Category Archives: Data Strategy

BLOCKING | WHAT THEATER DIRECTORS AND ANALYSTS HAVE IN COMMON

Recently I finished creating a company-wide leadership dashboard approach for a restaurant franchise. Stepping out of my traditional context (healthcare) and into something new gave me a chance to re-think everything. Few people working in data today have the opportunity to own something end-to-end. If you work at a media firm, for example, your workContinue reading “BLOCKING | WHAT THEATER DIRECTORS AND ANALYSTS HAVE IN COMMON”

FIRST-PARTY DATA: NEW KEYS TO A NEW KINGDOM

There have been many chapters in this unfolding story: Europe’s GDPR introduced in 2016 and the California Protection Act introduced in 2018, key documentaries like “The Great Hack” in 2019 and “The Social Dilemma” in 2020. But nothing has made the data industry scramble and reorganize priorities like Google’s announcement in January 2020, that GoogleContinue reading “FIRST-PARTY DATA: NEW KEYS TO A NEW KINGDOM”

THE 3 PERSONALITY TRAITS OF A DATA STRATEGIST

When hiring data strategists for the team, I have learned over time that there are some personality traits that are reliable indicators for a rewarding career in Data Strategy. Here are some general guidelines for the Data Strategy “personality type”:  Be a gifted translator. Translation is simply the act of carrying a message from oneContinue reading “THE 3 PERSONALITY TRAITS OF A DATA STRATEGIST”

WHAT TO LEARN FROM THE FATHER OF QUALITY CONTROL: W. EDWARDS DEMING

By emphasizing quality over short-term profitability, W. Edwards Deming’s management philosophy provides an excellent roadmap for analytics enablement best practices. Dr. W. Edwards Deming is a popular figure amongst the data community—famously known for quotes such as “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion” and the famous (potentially misattributed) quote, “In God weContinue reading “WHAT TO LEARN FROM THE FATHER OF QUALITY CONTROL: W. EDWARDS DEMING”

SHADOW ARCHITECTS: THE COLLABORATIVE DATA TEAM

Every marketer knows that data-driven customer experiences are the best way to reach an audience—but have you ever wondered about where the data behind campaigns comes from? Data lakes. Data warehouses. Floodlights, pixels, page load tags. Such is the language of the hidden world of data architects and engineers—the people who create and execute the datasetsContinue reading “SHADOW ARCHITECTS: THE COLLABORATIVE DATA TEAM”