[alfalfasprout]

> Unless part of your job is to figure out how and whether a data driven approach is even applicable, then this is can be a very depressing situation to be in.

You make a good point... what is your job? I suppose I've been coming at it from the perspective that it very much is a data scientist's job to figure that out. Sometimes the answer is, no, using ML for X use case is a waste of time. Or "no, there's a qualitative heuristic we can use that's better than some lengthy statistical process". At most serious orgs it's expected that "no, this is a waste of time" is a reasonable answer.

The issue of not having a support system is an orthogonal problem no? The reality is some companies and even teams within good companies don't offer that. So you have to learn how to navigate politics, etc. to get execs to buy into your vision/results/suggestions.