What are your top 5 books on data science and analytics?

This week, I had an interesting conversation with a client who came from a business background but had been on a training course all about data science. The person had an active interest in data, data science, analytics and data-driven decisions. The client’s job was selling software applications and solutions. By her own admission, she wasn’t a technical person but having been on some data science training, and she wanted some further reading on the subject and how data science could help her improve her sales.

The problem being she may never actually use the technology she learned about during the course. Still, she saw the benefits it could potentially bring her, and the business. The benefits were clear to see, and she was keen to explore further. I said I would provide a list of books that I have read and enjoyed that focus on the business outcomes of a data science project and not necessarily the implementation’s technical details.

Top 5 Books on Data Science and Analytics

These are my top 5 books for getting started with data science, most with a focus on business outcomes:

1. Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die by Eric Seigel  https://amzn.to/3cdBM1T
2. Data Science for Business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett https://amzn.to/3pltHfj
3. Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charlie Wheelen https://amzn.to/3iQia5j
4. Predictive Analytics, Data Mining, and Big Data – Myths, Misconconcptions and Methods by Steven Finlay https://amzn.to/2Mf2bBQ
5. Practice Statistics for Data Scientists by Peter Bruce and Andrew Bruce https://amzn.to/2YlKm6H

There are my favourite books. There are many out there. If there is one, you think I should then do leave a comment on this Linkedin Post.

As you may have been able to pick up, the crux of this conversation is about organisational change, digital transformation if you will. The person wanted to use data to drive change in her business. She wanted to know how she could use her businesses data to make more informed decisions, and she intended to take her organisation with her. I suspect she will be successful.

If you would like to talk about using data to drive your business forward, please contact us.