One month in update from Anna Bethke Included’s Director of Data Science and Ethical AI:

It has been just about a month since I joined Included and there has been so much that I have seen and learned that I wanted to write it down. But before I go into those musings, I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Anna, the new Director of Data Science and Ethical AI at Included. I live in Wisconsin with my husband, our three cats, my horse, and gloriously close to our extended family. I am an avid crafter, an outdoor enthusiast, and a lover of animals. This will be a first of many blogs on the intersection of data science, ethical AI, and diversity and inclusion.

One of the first things I noticed here at Included was our dedication to our customers. I’ve watched, and created product changes that go into effect days after a conversation with a customer. These changes have varied from the simple update of a tooltip explanation to the complex creation of new features. We don’t have to tell a customer that the feature will be integrated in Q2 of 2024, we can do it now.

I’m impressed with the level of transparency in and out of our product. Simply put, we want to ensure that our customers understand their data to the greatest degree possible. As a new employee and new user the metric descriptions, ability to dig deeply into the data, and other product features have immensely helped me understand what information is being displayed.  But beyond building our product in the most intuitive and transparent way possible, I have been impressed by our level of customer service; spending hours with our customers to ensure they fully understand their data and the insights the Included tool can provide.

And watching those insights has been super interesting to witness. In nearly every customer meeting I have seen at least one AHA moment. One customer had a hunch that a specific geo-region was not balanced with respect to their hiring strategy. By digging deeper into the insights, they were able to see that the geo-region WAS in fact over-hiring lower-level employees and not hiring enough managers. Having this confirmation now allows them to stop a potential problem in its tracks, and ensure that these new employees have the support they need from more experienced managers and coworkers. I have also seen customers learn new insights about their workforce. Hearing, “oh wow, that’s a problem”, or “that department is looking so much better now” has been a gratifying and common experience.

In short, I have really loved takin on the role of Director of Data Science and Ethical AI here at Included. Getting to know my new colleagues and customers, as well as the product and code base. Stay tuned for more.