A good twitter exchange with Evan Lapointe follows below. I’ve tried to put them into sequence, but admittedly, we were actively tweeting at one another in a cluster of ideas. I started tweeting Evan out of the blue, in part because of a podcast he was in, I initiated: CB: @evanlapointe You make good points. I’m skeptical that the person holding the ruler should also be responsible for generating the strategy EP: @cjpberry I wouldn’t say generating the strategy, necessarily, but conducting the orchestra once the music is written CB: @evanlapointe Yes. I agree. I make the distinction between measurement, convenient reasonsing, strategic analytics and marketing science. EP: @cjpberry we’re lucky if it’s only 4! CB: @EvanLapointe Measurement is straight[…]
Category: Analytics Strategy
The goal of a forecast is to make an accurate prediction about the future state of a system based on the best available evidence. The goal of target setting is to make a statement about a desired future state – with or without a forecast. Targets are political artifacts. You can read all about such dynamics in public policy here. Forecasts, ideally, are scientific artifacts. The interplay between forecasts and targets is particularly interesting. Those who produce sophisticated forecasts should understand that the motivation of those probing models is to assess whether or not a future state is possible, or, in certain situations, just how probable a given scenario could be. Don’t become trapped into the mindset that a trend[…]
An insight is: New information Executable Causes action Profitable Or, more detailed, an insight is: A piece of information that you didn’t know before, which – Can feasibly executed, culturally acceptable and of a scale relevant to the firm, and – Causes a decision to be made that wouldn’t have been made otherwise, and – Results in profit or a sustainable competitive advantage I’m finally happy with this definition. It aligns with the best innovation rhetoric very nicely and is generalizable to both design thinking and analytics communities.
Today is Steve Miller’s last day at Syncapse. He’s taking some time to enjoy the experience of welcoming his first child into the world. Steve Miller and I have worked fairly closely over the years – he as an Information Architect and myself as a Marketing Scientist. We were both part of the landmark NASA.gov redesign. Since then, we did major sites in the healthcare and retail sectors. He welcomed me into Syncapse on my first day, and since then, we’ve iterated on social media measurement experience design. His contributions in terms of usability in data driven insight generation are well reflected both in the interfaces and in roadmaps. He’s a champion for user centric design. And, I believe that[…]
The next WAW Toronto will be on July 28. It’s being held on the second floor of Bar Wellington. It’s free to attend and You can sign up to attend here. The invite: “Developers make it possible to measure anything, statisticians and dataminers work models, IAs finesse interfaces, analysts mash and managers action. Effective Analytics takes an orchestra. Lets talk to each other and see whats possible.” Historically, WAW’s attract a strong contingent of web analysts, social analysts (many from Syncapse), IA’s, a few dev’s, recruiters, vendors, and yes, two dataminers. And it’s a great mix. Let’s keep that mix and expand it. Additional invites to business strategists, eScientists, Marketing Scientists, and specialized developers.