Walter Gretzky is credited with the quote: “Go to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” Walter used socratic questioning to teach his son, Wayne, hockey strategy. Here’s the full context from Wayne’s perspective: Him: “Where do you skate?” Me: “To where the puck is going, not where it’s been.” Him: “Where’s the last place a guy looks before he passes it?” Me: “The guy he’s passing to.” Him: “Which means…” Me: “Get over there and intercept it.” Him: “If you get cut off, what are you gonna do?” Me: “Peel.” Him: “Which way?” Me: “Away from the guy, not towards him.” (Gretzy, Reilly, Gretzky: An Autobiography p. 88) Puck On To win a game of ice[…]

If you need a tool to break down complex scenarios, this approach, a tool using decision forests, might be right for you. By the end of this post, you’ll be able to use the gentler, forward, variant of dancing in a decision forest. This is a post is intended for a curious audience. Decision You’re an extraordinary assembly of chemical gradients. At any given moment you have the opportunity to make millions of decisions. The crudest segmentation, the roughest way I can impose order on all of this complexity is divide them up in two types of decisions: to act, or to not act. Further, when you decide to act, there are two broad types of actions: explore and exploit.[…]

The Knowledge Funnel is a concept introduced by Roger Martin in Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage (2009). The book is excellent and worth a read. There are mysteries at the top of the funnel. Mysteries are the unknown. They’re the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. It’s knowledge that the organization doesn’t have. In the centre of the funnel, you have heuristics. These are rules of thumb. They aren’t quite always precise, and aren’t always quite reliable. Heuristics are just predictive enough to be useful. It’s knowledge that is known to the firm. At the bottom of the funnel you have algorithms. This is knowledge that is standardized and optimized enough to be run[…]

This is the second in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why Prepare For A Meeting Because your time is valuable and non-renewable; Because time is valuable and non-renewable; Because you want to get off the critical path or continue on the critical path. When To Prepare For A Meeting Before the meeting. How To Prepare For A Meeting Read the agenda; If there is no agenda, ask for the agenda; Does the agenda indicate a decision, situation, or consultation that you need to be prepared for? If you need to gather[…]

This is the first in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why Agendas Because you want to know what the meeting will be about; Because you want to prepare for the meeting; Because you want to inform others about what to prepare for. Where Agendas In the calendar invite directly. When Agendas When you send the calendar invite; Update in the calendar invite as amendments are made. What Agendas Default Berry format: Outcome: What can be done to <arrive at a decision about something> Hi! What are the facts about XXXX? What[…]

This is the fourth in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag in the subject line Because you are calling out that an action is required; Because you are calling out that a specific email is important; Because clarity is more likely to cause action; Because it is not always clear which emails are important and which are not important. Where to use [ACTION REQUIRED] In the subject line of an email. What is [ACTION REQUIRED] The Addressee is asked to undertake an action that is important,[…]

This is the fifth in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why The Bullet Point Because they’re readable; Because they’re short; Because readable and short things are more likely to be read. What Is The Bullet Point <—- This right here; It’s sometimes it’s used as an item in an unordered list of items; The line has blurred between the ordered list and the unordered list. Where To Use The Bullet Point In powerpoint presentations; In email; In blog posts about bullet points. When To Use The Bullet Point When you want[…]

This is the third in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why Document A Meeting Because data is getting generated by people; Because data is getting organized or disorganized; Because the probability of full quorum approaches 0 as the number of participants increases to 12 and beyond; Because decisions are at their clearest when they are documented and circulated; Because those that come after you can trace the intuition for a decision. Which Meetings To Document Meetings with a strong decision component should be documented; Meetings with a very strong situational awareness[…]