Eric Friedman, senior principal data scientist at Atlassian, explains how trusting your intuition and prioritising accuracy over precision prevents costly data mistakes.
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When data looks suspiciously good, trust your gut. Intuition serves as a final line of defence against undetected bugs that rigorous checks miss.
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Accuracy and precision differ fundamentally in business contexts. An approximate answer to the right question outweighs an exact answer to the wrong one.
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Document assumptions upfront and involve stakeholders in validation checkpoints. Peer review and cross-checking calculations prevent misaligned measurements across teams.
"Our intuition, that's part of our expert opinion. We should sometimes just go with it." - Eric Friedman