Tag: Analytics Consulting

Give Me A Young, Hungry And Curious Person And I Will Teach Them How To…

Businesses want analysts who can dig into a question and not only get to the root cause but also come up with multiple solutions.. this is not something that generally is taught in schools.

Unleashing a young, hungry and curious mind on complex business challenges is not generally considered, as most companies tend to assign newbies to remedial task and assign tire, narrow thinking, veterans to handle the big stuff.

Companies that see past these challenges and can select talent, empower them and turn them lose with cutting edge analytics technology are the ones succeeding.

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Dont give me an excuse, give me a solution. Don’t come with just a problem, also come with a suggestion on how to fix it.

How many people do you have in your business that can do that?

All The Tools And All of The Talent but none of the Technique… Where Good Analytics Intentions Go Bad

I have seen so many examples of this. A majority of companies throw money at analytics in the form of buying new technology, but don’t spend a fraction as much on the people who need to make the technology work.

A good analyst using Excel is much more powerful then a mediocre analyst using a cutting edge BI tool. Without the innate curiosity, knowledge of the business and ability to communicate discoveries that come with a good analyst, your analytics plans will fall short no matter what the sales reps from the analytics companies promise you.

Now we have the 2016 Presidential Election results to analyze. Most predictive models had Clinton winning. Most of the polls had Clinton winning.

So where did the analytics go wrong? Well, its definitely not the technology. And I don’t think it was the talent.

In the coming days, I am pretty sure we will find it was the technique.

It was not getting deep enough data.

It was looking at the data and seeing what you expected to see.

Curiosity was lost.

Finding new perspectives to make sure we have the right data next time.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign will be a case study in where good analytics where not good enough.

Analytics Culture – The key to using analytics in a business is like a secret sauce. It is a unique combination of analytics talent, technology and technique that are brought together to enrich and empower an organization. A successful analytics culture is not easy to create, but DMAIPH can show you how. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly so we can build a strategic plan to turn your company into analytics driven success story.

 

Probing For Curiosity

Finding a good assessment to measure curiosity is something I am always looking for. Lots of ways to try and find it, but a true penchent towards curiosity can still be elusive during the hiring process.

Lot’s of probing questions like, asking candidates to explain how they solve problems and what they do when they come across something unexpected is a good start.

Taking personality tests like the MBTI and its ilk is another way.

Giving them a quick research assignment with fairly vague directions and open ended results can also help too.

Reading for fun is also another good indicator.

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Whatever it is you do, make sure its something you are probing for.

Of all the data points in HR & Recruitment Analytics, that is the one I care most about.

HR & Recruitment Analytics – The recruitment and retention of top talent is the biggest challenge facing just about every organization. DMAIPH is a leading expert in empowering HR & Recruitment teams with analytics techniques to optimize their talent acquisition and management processes. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to learn how to get more analytics in your HR & Recruitment process so you can rise to the top in the ever quickening demand for top talent.

Another Chance To Start Over

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/09/another-chance-to-start-over.html

Sharing Seth’s blog… another well timed post that seems to be directed at my life specifically.

Another chance to start over

Every day that you begin with a colleague, a partner, a customer… it might as well be a fresh start.

There’s little upside in two strikes, a grudge, probation. When we give people the benefit of the doubt, we have a chance to engage with their best selves.

If someone can’t earn that fresh start, by all means, make the choice not to work with them again. Ask your customer to move on, recommend someone who might serve them better.

But for everyone else, today is another chance to be great.

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Multitasking Is A Productivity Killer

Multitasking is a productivity Killer. Picked this up at a HR conference I was at last week. It was a theme during a couple of the presentations.

Multitasking as a competency is not the same as multitasking across projects and tasks during a day. That is good time management and the ability to prioritize what you work on.

The myth of multitasking, that you can do multiple things at the same time is a just that… a myth. Less than 10% of the world’s population is actually able to carry out two distinct tasks at the same time.

One of the speakers listed the Pros and Cons of multitasking:

  • Pros of Multitasking: Reduce Cost by having one person do the jobs of many people.
  • Cons of Multitasking: sense of being overburdened, stressed out, loss of focus, poor quality, high attrition, inflated sense of importance and value

As you can see not much comes from trying to force someone to do too much.

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Back when I was an analyst with Wells Fargo, one of the keys to my success was that I didnt multitask when I had to focus on high priority projects. I would put my headphones on and block out the world. Often I would even close my Outlook and my browser. Giving 100% to a project for a few hours always led to a better finished product. And it feels awesome to have a sense of accomplishment.

I still do this. When Im focused in on a project I tell people I’m busy. I get away from distractions. And I focus in like a laser.

Multitasking is indeed a productivity killer and not falling prey to it is one of the reasons Im as successful today as I am.

The Average Keeps Getting Lower And I Refuse To Tolerate This – Updated

Updated on 10/27/16

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/08/the-average.html

The average

 Everything you do is either going to raise your average or lower it.

 The next hire.

 The quality of the chickpeas you serve.

 The service experience on register 4.

 Each interaction is a choice. A choice to raise your average or lower it.

 Progress is almost always a series of choices, an inexorable move toward mediocrity, or its opposite.

I can totally relate to this. We are a society more and more inclined to settling for the average, and are even ok with it when the average trends lower.

One place I see it happening more than most is in talent management. The demand so far outweighs the supply of good talent; we keep lowering the bar.

Frist it was 4 year degree required. Then it was some college. Now its high school grad.

In just a few years we have gone from a high bar to also most no bar.

Same day hiring. No interview required. No test or assessment. Just how up and get a job.

I hate this.

This new reality taking hold across the Philippines  is deeply concerning to me.

It is unacceptable to me to be involved with anything that is just average, and I just get crazy when I see people doing things to lower the average on purpose.

There is another way.

If you have good analytics, you can be better at setting a realistic bar and not just going lower to meet requirements.

No more mediocrity. No more playing to the average and definitely purposely lowering the average.

I just refuse to tolerate it anymore!

Let me show you how to use the data in your business to turn things around.

Stop the insanity of fueling high turnover and low employee engagement that is lowering the quality of service to a dangerous place.

Who is with me?

If you are, the you will might enjoy reading my new book, Putting Your Data to Work. I can help you use your data.

HR & Recruitment Analytics – The recruitment and retention of top talent is the biggest challenge facing just about every organization. DMAIPH is a leading expert in empowering HR & Recruitment teams with analytics techniques to optimize their talent acquisition and management processes. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to learn how to get more analytics in your HR & Recruitment process so you can rise to the top in the ever quickening demand for top talent.

The Number Of Solutions Is Just Not Enough

I just came across a couple of companies like DMAI that provide Philippines based analytics outsourcing to overseas clients. I guess that makes about a half dozen companies that I know of that are seriously trying to take advantage of the huge opportunities out there to push the Philippines to the forefront of global analytics solutions.

However, its just not enough. I see more and more Filipinos everyday employed in analytics for a wide range of companies. The number of analysts out there has mushroomed from a few thousand to tens of thousands in just a few years. Yet, a large percentage of these analysts need a lot of help to optimize the analytics in their businesses.

The efforts of big industry, working with the government and higher education to include analytics training within college curriculums is really picking up steam with dozens of schools in the early implementation stages of preparing tomorrows analytics talent.  Yet, the projections are so staggering that even if every schools filled every planned class to the max we will stall have a huge talent shortage.

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I am equally excited to dive deeper into the midst of this opportunity as I am sometimes a little overwhelmed with where to focus most of my energy.

Writing books, teaching courses, training, public speaking, setting up data science teams, taking on more outsourcing clients, the list just keeps getting bigger.

The number of solutions is just not enough.. .talk about being at the right place at the right time. No wonder I am having the time of my life.

DMAI Data Science > Where Dreams and Demand Meet

Building a data science team tasked with helping other organizations build data science teams is equal parts dream and demand.

There is a quickly growing need for data science capabilities in the Philippines, but there are few ways for Filipinos to learn how to be data scientists. Almost over night it seems that people are posting job requirements for high powered analytics talent with very little idea of what data science is all about.

Business analytics is just now taking root in academia and being offered as a series of elective classes. Big data is just one class. Predictive and prescriptive analytics are also just one 3-5 month class. Its just not enough.

The big companies who are committed to building their own team are scrambling to find talent in the already hyper competitive BPO industry.

That’s the demand.

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Data science as a discipline is still quite new. In the U.S. and India you are starting to see a significant number of degree programs in analytics and data science. I learned a lot about data science before it even had a name. Analytics is deeply rooted at Wells Fargo and I benefited from being in the right place at the right time to get exposed to some pretty awesome analytics efforts.

This experience unlocked an opportunity to become one of top analytic minds in my adopted home, the Philippines. The opportunity of a life time really. Now I am at a point in the evolution of my business, DMAI, where I need to find 3 people like me to join me in my quest. My quest to help organizations in the Philippines set up data science teams.

I need a dream team. Like the Eath’s Mightiest Heroes the Avengers or the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. the DMAI Data Science Team needs the best of the best who excel in complimenting each other.

We need a big data analyst strong man in the paint, we need a visionary data modeling expert who can create great data models and pass them off to the shooter of the team, the business analyst.

That’s the dream!

It’s time to join the right and be at the forefront of spreading data science across this great island nation so full of potential.

If you feel the call that I feel and are interested then connect with me on LinkedIn and/or send me you resume at danmeyer@dmaiph.com ,

Big Data Analyst > The Guy Making Sure We Have The Data We Need

If you don’t know where that information is coming from and whether you can trust it, then it’s useless.

Imagine your data as water.

The same idea applies to big data analytics. If you don’t know where the data is coming from, your data lake will quickly start to resemble a swamp instead of what it should resemble: a reservoir, something that guarantees access, quality, and provenance.

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The role of the DMAI big data analyst is at the guy managing the dam at the mouth of a big river. Data analysts constitute the foundation of a data science project and they are trusted with the responsibility of capturing, storing and processing the relevant data. Data Collection, Data Warehousing, Data Transformation and Data Analysis – these are typical tasks of a data analyst.

They are the professionals who play with the tools and frameworks, like Hadoop or HBase, in a distributed environment to ensure that all the raw data points are captured and processed correctly. The processed data is then handed over to the next group of people, the machine learning experts, for taking it further.

In order to call your data a true “reservoir” or “lake,” you big data analyst needs to be able to provide the business-level guarantees that one comes to expect from a data warehouse.

If you are able to create this type of environment the you should have no problem using data analytics in your business, then you are the ideal Big Data Analyst candidate. You are a pro with apps Hadoop, MapReduce or HBase and have the analytical skills required to become a successful data analyst.

A data analyst should be flexible to learn new tools according to the changing business needs and always be willing to upgrade to specialized techniques related to data analysis. Just like the guy controlling the flow of water from a lake to the community that lives off it.

Once we have the guy who makes sure we have the data we need, when we need it, then the DMAI Data Science Team will be complete.

Data Modeling Analyst > The DMAI Data Science Team Middle Man

The person is the middle is often the most important one. When it comes to data science, the person who takes the data provided by the big data analyst and then gives the output of refined data to the business analyst is often the data science team MVP.

As modeling experts play the role of a link between the data analyst and the business analysts.They have to know both the business and the data and then also know which type of analytics to apply.

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Modeling experts are primarily responsible for building data models and developing algorithms to draw conclusive information. Their job is to ensure that the derived information is well researched, accurate, easy to understand and unbiased.

Ideal Candidates with statistical background, having a deep interest in quantitative topics, and are usually preferred for the role of machine learning experts. The ideal professional must have a solid understanding of data algorithms and data structures in specific, and software engineering concepts in general.

Knowledge and experience with not only descriptive analytics, but also both predictive and prescriptive analytics is a plus.

  • Descriptive Analytics looks at the past to explain the present.
  • Predictive Analytics uses past data to model potential futures.
  • Prescriptive Analytics use past data to direct variable present and future options.

If you know someone looking to join the DMAI Data Science team to help businesses and schools around the Philippines set-up and/or build out data science capabilities then please tell them about this post.