I felt like a lawyer. The call was in less than 12 hours, and I was busy preparing my case, consolidating evidence and building my story. To be honest, I wasn't 100% behind the argument I was preparing to put across, but I didn’t really have much of a choice. I had to believe -- how... Continue Reading →
Creating on the iPad
Creating on the iPad... it's just not the same as creating on the computer. When on the iPad, I'm far more a consumer. Typing is laboured, and sharing isn't as easy. If I see an image on Facebook or Linked In, and I want to share that with my Google+ followers, it's not straightforward at... Continue Reading →
People Watching
People watching used to be a favourite hobby of mine. Sitting at a café, observing without judging. Then technology came along. And I don't observe people so much anymore. I mean, you can't observe both the screen and the people around you, can you? A real pity, really. Technology has filled all those little spaces... Continue Reading →
Some thoughts on the thinking behind building things
I’m going to write a bit about my thinking process whenever I build things, whether it’s websites, VBA applications, or financial models. I’m not too sure if this is going to be a “oh that’s so obvious why is he telling me this?” piece, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, one person’s normal behaviour... Continue Reading →
Business vs. IT
I was reminded today in a book I'm reading on visual analytics that the purpose of any analytical project is ultimately to make better decisions. Coming from a mixed business and IT background, I have had my fair share of IT vs. Business conundrums. With my IT hat on, I'm always thinking about efficiency, optimisation, ease-of-use,... Continue Reading →
On theory, practice, and Snowflake Schemas
Just the other day I learnt that the data warehouse I was working on was designed using a Star and Snowflake schema. I'd known enough about them to know that this meant the data was set up on fact and "dimensional" tables, but not much other than that. So the moment I had some time... Continue Reading →
Getting Real by 37Signals
In what must be one of the most serendipituous moments of my recent life I hit upon 37Signals' Getting Real TOC page after doing a search of a string of text that randomly entered my mind. (The whole book's available online for free? Wow!) I'd first read Getting Real in its physical form (borrowed from a local... Continue Reading →
Analytics Adoption: Evolutionary vs. Revolutionary Technology
In this post about analytics adoption, I'd like to start with a short story. The wife and I got ourselves each a Samsung Galaxy S4 over the weekend. Though it’s a great phone, we couldn’t help but feel that there was a distinct lack of a “wow” factor. We both moved to the S4 from... Continue Reading →
User requests are like hunger pangs
“So, when is the [request] going to be ready?” he asks me, the fourth person to ask in a one-week period. This, I think to myself, is probably real hunger. “I’m working on it,” I reply, which means I’m waiting it out to determine how important the request really is. The moment I can confidently... Continue Reading →
What do you do? I’m an analyst.
“So,” my wife’s friend asks, “what do you do?” I pause for a moment, prepare to say “business analyst”, but then decide not to because I didn’t think she’d understand what I did. I look at my wife and ask her, “what do I do?”, hoping she'd have a better answer. My wife looks at... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 