I can’t find enough time to learn new languages and technologies. What are the best options to stay abreast of developments?

As the IT manager at your company, you understand how vital analytics has become to its success. However, you might struggle to meet demand for analytics products for your organization.

How Not Meeting Data Analytics Demands Impacts Your Company

Technical managers like yourself have to keep an eye on multiple aspects of your organization to ensure you’re doing to your part to help it gain and keep its competitive edge. On one level, you should be diligent in monitoring changes within your organization’s industry, and on another, you have to stay abreast of technical advancements.

With your busy schedule, learning new languages and technologies can slip. But, there are some simple things you can do now that will help you stay abreast of new tools and techniques.

Read One Research Journal

Research journals, either in print or online, are a great source of keeping current with new technologies offered in the market and how they’re being applied in practice. Following sources like Gartner or McKinsey & Company for Business Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Management are excellent ways to stay abreast of new technology. If you block out a regular time during your week or follow these on social media, you will make significant strides in staying informed.

Enhance Your News Feed

If you don’t have time to read a full article, you should update your industry’s feeds on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Then you can skim and scan the pertinent and trending topics. The Flipboard app is an excellent resource to find technology news curated to your preferences.

Read Online Blogs

Reading articles on KDnuggets, Data Science Central, and Towards Data Science will also keep you in the know about what’s happening in the world of technology and data science.

Or, sign up for Chisel’s Data Science Digest blog, which curates dozens of industry blogs, conference papers, and other resources to help you zero in on the most actionable tips and resources on tools, technologies and applications. You can always follow up with our team on any reference that catches your attention.

Utilize Your Data Science Team

As a manager, you have to manage, mentor, and actively support your team’s analytics initiatives. Competent data professionals keep their eyes and ears open to what’s happening in their specialty to make their jobs more efficient and themselves more competitive. This hands-on expertise makes them your most valuable resource for staying in the know.

Chisel’s project tools allow you to collaborate and chat in the context of your analytics projects so you can better understand technical applications, as they’re happening. You could also create an email group for the team to share content about emerging technology.

Learn a New Technology or Language Per Year

Yes, your schedule is hectic, but getting hands-on with technology is the best way to drive innovation. If you focus on one technology or language, you can talk to your data science team and your friends about it to gain their insights. On the whole, you will grow in knowledge and practice your craft.

Conferences and TED Talks

It would help if you tried to attend at least one conference that focuses on new technology outside of your industry. This information will help you learn new approaches that eventually can fit into your company and give it a competitive edge.

If you can’t make it to any conferences, watch TED Talks. You can watch talks centered on IT as well as leadership. These talks can give you a different perspective that you can share with your department and the company as a whole.

Talk With Your Software Vendors

Talking with your software vendor partners and other software vendors help you see what innovations are coming along the horizon. Yes, they will tell you about their products. Still, they will also tell you about new technology related to their offerings.

You do not have to do all these now but start with one to begin a habit of learning. At Chisel we get it. We’ve been in the trenches ourselves. Chisel Analytics promises to help you gain a competitive edge for the company.