The Analytics Power Hour

How does a Bayesian tell what time it is? She starts with an estimated time as her prior and then makes a video for TikTok. If you've ever made a joke like that and then realized your audience might need a little statistical education in order to appreciate how hilarious it is (or, perhaps, what the probability is that it's hilarious), then this episode is for you. The Chatistician (and the creator of the #statstiktok hashtag), Chelsea Parlett-Pelleriti, joined the show to talk about tactics for making statistics accessible, both to ourselves and to others! Humor and thoughtfulness were both normally distributed throughout the discussion. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Once every four years in the United States, there is this thing called a "presidential election." It's a pretty boring affair, in that there is so much harmony amongst the electorate, and the two main candidates are pretty indistinguishable when it comes to their world views, policy ideas, and temperaments. But, despite the blandness of the contest, digging in to how the professionals go about forecasting the outcome is an intriguing topic. It turns out that forecasting, be it of the political or the marketing variety, is chock full of considerations like data quality, the quantification of uncertainty, and even () the opportunity to run simulations! On this episode, we sat down with G. Elliott Morris, creator of The Crosstab newsletter and a member of the political forecasting team for The Economist, to chat about the ins and outs of predicting the future with a limited set of historical data and a boatload of uncertainty. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Do you know someone who always seems to have read the latest books and can cite concepts and ideas and authors and titles in any situation? Do you hate that person? Honestly, so do we. But that didn't stop us from recording an episode that, potentially, will grate on your nerves in such a way that you have to draw on your inner grit (Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth) to get through it. But, with luck, there will be some good ideas that make it into your long-term memory (Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina), and it will be information delivered in a gender-neutral manner, unlike so much of the world (Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez). Give it a shot, though. It may help you become a better leader in your organization (Dare to Lead by Brené Brown). Unfortunately, we lost some of this episode (even our recording platform was tired of hearing about books?). We know what we talked about then, even if we have no audio record, so we've included those books in the show notes as well. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Analytics is hard (so they say... but we're not going to open THAT can of worms). Do you know what's harder? Managing analysts! I mean, they're always asking, "Why?" Sometimes, they even ask it five times! They can wind up, you know, analyzing whatever you're asking them to do! On this episode, special guest Moe Kiss (you may know her as a co-host of this podcast) joined Michael and Tim to dig into the ins and outs of the analyst/manager relationship. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

A wise man once said, "All forecasts basically assume that tomorrow is going to be very similar to today, just with an adjustment or two." That wise man was Gary Angel from Digital Mortar, and he said that on this very episode as we explored the ramifications for the analyst when the historical data is not at all a proxy for the near-term and medium-term future. What is the analyst to do when her training data has become as worthless as a good, firm handshake? If your prediction—based on listening to past episodes—is that Gary and our intrepid co-hosts might actually have some sharp ideas on the subject, well, give this show a listen and see how well you did! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Remember back when the global economy was booming and analysts were both in the sexiest job of the century and on the favorable side of the supply-demand curve for talent? Those were the days! On this episode, we sat down with Ollie Darmon from Canva to get his perspective, as an in-house recruiter, on what candidates can and should do to not only get in the door, but to actually close the deal and get hired. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

A deep dive into the significance of context in data presentations ensures accurate interpretation. The hosts share personal hacks to combat email overload and discuss the merits of coding shortcuts for all skill levels. Aligning objectives with KPIs and embracing uncertainty in analytics highlights the importance of stakeholder collaboration. A cool tip on using Google Sheets for multilingual feedback showcases innovative efficiency. Finally, the conversation touches on how platforms like TikTok can foster a vibrant analytics community.

A hallmark of the analytics community is the generosity with which ideas and wisdom are shared. One of the largest analytics conferences each year is Adobe Summit. One of the most followed Tims on the planet wrote a book called Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World. Jen Yacenda and Eric Matisoff mixed all three of these truths together in preparation for an hour-long presentation chock full of excellent career advice. And then Adobe Summit went virtual, and their session got drastically shortened. On this episode, Jen joined the gang to talk through (some of) the 11 questions that they posed to 38 analysts, the responses they got, and how she and the hosts answered the questions themselves. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

It sometimes seems like there must be a Moore's Law of marketing technology (or "martech," as the cool kids call it, and our site is on a .io domain, so we're definitely the cool kids) whereby the number of platforms available doubles every 6 to 8 weeks. And, every couple of months, it seems, a whole new category emerges. From CMS to DAM to CRM to TMS to DMP to DSP to CDP, it's an alphabet soup of TLAs that no one can make sense of PDQ! On this episode, Michael, Moe, and Tim sat down with the man who coined the name for one of those categories back in 2013: David Raab, the founder of the CDP Institute! It was a lively chat about the messy world of vendor overload and how to frame, assess, and successfully manage martech stacks. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

The promise of digital—and the steady shift of consumers' interactions with brands to that medium over the course of the past two decades—is that we can now see so much more of what our customers and prospects DO. But, how much does that tell us about who they really are, why they do what they do, and how they feel as they do it? What are they thinking and feeling as they cross between channels, task shift to and from interacting with your brand, and try to move their lives forward in whatever way that matters to them? Customer journey mapping tries to answer those questions: establishing different archetypes and mapping journeys through a combination of qualitative research and quantitative analysis. Would you like to journey further into the topic? Then give this episode a listen as we explore the subject with Dr. Monica Weiler from Stratos Innovation Group! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.