Meet the Mentor: Jasmine Daly

Meet Jasmine Daly

Driven by impact, Jasmine Daly brings over 10 years of data science experience to her work as a principal consultant and founder, helping nonprofits and purpose-driven teams make sense of their data.

In her Meet the Mentor interview, she shares how curiosity and a deep passion for learning led her to explore many different applications of data science across industries. From biomedical engineering and aerospace manufacturing to becoming a data scientist, her story is a powerful example of how embracing change and following your curiosity can lead to a fulfilling and purpose-driven career in tech. Along the way, she navigated career pivots, embraced challenges, and found purpose in using data for good. This conversation is full of insights on career growth, self-discovery, and the impact of staying open to where your interests can lead you.

Snapshot

Current Job Title: Principal Consultant, Founder, Flatiron Mentor

Current Employer: Daly Analytics (Founder)

Past Employers: Fastly, Daily, Simple Finance, The Hartford

Experience: 10+ years in Data Science

GitHub: https://github.com/jasdumas

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminemdaly/

Technical/Professional Skills: R, Shiny, Product Development, Product Design, Data Visualization, Consulting, Data Analysis, Python, HTML/CSS

Teaching/Mentoring Experience: “I have previously done teaching before. I led a 10 week course way back in 2017. When I was in engineering school, I was a MATLAB and C++ tutor.”

Words of Wisdom: “Lean into your hobbies, lean into what makes you you and let it shine and show in your portfolio.”

Favorite Part of Your Job: “I think it's fantastic to have that deep domain expertise and try and figure out what are the tools or the solutions I need to do. I love coming in to work with a client and help them realize that dream and just increase their impact.”

Q&A Transcript

Introduction: Who are you and what do you do now?

• Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re working on these days?
  • I'm Jasmine Daly, and I am based in Glastonbury, Connecticut—right in the middle. The best thing about it is you can get to New York and Boston in under two hours, but I love it here. I have been a data scientist for almost 10 years now. I love what I do, and I find a lot of meaning from it. Back in the day, I was an engineer, but I still rely on a lot of those skills as a data scientist. I’m really excited to be on this series and share more about my background and just how excited I am to be a part of the Flatiron facilitator crew. I am the principal consultant and founder of Daly Analytics, where I help nonprofits and purpose-driven teams make sense of their data so they can tell better stories, support stronger programs, and drive real change. That's something that is really near and dear to my heart. A lot of the work that I'm centered on currently is Shiny app development. I've been producing and working in that web framework since 2014. I have a very good concept about where it was and where it is now, and it's so amazing to see the ecosystem involved and all ends of the data science spectrum ideating product developments, user experience, and design of web applications, all the way to making it more efficient, making the background processes faster to really support how users are intending to use an application and really meeting them where they are. So it's really fun. I've been in a number of different domains, helping out different teams, and it's really exciting.
• What is your official title for your role at your company?
  • I had given myself the title of principal consultant founder, but I am really just the everything person. I'm working on blog posts and content marketing. I'm doing sales. I'm doing back-end operations. I do have a little bit of support on the product and operations front, but I am the go-to person for all of it, which is a really exciting new set of skills, coming into consulting from being previously in industry. So, lots of fun. My hands are in everything, and I like to have that approach and that direct line of communication with my clients.
• What excites you most about what you do there?
  • I love really encapsulating really challenging things that folks are trying to do with data. People have gone to really creative lengths to get their work done more efficiently, and all kudos to them. I think it's fantastic to have that deep domain expertise and try and figure out what are the tools or the solutions I need to do. I love coming in to work with a client and help them realize that dream and just increase their impact—help them automate, optimize, make a user-friendly tool that is accessible for everyone and just seeing people get really excited by it and being able to do their work faster and more accurate gives me a lot of joy and excitement. Just helping people do their work better is really what excites me.

Career Journey: How did you get here?

• Can you walk us through your career journey?
  • My undergraduate degree is in biometal engineering, which I absolutely loved. It got me started. It really is the foundation to how I think and develop tools now as a data scientist. Because keeping in the forefront of your mind that there is a real person at the end of your web application, your analysis tool, and their life may be depending on what you're doing. It's incredibly important to understand the impact of what you're doing and the efficacy of what you're doing. And so I take a lot of pride in still carrying that engineering thought process through even now. And then from there, engineering, I I ended up in aerospace for a little bit of time, aerospace manufacturing. And really, the heart of that is I've always been, I think, more led to computational methodologies to solve problems. When I was in engineering school, I was a MATLAB and C++ tutor. I was getting involved in programming. I was in a C# project group at one point. I loved writing code, no matter what it was. So that took me from aerospace, and then took me into medical devices and R&D, which is fascinating. That really keeps you in line with developing tools that super impact folks and elevate their lives. And then from there, I loved going to school for biomedical engineering. I didn't love the industry aspect of it, to be totally honest. And I wanted to lean into more of what I found interesting, which was computational solutions for solving problems. And so I'm somebody who's just super curious. And so I was like, “I'm going to go to grad school. I'm going to build up these these skills.” And so to do that, I wanted to do a research project around biomedical engineering and computer programming. And so I reached out to a professor. I was Googling nonstop. “How can I get involved in research? How can I build up my application for graduate school?” And I stumbled across somebody who is a literal angel. He's a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University and was willing to take on me as a absolute newbie. This was back in 2014. Didn't know R, didn't know Shiny. I was writing Python at that point, though. So I owe a lot of credit to that research project, which then led me to Google Summer of Code and just getting more in tune with the open-source community and really setting the trajectory for being a data scientist. I worked at Hartford in auto insurance. I worked at Fastly, probably the longest place in my career. Really proud of that work and helping them really get a handle of infrastructure at scale, and all the way to always at a web RTC startup. So I've, once again, super curious. I've been in a number of industries. I love each step along the way and not afraid to learn. And so that's always been like my driving force. Why I'm just like so excited, I think, to be at this point in consulting—because my thought process is driven by all of my previous experiences and they've all served me really well to come to new clients and respective clients and say, “Hey, I've most likely seen where you've gone. Let's partner together. Let's get to the next phases.” It's been a lot of careers, but so happy to have taken that journey.
• What inspired to pursue a career in tech?
  • I think I really wanted to kind of rapidly see the effect of what I was doing. Highly regulated industries are super interesting, but it's a really long tail of seeing—like, you're working on this medical device and it doesn't hit the market for a very long time. And while it's important, and those are for very particular reasons, I think I was just feeling like, Oh, I'm just super interested to see what it's like to participate on a product, like an app, and see it in folks' hands a little bit quicker. And then that sort of feeds in the learning and the feedback loop of really being a developer. I think that was kind of like my inspiration—wanting to see impact sooner so that I could both grow as an engineer and a data scientist, and also try and help as many people as possible.
• Did your education play a big role in your journey?
  • Along that path, I had a couple stints in graduate school. I did not finish. I was at DePaul University in their predictive analytics program. I was at Johns Hopkins in their CS program for a little bit. And so those gave me some really interesting tidbits for thought—like food for thought—about, one, having the foundational understandings of computational programming and statistics. But on the other hand, I was doing that while working full-time as a data scientist and getting hands-on applied knowledge, which is so crucial to just understanding what you're doing. While I loved my attempts at grad school and it's for certain people, it's not quite for me. I loved applied learning, I loved short bursts of project-based orientation and learning online. I did a ton of self-learning, and there's so much to do to sort of enrich your background and different ways to go about it, which is just so fantastic. So, education played a role, but in fact, I feel like it really cemented the idea of applied learning for me.

Lessons Learned: What have you learned along the way?

• What’s one lesson or insight from your career that’s stuck with you?
  • This is very top of mind, and I learned it from another senior engineer not too long ago. One lesson which I apply currently is always asking, “What is the business purpose of what you're doing?” It's super critical to understand so you're not sitting there in a vacuum working on projects and ideas that you think are important but are not crucial to the business goals and the roadmap that's set ahead. It's super easy to get super interested in what you're doing, and you have a different idea of the path ahead. But it's super important in your one-on-ones, in your larger team meetings, always be asking, “What's the business purpose of this? Am I working on the right thing?” so that you're always able to course-correct if it's off or misaligned. And so that plays deeply into consulting where often time is of the essence and providing valuable consulting time and effort and knowledge. I always want to be working on high-priority work that is the most meaningful, that has the highest impact, so that folks can also give me the feedback that I need to constantly improve that cycle. So definitely, the one lesson is: please always be asking what is the business purpose so that you can be working on high-value work.
• Was there a moment where you faced a major challenge or failure, and how did you grow from it?
  • I think a lot of folks in the tech industry over the last couple of years, one sort of moment where I felt like a challenge or it was a failure or a roadblock was getting laid off, which is not uncommon right now. It's so unfortunate that it's affecting so many people, but that was really a pivotal moment where I was contemplating what am I gonna do next? I have a little bit of time. You can go in many different directions, and so that was tough. And sometimes having that time to think is also a detriment. You have too much free time on your hands. I luckily, I don't have too much free time. I have two 4-year old twins, so I never have free time, but that's hard and a really challenging aspect, especially when you have a really tight coupling between you as a person and you in your work life. And those sort of collide when you have something like a layoff, and you have so much meaning and association built with a role and a title and a company. And so that was really hard. I think I grew from it by getting confidence—my confidence back in going out there as a consultant. I had no other choice, and I'm so grateful for that moment of clarity and the opportunity to grow. It makes me really appreciative of all the relationships that I've built with folks at companies. I still am on WhatsApp groups with former coworkers. Jobs may not be forever, but the people along the way and the folks you meet—that's priceless. And so I take a lot of like reflective time during that process. But I'm so happy for the people I met and the things that I learned during it.

Mentorship: Why did you decide to become a mentor?

• How did you first get connected with Flatiron School and what drew you to the school?
  • I am always networking virtually in particular groups like Slack groups or other forums like Discord. I remember in one of the groups somebody talking about, I believe they were like a former facilitator, talking about their experience and sharing the post and being like, “Hey, they're seeking professionals, people who have been in that spot before to act as facilitators and mentors and guides.” And so I thought that looked like a really interesting opportunity. I have previously done teaching before. I led a 10-week course way back in 2017. And so I knew that I had a fondness for helping others learn, and that's how I got connected.
• Was there someone who influenced your career path and who (knowingly or unknowingly) mentored you?
  • I'd have to go back to that professor that I mentioned who helped me. I will say his name is Dr. Garrett Dancik at Eastern Connecticut State University. He knowingly mentored me and really got me started in our programming and Shiny development and really the thought process of building tools to help folks who are often not technical—and they shouldn't have to be—to be able to complete their work and building tools to support them. Dr. Dancik has like very much influenced my career and my thought pattern, and we're still in contact, which is fantastic. He was a mentor that I sought, out and I'm so happy that that had flourished the way it did.
• What has been the most rewarding part of mentoring students?
  • I love seeing when people can connect the dots between the theoretical aspects and the practical concepts. I am somebody, like, if we're in a session and we're explaining something and I see that light bulb go off. You can see it on folks' faces—we're like, “I get it!” Like, I'm the person who’s like “Yes! We worked together. We got it. I'm so happy that you also understand it!” And it's such a gratifying thing to help somebody get through a problem and then understand it with confidence, and so I find that to be just really exciting part of mentoring.
• If you could give advice to someone just starting out in tech, what would it be?
  • My one piece of advice stems from a question I used to get from other folks looking to break into the industry and building their portfolio. A lot of folks ask, “Well, what goes into portfolio? What should I do?” My advice has always been: lean into what you find interesting. And that sounds like a really obvious thing, but I think when folks are getting ready and looking for the ideal project, they always forget, like, “Oh, if I'm really into plants, maybe I should find a data set that features that and build an application or build a tool.” And that is my advice—lean into your hobbies, lean into what makes you you and let it shine and show in your portfolio. And that will absolutely help, I think, breaking into tech as a new person.

Future Focus: Where do you want to go next?

• What’s something new you’re learning or exploring right now?
  • I have a new hobby, which I think is a lot of folks' new hobby, especially from the pandemic, and that is birding. I've got the eBird app, and I've got the Merlin app, and I love being outside. I was just out today, chirps and chirps, whip out my app, start identifying birds, getting understanding of where they're at and the climate, and it's just so interesting. I just built bird houses very recently which was a new woodworking blend with birding and then from there, I built a bird shiny app very recently with some lovely help from ChatGPT and shiny assistant and it's such a wonderful collaboration. I love learning, and so my learning always has like this aspect of this non-techie thing and then always spinning to producing tools because it's just all really fun. And I think it all really goes to sort of help aid your understanding. I love learning about birds and helping to help protect their environment. And so that's my new thing now, birds.
• Are there any projects you’re working on that you’re particularly passionate about?
  • I think I'll default to bird-related. I'm really excited about this application—making the UI beautiful and useful and also thinking about how to bring in different types of data sets and the considerations around it, because there's a lot of geo-tagged data and privacy concerns and so that also leads to other ideas, and different parts of my brain start lighting up about how to expand this project, how to have others find it interesting. It's okay nobody else finds interesting, I find it interesting. But I'm really passionate about this project and just expanding it and learning more, and also from that having it be a component of conservation for others and spreading the word about how to help these birds have a habitat that they're used to, maybe trying to reduce less human activity on that. And so everything is a learning opportunity, and I'm really excited about that side project that got going on.
• Looking ahead, what’s a big dream or ambition you’re working toward in your career?
  • I would love to build out Daly Analytics a little bit more with more team members, but also really have that be a platform to serve other folks who are especially working parents, providing them with an opportunity to work and have the flexibility and have a lot of joy in what they do and helping to identify that. So I think that's sort of an ambition that I am sort of working towards, and that is also a part of my career aspect as well.

Lightening Round Questions

• What’s something you’re listening to or reading right now? (It can be any genre and can be a book, audiobook, or podcast.)
  • I am listening to the Business of Authority podcast right now. Super interesting content.
• What’s one product or tool you’re into right now?
  • I'm really into the Merlin bird identification app right now.
• What date does your next cohort start?
  • It starts Monday, the fifth of May.
• Where can listeners find you?
  • I'm everywhere. You can find me on my website, dalyanalytics.com. Find me on LinkedIn. I'm on blue sky, I'm on macedon sometimes but that's where they can find me.
• What made you smile this week?
  • I was listening to my discover weekly playlist on Spotify and a really unexpected acoustic version of unwritten came on and it just made me smile. It was unexpected and it was lovely.