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2013
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The Big To Do
What A Survey Scientist at Civis Analytics Does All Day
Members of the tech community make us who we are, so we're celebrating Built In users in an article series called: #TheTechLife. Meet one incredible tech pro here.
By Janey zitomer
Rishi Guharay’s day isn’t that of your average tech professional. She often serves as an in-house subject matter expert on survey science methodology and optimizes data-related products to make sure clients receive high-quality insights. Below, Guharay walks Built In through a typical day and highlights her favorite tasks.
Where she works: Civis Analytics is a machine learning company that helps businesses, government agencies and nonprofits use data to gain a competitive advantage in how they attract and engage their target audience.
On her to-do list:
- Design, implement and analyze a research experiment on how to best optimize a current survey for response accuracy
- Ongoing research and experimentation to develop a module that will improve data quality and representation
- Plan and practice presentation for the American Association of Public Opinion Research
- Develop additional tools to allow us to survey niche, hard-to-reach audiences using new sampling methods
- Update company communications guidance so we conduct and discuss our research insights in an inclusive and equitable manner
Good research must improve our knowledge about complex subject matters that oftentimes have no black-and-white answers. If equity and inclusivity is ignored, we would just be adding to the pre-existent “noisy” and biased understandings of the world around us.
Which task gets her out of bed in the morning: “There is nothing more important and inspiring to me than ensuring that my work is contributing something to making the world a more fair and equitable place and improving our understanding of each other,” Guharay said. While she says that all current research is intriguing, designing questions without bias and uncovering opinions and behaviors of niche audiences that are historically underrepresented in social science research gets her most excited.
