INFORMS Open Forum

Have you drawn on experiences from the arts, teaching, leadership, or another field to enhance your work? These skills might be the key to unlocking your full analytic potential.

In "The Unexpected Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in Data," Christopher Chin shares how a background in music composition, once seen as unrelated, became his greatest asset. After pivoting into data without a formal degree, he landed roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Humana, and Fannie Mae, and now runs a business focused on data storytelling.

Christopher's edge? Skills that many overlook:

• Creativity: Musical intuition helped him design visualizations that made complex data clear and compelling.
•  Storytelling: He structured data presentations like cinematic experiences using emotion, pacing, and narrative to drive decisions.
• Public Speaking: Performance experience translated into confident, engaging presentations that built trust and influence.

In operations research and analytics, technical skills get you in the door, but it's often the human-centered ones that help you lead, persuade, and innovate.

What soft skills have helped you communicate insights, influence strategy, or solve problems in unexpected ways?

The most important skill is being able to communicate effectively.   The best OR analysis has no impact if the decision executive (DE) doesn't act upon it.   If the results are consistent with the DEs gut then they ask why did we spend time and money on this project.   If it is different from their gut then you have to be able to explain it in not mathematical terms but more in a story telling way.   Or perhaps tease out what assumptions they might have made that were different in the analysis that led to a different recommendation.  

Have you drawn on experiences from the arts, teaching, leadership, or another field to enhance your work? These skills might be the key to unlocking your full analytic potential.

In "The Unexpected Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in Data," Christopher Chin shares how a background in music composition, once seen as unrelated, became his greatest asset. After pivoting into data without a formal degree, he landed roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Humana, and Fannie Mae, and now runs a business focused on data storytelling.

Christopher's edge? Skills that many overlook:

• Creativity: Musical intuition helped him design visualizations that made complex data clear and compelling.
•  Storytelling: He structured data presentations like cinematic experiences using emotion, pacing, and narrative to drive decisions.
• Public Speaking: Performance experience translated into confident, engaging presentations that built trust and influence.

In operations research and analytics, technical skills get you in the door, but it's often the human-centered ones that help you lead, persuade, and innovate.

What soft skills have helped you communicate insights, influence strategy, or solve problems in unexpected ways?

Have you drawn on experiences from the arts, teaching, leadership, or another field to enhance your work? These skills might be the key to unlocking your full analytic potential.

In "The Unexpected Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in Data," Christopher Chin shares how a background in music composition, once seen as unrelated, became his greatest asset. After pivoting into data without a formal degree, he landed roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Humana, and Fannie Mae, and now runs a business focused on data storytelling.

Christopher's edge? Skills that many overlook:

• Creativity: Musical intuition helped him design visualizations that made complex data clear and compelling.
•  Storytelling: He structured data presentations like cinematic experiences using emotion, pacing, and narrative to drive decisions.
• Public Speaking: Performance experience translated into confident, engaging presentations that built trust and influence.

In operations research and analytics, technical skills get you in the door, but it's often the human-centered ones that help you lead, persuade, and innovate.

What soft skills have helped you communicate insights, influence strategy, or solve problems in unexpected ways?

Dear Professor Garrett Johnston,

The "soft" skills that have proven most consequential in my operations research and analytics practice have not been technical in nature.

• Problem framing: transforming ill-defined requests into well-posed decision problems with clear objectives and constraints.

• Translation and narrative construction: articulating model insights in managerial terms (i.e., "what changes on Monday morning?") to secure stakeholder commitment.

• Facilitation and negotiation: orchestrating workshops, aligning divergent incentives, and navigating toward solutions that are "sufficiently good" for deployment.

• Entrepreneurial prioritization: emphasizing incremental, implementable interventions that deliver measurable returns on investment.

Additional competencies include inquiry driven by curiosity, precise written communication, and effective change management. Although not often emphasized in formal training, these skills frequently play a pivotal role in turning elegant models into lasting organizational impact.

With warm regards,

Jacek Dominic Sledzinski

Faculty of Engineering Management, Poznan University of Technology
📧jacek.dominic@gmail.com

İsmail Özcan  

PhD
📧 ismailozcanmath@gmail.com

Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber
Faculty of Engineering Management, Poznan University of Technology
📧 gerhard.weber@put.poznan.pl

------------------------------
Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber
Professor
Poznan University of Technology
Poznan

Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2025 10:00
From: Garrett Johnston
Subject: What unexpected or "soft skills" have helped you succeed in your operations research and analytics career?

Have you drawn on experiences from the arts, teaching, leadership, or another field to enhance your work? These skills might be the key to unlocking your full analytic potential.

In "The Unexpected Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in Data," Christopher Chin shares how a background in music composition, once seen as unrelated, became his greatest asset. After pivoting into data without a formal degree, he landed roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Humana, and Fannie Mae, and now runs a business focused on data storytelling.

Christopher's edge? Skills that many overlook:

• Creativity: Musical intuition helped him design visualizations that made complex data clear and compelling.
•  Storytelling: He structured data presentations like cinematic experiences using emotion, pacing, and narrative to drive decisions.
• Public Speaking: Performance experience translated into confident, engaging presentations that built trust and influence.

In operations research and analytics, technical skills get you in the door, but it's often the human-centered ones that help you lead, persuade, and innovate.

What soft skills have helped you communicate insights, influence strategy, or solve problems in unexpected ways?

-------------------------------------------


------------------------------
Garrett Johnston
Membership Engagement Coordinator
gjohnston@informs.org
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Have you drawn on experiences from the arts, teaching, leadership, or another field to enhance your work? These skills might be the key to unlocking your full analytic potential.

In "The Unexpected Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in Data," Christopher Chin shares how a background in music composition, once seen as unrelated, became his greatest asset. After pivoting into data without a formal degree, he landed roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Humana, and Fannie Mae, and now runs a business focused on data storytelling.

Christopher's edge? Skills that many overlook:

• Creativity: Musical intuition helped him design visualizations that made complex data clear and compelling.
•  Storytelling: He structured data presentations like cinematic experiences using emotion, pacing, and narrative to drive decisions.
• Public Speaking: Performance experience translated into confident, engaging presentations that built trust and influence.

In operations research and analytics, technical skills get you in the door, but it's often the human-centered ones that help you lead, persuade, and innovate.

What soft skills have helped you communicate insights, influence strategy, or solve problems in unexpected ways?

Have you drawn on experiences from the arts, teaching, leadership, or another field to enhance your work? These skills might be the key to unlocking your full analytic potential.

In "The Unexpected Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in Data," Christopher Chin shares how a background in music composition, once seen as unrelated, became his greatest asset. After pivoting into data without a formal degree, he landed roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Humana, and Fannie Mae, and now runs a business focused on data storytelling.

Christopher's edge? Skills that many overlook:

• Creativity: Musical intuition helped him design visualizations that made complex data clear and compelling.
•  Storytelling: He structured data presentations like cinematic experiences using emotion, pacing, and narrative to drive decisions.
• Public Speaking: Performance experience translated into confident, engaging presentations that built trust and influence.

In operations research and analytics, technical skills get you in the door, but it's often the human-centered ones that help you lead, persuade, and innovate.

What soft skills have helped you communicate insights, influence strategy, or solve problems in unexpected ways?

Have you drawn on experiences from the arts, teaching, leadership, or another field to enhance your work? These skills might be the key to unlocking your full analytic potential.

In "The Unexpected Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in Data," Christopher Chin shares how a background in music composition, once seen as unrelated, became his greatest asset. After pivoting into data without a formal degree, he landed roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Humana, and Fannie Mae, and now runs a business focused on data storytelling.

Christopher's edge? Skills that many overlook:

• Creativity: Musical intuition helped him design visualizations that made complex data clear and compelling.
•  Storytelling: He structured data presentations like cinematic experiences using emotion, pacing, and narrative to drive decisions.
• Public Speaking: Performance experience translated into confident, engaging presentations that built trust and influence.

In operations research and analytics, technical skills get you in the door, but it's often the human-centered ones that help you lead, persuade, and innovate.

What soft skills have helped you communicate insights, influence strategy, or solve problems in unexpected ways?