It's a podcast episode. That's WHAT it is. But… WHY should you listen to it? Exactly. Or, perhaps, that's exactly WHY! Are you confused? You won't be after checking out our discussion with Jenni Bruckman about the vast and varied world of qualitative research and how it is the perfect partner to quantitative data. Give it a listen, and then let us know WHY you did and WHAT you thought of it! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Hey there, mister. That's a mighty nice multi-touch attribution model you're using there. It would be a shame to see it get mixed up with a media model. Or... would it? What happens if you think about media mix models as a tool that can be combined with experimentation to responsibly measure the incrementality of your marketing (while also still finding a crust of bread in the corner for so-called "click attribution")? According to a 2019 paper published by ThirdLove (which happens to have been Michael's last call on our last episode), that's a pretty nice way to go, and we thought it would be fun to see if we could raise Tim's blood pressure by giving him something to vigorously agree with for once. It was. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

What does neuroscience have to do with the work of the analyst? It turns out that neuroplasticity is to the modern analyst what plastics were to Benjamin Braddock, and it all comes down to Hebb's Law. Or, put another way, successfully working with peers and stakeholders can take some focused effort, some feedback, and some practice, and that's what "coach" James Hayes joined the episode to discuss! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

What is a system without empathy? What is a show summary without an attempt to overly distill the discussion to the point of sounding like nonsense? On this episode, Hilary Parker (who you may know from the Not So Standard Deviations podcast or elsewhere) joined us to discuss what we can learn from the design process (as in: actual designers) when it comes to analytics and data science. Among other things, that mindset highlights the importance of the analyst empathizing with stakeholders. Tim got very uncomfortable. Michael said he understood Tim's discomfort. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Stop for a minute and think about the highest stakes campaign or test you've ever run. Were you nervous? Now, instead, imagine that you're on an aircraft carrier with a few thousand people on board whose safety you are responsible for, and your team is about to watch 40,000 tons of ordnance detonate (in an environmentally friendly way) right next to the ship... so you can collect data to verify that the various systems are working as expected. On this episode, our guest can't really talk about the former situation, but he can discuss the latter in depth: Capt. Paul Lanzilotta is the commanding officer of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship in the latest class of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. Perspective, much? For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

As analysts, it can be easy to get so focused on the data that we lose sight of the imperative that we answer meaningful questions (aka: validating relevant hypotheses). On this episode, we sat down with Wil Reynolds, co-founder and accidental lead generator for SEER Interactive, for a discussion that turned out to be about curiosity and the power of trying to prove yourself wrong (and being willing to invest the time to do so!). In the end, we concluded that Wil has always been a "data person," even if he doesn't necessarily see himself as such. That is... actually kinda' profound! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Have you ever worked in a large organization where the data team(s) are perfectly structured to deliver efficient, harmonious, and meaningful results to the business with 'nary a gap nor a redundancy? If you answered "yes," then we'll go ahead and report you to HR for being a LIAR! From high growth startups to staid enterprises, figuring out how to organize the data and data-adjacent teams is always chock full of tradeoffs. And that's the topic of this episode. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Have you ever thought, "you know, it would be interesting to take my analytical knowledge and just totally run an organization based on what the data says?" Yeah. Us, either. That's terrifying! But, that's exactly what our guest on this episode did. Ben Lindbergh, along with his stathead-in-crime (aka, co-author) Sam Miller, took over the management of a minor league baseball team in 2015, and the result was The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team. How does that apply to analytics in the business world? In a surprising number of ways, it turns out! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Data is everywhere and it's simply not going away. Plenty of people do seem to ignore it to their peril, but if we are trying to make sense of the world, making good sense of data is absolutely critical. In business we call it data literacy, and, truthfully, it is a mandatory skill set for almost anyone. Data and understanding data might have a set of rules, and it seems like not everyone is committed to playing by those rules. Sometimes even our own brains get in on the act of hiding what the data actually means from us. And that's the subject of this episode with Financial Times columnist, BBC presenter, and Data Detective / How to Make the World Add Up author Tim Harford. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.