The Analytics Power Hour

2017 was a big year for both the digital analytics industry and for the Digital Analytics Power Hour. Join us, won't you, as we (figuratively!) gaze upon our navels? From the traction the #womeninanalytics movement gained on multiple fronts, to the looming promise of machine learning and AI getting a real foothold in the field, to the podcast finally adding a co-host who is universally admired, we had a lot to talk about! We had a LOT to talk about. Trust us, we edited this episode down heavily!

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Are you a data subject? If you're a person, then you better believe you are! And, so is every person who visits your website. And, if you are in the EU, or you have visitors from the EU, then May 25th, 2018, is a day you should be keeping a close eye on and preparing for now! On this episode, Jodi Daniels of Red Clover Advisors joins Moe and Tim to talk all things General Data Privacy Regulation (aka, GDPR). Give it a listen and pick up delightful cocktail party openers like, "Hey, do you know how to tell someone isn't from the EU? They reference PII." That's not just a delightful witticism -- it's actually important to understand the distinction between PII and personal data!

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

When you find a true insight, it can make your head spin. But, will your head spin in a different direction if the insight is found in Australia than if it is found in the United States? On this episode, Rod Jacka from Panalysis joins the crew for a balanced discussion (northern AND southern hemispheres) about how the phrase "actionable insights" should turn the stomach of any right-thinking analyst. More importantly, the gang discusses the need for clarity around insights -- both definitionally and expectations-wise -- and share their favorite techniques for getting that clarity.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

It's a challenge as old as the smartphone (or...technically... a little bit older): we want to track and know people, but, when they're visiting us from their phone, their tablet, their work laptop, and their home desktop, we often really just know cookies and device IDs! Countless vendors tout their enabling technology...but then admit that, yes, you do have to get your customers to authenticate on all devices to provide a common key, which isn't always easy (or even remotely reasonable). Unless you're up for diving into the deep and murky waters of probabilistic linking. On this episode, Tablet Tim -- the only one of the co-hosts who is an avid tablet user -- argues that the whole topic should be pretty "meh" for many companies, while Mobile Moe smacks him down and shares her experiences (the challenges...and the wins that made them worth it!) with linking users across mobile apps, a mobile site, and a desktop site.

For complete show notes, visit the show page.

You're listening to this podcast, so you're, obviously, well-attuned to the cutting edge of all things digital. But, in this episode, we're going to discuss a couple (or countless) products/platforms (PaaS — Platforms as a Service! Who knew that was a thing?!) from a little upstart company based in California. Google wouldn't actually return our calls (okay…we didn't call them), so we went with an Even Better Option: Mark Edmondson — Data Insight Developer at IIH Nordic, Google Developer Expert, author of so many R packages he had to write a package just to count them, delightfully accented Brit who now calls Denmark home, and a guy who tried to solve Twitter political discussions through text mining (not kidding — it's discussed in this episode) — joined the gang to do their First Ever three-continent simulcast.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Do you have a spare shingle lying around? Have you been thinking about painting, "Analyst for Hire - Will Work for Cookies" on it and hanging it up on your front door? It seems like a lot of analysts are pondering whether the next company they should work for should be their own. Adam Ribaudo did just that (figuratively -- we have no evidence of an actual painted shingle) 2.5 years ago. He now works for Noise to Signal, a company he joined...just as soon as he founded it! On this episode, we grill Adam about how he keeps his vast workforce in line, as well as what his thoughts are about the decisions made by Noise to Signal's upper management.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Have you learned R yet? No? Well, then Tim is disappointed in you. Or, maybe that's totally okay! Way back on episode #035, we asked the question if data science was the future of digital analytics. We concluded...maybe...for some. On this episode, we dive deeper into what the career options are for digital analysts with longtime digital analytics industry recruiting and staffing maven Corry Prohens, founder and CEO of IQ Workforce. The good news? There are lots of options (if you find your passion and follow it)!

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Let's pretend your goal as an analyst is to eloquently and accurately explain reinforcement learning. Now, let's pretend that you get to try that explanation again and again, and we'll give you an electric shock every time you state something inaccurately and a cookie every time you say something right. Well, you're an analyst, so you're now wondering if this is some clever play on words about cookies. As it happened, we didn't give Matt Gershoff from Conductrics any cookies of any kind in his return to the show. Instead, we gave him a lifetime's supply of opportunities to say, "Well, no, it's not really like that," which is a special kind of nourishment for the exceptionally smart and patient! In other words, the gang walked through a range of analogies and examples about machine learning, reinforcement learning, and AI with Matt, and no electric sheep were harmed in the process.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Is your organization customer-centric? Does your product team dive into the demographics of your customers to figure out what features will make them as happy as possible? If so, then you're doing it all wrong! Perhaps. On this episode, the gang chats with Dr. Peter Fader about putting customer lifetime value (CLV) front and center when it comes to developing and executing marketing strategies.

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Are you biased? Either you answered, "Yes," or you're in denial. Or you're an AI, in which case you should just go and start your own podcast instead of listening to this one. UNLESS your prediction algorithms told you that this would be the episode where we would finally announce the addition of a third co-host, and you need to collect that data point (and, damn, you're good, BTW). On this episode, though, our THREE (count 'em!) co-hosts dive into different types of biases that analysts (should) grapple with, how they spot them, and what they do to take advantage of them (or mitigate them, as appropriate).

For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.