From Research to Production: What Changes

Moving from research to production usually fails at the handoff points, not at the algorithm.

My lightweight checklist:

1. Define the operational metric and failure threshold.
2. Validate data quality contracts before model iteration.
3. Treat observability and rollback as first-class requirements.
4. Document model assumptions where engineers and product teams can actually find them.

A good model in a notebook is a beginning; a maintainable system is the real finish line.