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Home » Magic number

Magic number

July 22, 2009 by Ted Cuzzillo

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 he now calls “the magic number.” Sure, they gave him some of their data. But they didn’t tell him they were testing him. When he came back with his analysis, they looked for that magic number. If it turned up — that is, if his data showed what they had learned from experience — they relaxed a little.

It fits somehow that he has a Ph.D in psychology.

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