I'm going to be talking a little about predictive analytics today, to give you a rough idea of what it is (and isn't). You might have read in the news before about things like computers and algorithms churning out predictions on what might happen next, in industries as diverse as the financial markets to soccer... Continue Reading →
The problem with using analytics to predict team performance
Read this interesting (and insightful+funny) article by McAfee on baseball and analytics (with reference to the enjoyable baseball movie Moneyball). Although it's written about baseball, it's really about sports and analytics, and how analytics has changed the way we made decisions. (Disclaimer: I don't follow baseball; don't play it; don't know much about it.) The funny... Continue Reading →
In defence of “It Depends” (vs. “Maybe”)
"It depends" is one of those really important concepts that not many people use. Perhaps because it lives in the uncomfortable, ambiguous territory between “yes” and “no”. Sure, “maybe”, too, lives in this ambiguous territory. But “maybe” doesn’t commit to saying that ultimately a proper answer exists. “It depends” does. “It depends” is like the... Continue Reading →
A very nice article on focusing on the experience rather than your performance. Gives context to a lot of life's choices -- when nervousness and anxiety threatens to derail your plans, just take it in stride and concentrate on the fact that no matter what happens, you've won yourself a new experience.
Stop Focusing on Your Performance
This is a story worth reading: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail
Amazing story of how Newegg defeated a patent troll
Adoption of technology: Sell the benefits, not the features
I suppose it's a saying as old as marketing itself, but when trying to persuade people to take up an idea, sell the benefits, not the features. And yes, for you involved in technology adoption in a corporate setting, this includes you as well. Let me explain with a story. I gave my dad my... Continue Reading →
How to make sure your e-mail gets read
To make sure your e-mail gets read, write less. People have a tendency to read something when it's short. It doesn't give them an excuse to read this later. To ensure that your short e-mail contains all the points that you need to put across, consider using the inverted pyramid, making sure that your most important... Continue Reading →
Always overestimate the difficulties of simple projects
I've worked in plenty of projects, at school, at work, and at play. One thing I've learned is to always overestimate the difficulty of a project. Especially if it appears easy. A friend and I are currently working on building a website for a local B2B (business-to-business) company during our spare time. When we first... Continue Reading →
The IT-Marketing Divide
I’d heard and read plenty of stories about the IT-Marketing divide, about how IT people don’t really see eye-to-eye with the “business” people. But I never really believed it because I’d never experienced it. As a business/marketing analyst I interact with both sides quite a bit of the time. So if it was so common,... Continue Reading →
Why you need to learn MS Excel
Just five years ago Microsoft Excel was as alien to me as table manners is to a two-year-old child. Then during my university summer break in 2007 I got a job at a bank that changed all that. I learned that Excel makes calculations of complex formulas easy; Excel works great as a basic reporting... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 