The NCDM was a pretty good show by most criterion.

I got to meet a whole new set of people. I wasn’t treated horribly for not knowing their language. I learned a lot. I really enjoyed so many of the people I met – including a 12 hour stay in the airport with two people who I hope become really great allies. I really enjoyed the Kiwis (New Zealanders).

I thank Emma Warrillow for the invite and keeping the dialogue between web analysts and data miners going.

I’m troubled by some of the problems I see for web analysts. I’m energized by some of the problems that are common, and that are interesting. That is to say, I see it worthwhile to really explore solutions to these ills, and that these solutions are feasible and commercial. Specifically, I’m concerned by perceived shallowness on analysts part. I don’t believe that most web analysts are shallow. However, they are certainly more shallow in terms of pure academic skill than the data miners. That said, I didn’t hear very much benefits language emanating from them. There are differences to be sure.

This is all fat to chew on.

2 thoughts on “The NCDM

  1. Jim Novo says:

    I often think the issue is the 2 worlds Optimize for different end goals. The DB’ers realized a long time ago that if you want the C-Level to listen to you, you have to optimize for profit – not response, not sales, not traffic.

    The ongoing question I have is this: I’m pretty sure most good web analysts / marketers would optimize for profit if they were TOLD that is the goal.

    The real question then is, why don’t their bosses tell them to optimize for profit? Probably because their bosses are not held to profit as a goal, and that’s the part I can’t figure out.

    Hint: where you do find web analysts optimizing for profit, it’s generally in a pure play web business. Therefore, I can only surmise that in many cases, the web operation is viewed in a generic sense as “Advertising” for the business overall and the crew simply don’t have P & L responsibility and profit is not an issue.

    1. Christopher Berry says:

      Your right. And to add:

      I definitely caught from the NCDM that DB’ers are more profit focused, even if the people they work with are not.

      There seems to be more abductive reasoning on the DB side side – a lot more focus on what could be as opposed to what is.

      There continues to be a severe problems in communication and org charts.

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