The Digital Measure Show

One of the many reasons for this podcast is to connect with new people in the industry and learn from their experiences. On this episode, I'm happy to introduce Jose Bergiste, Principle Analytics Consultant at Congetik. Jose reached out to me as a fan of the podcast several weeks ago and asked if he could be a guest on the show to educate others in this space on what it’s like to be a data engineer. I loved his mission and though that it fit right into the narrative of this podcast.

We began our conversation talking about what data engineers do then we get into the day-to-day aspects of being a data engineer, how they fit within organizations, their relationships with marketing, IT, and data teams. Then we touch on the market and what Jose does to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving industry.

Whether your an aspiring data engineer or work in other areas of marketing, this episode has some good insights on the industry and how they're becoming a more important role in digital marketing.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS AND WHAT YOU'LL LEARN...
• How Jose got into data engineer and his experience at Walt Disney Company
• Jose describes some of the day-to-day aspects and types of data engineering
• Where data engineering teams fit into organizations, the culture, and how they support digital marketing
• The relationship between data, marketing, IT, and data engineering teams
• A little on the current market of data engineering and keeping your skills relevant
• Recommended resources for aspiring data engineers

To view the rest of the show note please visit https://brianlpoe.com/blog/009-data-engineering-with-jose-bergiste

It's no surprise that companies are putting a lot of emphasis on experience design these days. In a recent article, Create Powerful Customer Experiences, Gartner shared that 81% of marketing leaders responsible for CX believe that their companies will primarily compete on the basis of CX in two years. That's incredible but also not that surprising.

So I invited Kurt Schmidt, former BMX professional and graphics designer, now President at Foundry, to talk with us a bit about service design. While on this episode, Kurt spends a decent amount of time describing the difference between service design and other forms of experience design, CX, UX, etc., the relationships are analogous or at least becoming that way. Listen in as Kurt is a wealth of knowledge in this space. He's curious, passionate, and has been around this industry a long time so it was a pleasure having him on the show.

Kurt's also a keynote speaker at local product and agile conferences if you're in the Minneapolis area and interested in hearing him speak live. Visit his website (link below) for upcoming events.

If wearing headphones and listening to audio is more your thing, Kurt also hosts his own podcast, The Schmidt List, on leadership in design and technology. Check it out.

ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING...
•Kurt's journey and transition from graphics design to the world of service design
•What service design is and what it is not
•When an organization or team should engage someone in service design
•Misconceptions about people and the value of service design
•Advice on how to introduce service design to an organization and keeping projects focused
•Finding business opportunity with service design
•Customer expectations in modern commerce and the role of service design
•Product development with quantitative and qualitative data
•The job market for people in service design

to view the rest of the show notes please visit https://brianlpoe.com/blog/008-service-design-with-kurt-schmidt

Data programming has been a topic of interest of mine for the past year and peaked just a few months ago. I started attending R sessions at conferences to gain as much knowledge as I could and to decide if this was a development track I wanted to pursue. R and Python have been gaining in popularity over the past several years so I thought maybe I was late to the game. Judging by the crowd at these conferences there were a lot of beginners and curious attendees. Maybe I'm not so late after all.
After enough research and conferences, I decided that R was the better fit and aligned well with my career path. So, I scratched the itch. Well, I tried. However, like most people learning something new, I had lots and lots of questions but didn't want to waste anymore time searching for online help. R was incredibly confusing and I was getting nowhere fast, so I switched directions and looked for a structured learning program instead. If there was a logical learning progression for guitar or jiu jitsu, I had decided that there must be one for data programming too.
Turns out I was right...I think. I started out with a free trial from DataCamp but after a couple of weeks I realized that the subscription would save me a lot of time and frustration.
After making it half way through the intermediate R course I asked Robert Daniel, Chief Sales Officer at DataCamp, to join me on the podcast to talk a little bit about online learning for data scientists. Don't worry, this episode isn't a sales pitch for DataCamp. Because my journey took about a year, I imagine that others are also looking for resources and wondering where to get started. If that's you, listen to this episode. It's intended to be informative and a short listen.
Enjoy and leave a comment below if you have other resources that you'd like to recommend.

ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING…

• Intro to DataCamp and their mission
• Why online learning has emerged and servicing the data scientist community
• How businesses are adopting online programs to train their data scientists
• What DataCamp has learned from learners over the past 4 years and how that’s driving product innovation
• How DataCamp designs their learning tracks around the way data scientists learn
• The two main differences between DataCamp and other online learning programs
• Continuing your data programming education and available learning tracks

Visit this page post for more information at https://brianlpoe.com/blog/007-online-learning-for-data-science

On this episode I had the pleasure of speaking with Chris Aburime, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Augurian, a Minneapolis search agency on SEO. Chris has over twenty years of experience in search so it was great getting his take on skill gaps in the industry and to get some practical SEO tips when going through site migrations.

ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING…
•Background on Chris and how he ended up co-founding Augurian
•Some of Chris' observations on skill gaps in the current search marketing industry which were co-presented along with Kat Duncan at the Minnesota Search Engine Marketing Association (MNSearch) earlier this year
•Site migration tips and how to keep search in mind throughout the process

VARIOUS MENTIONS AND TOPICS FROM THIS EPISODE:
•Digital Marketing Career Fireside Chat at MNSearch
•Minnesota Business lists Augurian in 2018 100 Best Companies To Work For
•Minnesota Search Engine Marketing Association (MNSearch)
•Google Analytics
•MOZ Website Migration Guide
•Rand Fishkin
•Search Engine Watch

This episode was a bit of an experiment, nevertheless, a lot of fun. Paul Feiner, Director of Marketing at The Big Know, joined me to talk about product marketing at a local startup. Paul leads the product development of The Big Know with various backgrounds in BA, content marketing, and social marketing. He even has has a side hobby, I Love Minnesota Sports, a Facebook page dedicated to Minnesota sports fans.

I've worked with Paul while at GoKart Labs and really admire his witty demeanor and empathy for the end user. Paul is as nice as they come, very passionate, and because he's been honing his craft for the past few years, I wanted to have him on the podcast to talk a little about product marketing at startups through the lens of The Big Know.

Hopefully you find this episode as interesting as I did. If you want to hear more from product marketers like Paul, please leave a request below. As I mentioned, this episode was a bit experimental, but if there's an interest in knowing more product marketing as it relates to martech, adtech, digital marketing, or measurement let me know.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Dennis Still, Founder & Chief Insights Analyst at Bigfoot Analytics, on what it takes to be an analyst in a startup or small company. Dennis has worked for larger companies before but has really spent the bulk of his career in analytics at smaller companies. Dennis is a data "hacker" at heart and I really enjoyed getting his perspective on the skill set and passion that's required to survive in a small company as an analyst.

ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING…
• Dennis' journey from social science to data and analytics
• What's currently required of analysts today and how expectations have changed over the years
• Some common client questions and how to navigate the challenging conversations
• How Dennis sees the difference in startup analytics and enterprise level talent
• Practical advice for new data analysts entering the field, where and how to find what you're passionate about, and the mentality you have to have when choosing to work at a small company or a startup
• Dennis' must have data tools and things he does to stay relevant as an analyst
• We broke out Dennis' crystal ball for a moment and reflected on the future of the analytics industry

HOW YOU CAN REACH DENNIS:
• Bigfoot Analytics
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

VARIOUS MENTIONS AND TOPICS FROM THIS EPISODE:
• R Studio
• Python
• Tableau / Domo / Power BI (data visualization)
• Chartio
• Navicat
• Google Analytics
• Microsoft Azure Machine Learning
• MinneAnalytics
• Data Science Central
• Data Science Dojo
• Demand Quest
• Google Tag Manager

On this episode Brian Hawkins, Senior Partner at Web Analytics Demystified, joined me to talk about testing and optimization. Brian brings over a decade of experience in testing and personalization to the table so it was a privilege to have him on the show.
Due to time constraints, we barely scratched the surface of testing on this episode so I plan on doing more on this topic in the future. It's an area that I'm passionate about and one that we warrants much more conversation. Leave a comment below or on Facebook if there's a specific aspect of testing that interests you. I will take that into consideration when putting together the next episode.

On this episode we discuss the following…
• Common challenges within the practice of testing and optimization
• Emerging solutions and technology that's changing the landscape of experimental testing
• Tips for testing when traffic is low
• Takeaways from Adobe Summit 2018
• Introduction to MiaProva, an Optimization Management Platform

How you can reach Brian:
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Web Analytics Demystified Blog
• MiaProva Blog

Various mentions and topics from this episode:
• Measure Slack
• Ensighten Tag Manager
• Adobe Launch
• Adobe Summit 2018
• Audience Manager
• Adobe I/O
• Google Analytics
• Adobe Analytics
• Adobe Target
• Google Analytics Visitor ID
• Adobe Experience Cloud ID
• Adobe Target Recommendations
• Adobe Target Auto Allocate
• Sample Size Calculator (Google it. There are many free versions)

On this episode I talked with James McDermott, CEO and Co-Founder of Lytics, on Customer Data Platforms. My goal of this episode was to bring a different perspective on CDPs than what Martin Kihn brought through research in the last episode and I think we nailed it. James helped untangle some of the myths we have about CDPs and provided a very passionate perspective on the current and future state of this category.

ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING…
• The three components of the Customer Data Platform category
• Typical questions that marketers have about the technology of CDPs
• Working with and operationalizing data that comes from data science teams
• The value of Customer Data Platforms and the problems they are meant to solve
• Challenging the mental model of marketers and moving from content to people based marketing
• James on the differences in competing technology and the future of this category

HOW YOU CAN REACH JAMES:
• LinkedIn
• Lytics

OTHER RESOURCES DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
• You can download the CDP Vendor Comparison Document here
• David Raab (Founder of the Customer Data Platform Institute)
• Martin Kihn's research from Gartner

On this episode I talk with Martin Kihn on Customer Data Platforms which is a feverishly hot topic and category in the current landscape of marketing technology. Martin spent the early part of his advertising career at Digitas in New York before stopping in Minneapolis to work for Fallon as the Director of Analtyics enroute back to New York where he is currently the VP of Research at Gartner.

Advertising is in his blood so it was my mission to convince Mr. Kihn to join me on The Digital Measure Show and get his perspective on this still young and undefined category. Mission complete!

ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING...
• The challenge that Gartner clients are looking to solve and the role of the Customer Data Platform
• What part of the organization owns the Customer Data Platform
• How Customer Data Platforms differ from Data Management Platforms, Tag Managers, and even CRM databases
• How vendors may differ and why it's a confusing and difficult category for marketers to approach
• The likely future of this category and the capabilities that are not yet available

OTHER CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM RESOURCES:
• What is this thing we call a CDP? (Martin's AdExchanger article)
• The Customer Data Platform Institute

If you liked this episode and would like to hear more on topics like this head over to iTunes to subscribe and rate this podcast. Thanks for listening and hope to hear from you soon!

In this episode I provide an introduction, description of the podcast and a sneak peak on episodes 1 and 2 which will be published in a couple of weeks.

Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes so you get notified when the first episode is released.

Reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn if you'd like to connect! Really looking forward to kicking off this podcast and talking with talented people in this industry.