Syed Misbah

Some things about me:

• Live in San Mateo, CA. Grew up in India.
• Studied at IISc and BIT.
• Data Science & Engineering Manager at Dish, focusing on generative AI and classical ML. Before that, Evalueserve and Mu Sigma - telecom, CPG, retail, manufacturing, food & beverage, airlines, energy, fintech.

Some thoughts:

• The best model is the simplest one that solves the actual problem - not the most impressive one in a paper.
• Cross-industry experience is underrated. The best ideas I've had came from applying a solution from one industry to a problem in another.
• I avoid building solutions looking for problems. Start with the decision that needs to be made, work backwards.
• Incentive structures determine outcomes more than intentions do. I think about this constantly.
• When a metric becomes a target, it stops being a metric. I think about this every time someone asks me to optimize for a KPI.
• Get something in front of users before it's ready. You'll learn more from one week of real feedback than a month of theoretical debate.
• A clever model nobody understands will get ignored. A simple model everyone trusts will actually get used. Optimize for trust, not elegance.
• Most project failures I've seen weren't execution problems. They were alignment problems - people building the right things in incompatible directions.