading team members who possess specialized technical knowledge, navigating the modernization of legacy code systems with federal clients, and overcoming stage fright to give a successful data conference talk.
Resources mentioned in the video and chat:
🔗 Olivia’s posit::conf talk (Same data different tools, visualizing with R and Python) → youtube.com/watch?v=OJBLpeuHQ4s
🔗 Blog: A User Guide To Working With You by Julie Zhuo → lg.substack.com/p/the-looking-glass-a-user-guide-to
🔗 Blog: Glue work and how it affects women’s career development by Camila Granella → medium.com/@granellacamila/a-few-months-ago-i-discovered-the-term-glue-work-8a003dbe7173
🔗 Blog: The Value of Curiosity (and How to Cultivate a Curious Mind) by Libby Heeren → posit.co/blog/the-value-of-curiosity-and-how-to-cultivate-a-curious-mind
🔗 PDF: Convincing your manager to let you go to posit::conf → irp.cdn-website.com/5b435773/files/uploaded/PST-Conf2026-ConvinceBoss1.pdf
🔗 Call for talks for posit::conf(2026) → posit.co/blog/posit-conf-2026-call-for-talks
► Subscribe to Our Channel Here: bit.ly/2TzgcOu
Follow Us Here:
Website: posit.co
Hangout: https://pos.it/dsh
The Lab: https://pos.it/dslab
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/posit-software
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/posit.co
Thanks for hanging out with us! 💛
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:35 "I'd love to hear a little bit about your background and how you came to coding and analytics."
04:01 "How did you decide that you were ready to make that leap from IC to people manager?"
05:31 "Do you feel like being a manager has made you a more capable data scientist in any way?"
07:06 "Because I'm not directly building things anymore (as a manager), I sometimes question whether I'm truly contributing. Do you have any advice on reframing that thought?"
08:44 "If you could give us some context on the types of problems that you solve, the types of data you work with, the types of clients you work with."
11:16 "I would love to hear what you generally work on and what your team is made up of."
12:22 "Do you do any reporting work or have reports that you deliver as a deliverable, like, through Quarto or any other publishing tools?"
14:41 "I'm curious about how privacy works with some of the data that you're using. Are there rigid protocols that you follow?"
16:35 "Some people on my team are more knowledgeable than I am in certain areas, and I worry that I shouldn't be managing them. How do you lead effectively in this situation?"
19:22 "When you're working with your federal clients, for instance, how do you go about getting buy-in to rebuild their legacy systems or code?"
22:49 "I'm curious about what how your career transition happened, what made you make the jump to focus on data work?"
24:40 "What strategies do you use to keep feedback sessions positive and helpful?"
28:08 "What skills or personality traits do you get the vibe from them that says this person can actually turn from a research analysis mindset to a production/deployment way of thinking?"
30:24 "Do you have any tips or frameworks for getting to know your team members?"
32:06 "I would love it if you could give us a little rundown on why you wanted to give a conference talk and why you chose your topic (comparing data viz output in R vs Python to show how similar they are)."
37:07 "Is there anything you do to prepare before giving a talk since they make you nervous?"
39:15 "I manage a team where some people focus on doing their job reliably while others are really high achievers. How do you keep both groups motivated and engaged?"
42:36 "I was wondering if you could talk more about the different kinds of projects that you work on, and how often you are building technical capacity on the team that you're working with?"
45:16 "In my team, some members reflect quietly while others jump straight into discussions. Any tips for making sure everyone's voice is heard?"
48:33 "Is there a piece of career advice that has really helped you or that you like to give other people or maybe something you wish you had been told or learned much earlier in your career?"
51:01 "Have you tried pyspark.sql? And do you validate ML pipelines or just for end results?"
