As the Chief Technology Officer for Stats Perform, Helen Sun sees her job in five main pillars. The first two are AI and innovation; a chief AI scientist and a chief innovation officer report to her on these two different functions. The third pillar is global engineering, and she leads technology efforts in North America, U.K., Poland and Asia PAC. The fourth is design, UI, UX, end-user study and user experience management. Finally, the fifth pillar is around infrastructure, or leading a more traditional IT function.
In addition to leading and managing these strategic technology functions, Sun also has substantial responsibilities in talent management. Formerly known as STATS, the company acquired Perform this year, creating a new entity Stats Perform. Sun led integration efforts for the two different technology functions, while still advancing the new organization’s plans to leverage AI as a business growth driver.
As the new organization takes shape, she said technical training will be a key strategy with which to facilitate its growth. She spoke with DevelopIntelligence about the challenges she’s facing in this last part of 2019 and where the business is headed in 2020. This interview was edited slightly for clarity and length.
WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST PRIORITIES FOR THE REST OF 2019 AND 2020, BOTH FOR THE BUSINESS AND FOR THE TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL HELP DRIVE IT?
I started at STATS about a year ago from JP Morgan Chase where I was the CTO of commercial banking. What really intrigued me about STATS was the breadth and depth of data and the AI capabilities. The group had incredible data and AI scientists who have been researching AI sports capabilities for the last three years. We’re at the cusp of a transformation from a data company into an AI-powered software business. That was the most exciting piece of business, as well as the role to drive that growth from a product, engineering and AI stand point.
A year into this job, we merged and acquired a company called Perform. Now we’re officially Stats Perform. The Perform side of the business was three times the size of STATS with even broader and deeper coverage, especially in the world of soccer. That breadth and depth of data, in addition to what STATS already had, is going to speed up our transformation in terms of more capabilities and more data-fueled AI growth. The AI capabilities will advance, so we’re going to be able to leverage AI and completely transform the way sports are viewed, understood and played.
But our biggest challenge is to accelerate the transformation while going through an integration process. There’s a major separation effort that needed to happen, separation from hosting services, data centers, infrastructure, back-office systems, and then staff and integration. So, there was a major divestiture and separation, plus integration on top of that, all while going through a transformation to use AI to fuel company growth. It’s the most exciting time for me personally and I think for the company as well.
I'M ASSUMING THAT TALENT IS A BIG CONCERN SINCE OYU HAVE AN M&A SITUATION TO CONTENT WITH. WILL TRAINING BE IMPORTANT FOR YOUR FUTURE ENDEAVORS?
Very much so. One of the key rally cries that came out of our executive meetings late last year for STATS was ‘crossing the chasm.’ As we transform into an AI software-driven business, we need a major transformation with talent. So, we need to think about our current data collection and how we combine the AI capabilities not only to fuel fan engagement but also to help us improve the efficiency of data collection and generate data that never existed before.
All of that requires training from a technical standpoint, from a change management standpoint and training around how we actually come from different areas of our business into one focus on AI as the North Star. We need the AI scientists to understand the existing business, to optimize certain areas of the business, and to help the rest of the company see the value and potential of AI and what it means for our organization. Training is a critical, critical element for the company to be successful in this transformation.
DOES FORMAL CLASSROOM TRAINING HAVE VALUE WHEN TEACHING THIS KIND OF HIGH VALUE AI SUBJECT MATTER? FORMAL MEANING AN INTENSE LAB ENVIRONMENT WHERE LEARNERS CAN WRITE AND BREAK CODE AND REALLY INTERACT IN HIGH LEVEL PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING ENGAGEMENTS.
Yes. Some sort of training boot camp would definitely make sense. We were thinking about creating an engineering boot camp a year ago for our engineers to get up to speed with the new tech stack, cloud and AI, but at the same time we rolled out extreme programming, or XP, in the form of developers pairing together and rotating every day. The boot camp was not as critical at that point because as they came on board, new engineers were paired with more experienced engineers on the team.
AI is different. AI requires some fundamental knowledge. For some, it might be a refresh. For others, it might be more intensive learning. It’s not just the platform and tool, it has a lot of foundational elements, math and statistics. We haven’t really given it a lot of thought just yet. We’re hiring the right people, getting people to work together and getting engineers paired with AI scientists, but as we move forward, perhaps a boot camp style training setting will be beneficial.
WHAT MORE CAN YOU SHARE AS A CTO WITH HER EYE ON THE FUTURE?
It’s a very exciting time for technologists and for anyone who is looking for an exciting career. I would definitely encourage different technologists to look into the power of AI. There is a lot of learning coming out of the journey of taking AI products to market. Even if there are mistakes to make throughout that journey, things won’t start to get better until you try to learn from those experiences. The power of AI is incredible, but to do it right there needs to be certain best practices shared. It’s exciting times for technology, for innovation, and leveraging AI to change the landscape of any industry.
