Managing Projects

How to manage machine learning projects properly?
Managing - ML Teams

Summary

  • Manage Machine Learning projects can be very challenging:
    • In Machine Learning, it is hard to tell in advance what’s hard and what’s easy.
    • Machine Learning progress is nonlinear.
    • There are cultural gaps between research and engineering because of different values, backgrounds, goals, and norms.
    • Often, leadership just does not understand it.
  • The secret sauce is to plan the Machine Learning project probabilistically!
    • Attempt a portfolio of approaches.
    • Measure progress based on inputs, not results.
    • Have researchers and engineers work together.
    • Get end-to-end pipelines together quickly to demonstrate quick wins.
    • Educate leadership on Machine Learning timeline uncertainty.