July 2009

Analyst: creative or canned?

July 31, 2009

I picked up the term “creative analyst” in late June on the phone with Lyzasoft CEO Scott Davis. But what does he mean? He described one analyst he’s known of. This guy arrived at a new job with strong recommendations for his ability to tear apart a dataset. He could slice, dice, build related charts [...]

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Analysts run on “maker’s schedule”

July 29, 2009

Most of those versatile researchers of the data-driven world — the business analysts, creative analysts, or even cowboy analysts — probably run on a different schedule from their managers. Paul Graham’s latest essay compares “manager’s schedule” and “maker’s schedule.” I’m no analyst, just a writer. But the more analysts I meet, the more I find [...]

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As seen on TV!

July 22, 2009

Today, the video crew had me wired with a microphone, and the bright light flooded our faces. The glamorous, brainy woman who sat next to me and I stared silently into each other’s eyes for a long few seconds while the camera rolled, exactly as we’d been told to do. This must be what actors [...]

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Magic number

July 22, 2009

Establishing trust is the key for one analyst I talked today at the Tableau conference. Two years ago his career took him to a small, private university where he had to win over a few well-established administrators. They were to provide him data and be his clients. The key to trust for them was what [...]

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Two analysts’ paths

July 21, 2009

Yesterday I asked business analysts at the Tableau conference in Seattle about their work. Here are two quick sketches. • One of the two arrived at her present employer six years ago to do the company’s first analysis of its website sales. She used several years of accumulated data to show which content was making [...]

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Blog for the times: on high-value, low-cost BI

July 20, 2009

Dan Murray expects to take another step this week in his thrilling rebellion, spreading the word on high value, low cost BI. Though it’s a rebellion and may burn with Che Guevara-type zeal, Dan’s methods actually lean way over toward Darwinian evolution. Revolution is expensive and risky, he writes, while evolution is intelligent and incremental. [...]

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Tableau conference stats

July 20, 2009

Attendance at the Tableau Customer Conference in Seattle, which runs today through Thursday, will be above 300 — versus 187 last year. Tableau Software VP of marketing Elissa Fink says that of the 300, 112 have signed up for Tableau certification training. It’s impressive.

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Just give me the data

July 16, 2009

Recent email to me from a passionate practioner of creative analysis tells how traditional BI is bad for genuine data analysis. As I see it, traditional BI processes are still designed to start with the answers, not the questions: “Oh, we can’t give you access to the raw data. Your tools (old thinking) probably are [...]

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A long look at Stephen Few’s “Now You See It”

July 15, 2009

Stephen Few gave a snappy name to his new book, Now You See It, and a cover that signals a gem — all black with a slice of sunset that highlights the “see.” The question, though, is who the “you” is.

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San Francisco cab driver’s dashboard

July 13, 2009

I asked a San Francisco taxi driver I happened to sit next to about indicators he sees. I didn’t mean “low oil,” I meant big things. Whether the economy is still falling or not, for one. Figure out how to collect tip data from cabbies and waiters and you’ve have a good early indicator of [...]

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