Nate Burgos's Blog, page 6

Operating in Between Science and Art: Business Analytics Expert Leon Blackshaw, Head of Data Science at IRI, Presents at a Promotable Event

As part of Promotable’s series of talks, Leon Blackshaw, Strategic Analytics Director of IRI, data provider to the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, encouraged taking a approach blending science and art when driving value from analyzing data. At a high level, Leon represented the domain of science with a portrait of Einstein (1817–1955) and one of Picasso (1881–1973) representing the domain of art. I recalled these respective, yet iconic, musings:

According to Einstein  “It can...

Driving Change Through Measurement: Charles Jenkins, Director of Analytics at Northwestern Medicine, Speaks at a Promotable Event

Adopting a method for analyzing a standard set of data to achieve an organized, consistent and ultimately beneficial impact on a business’s performance over time is a tall challenge. At a recent event held by data-skills school Promotable, Charles Jenkins, Director of Analytics at Northwestern Medicine, showed how he and his team accomplished it with a framework they called a “Balanced Scorecard.” 

Using such a structure to reach consensus internally and rolled out enterprise-wide is...

Cross-Functional Efficiency through DevOps: Gerald Gunter, Chief Technologist of Iter8tion, Calls for Overcoming Silos at the 4th Promotable Event

One of the sharp paradoxes of technology is that it enables efficiency and its opposite. While this isn’t a revelation to anyone, for increasingly tech-reliant organizations, especially concerning software development and systems management, running a business with minimal waste as a by-product remains an ever-necessary task. For their 4th event this year, education company Promotable organized a talk by Gerald Gunter, Founder and CEO of Iter8tion, which specializes in IT automation. He spoke...

Two Critical Factors in Data Management: Promotable Talk with Data Scientist Jeanette Shutay of HAVI

Since 2020 is a U.S. presidential election year (a sharply heated one), successful data management and reporting have never been more important. As evidenced from the system-wide clusterfuck that was the Iowa Caucuses, it’s apparent that there remains a long way to go in effectively collecting and processing a lot of data when it concerns voting workflows.

I recently attended another informative talk by modern-skillset school, Promotable, called “Common Data-Diven Mistakes,” presented by ...

Another Fascinating Talk from Promotable: Discovering the Meaning of a Data-Driven Work Culture from Members of Modern Consulting Firm Slalom

One of my New Year’s goals is to hone my education about big data. After going to Promotable’s talk about healthcare analytics (read my recap) with WellCare Health Plans’ Pamela Taylor, I attended their next event about “Creating a Data-Driven Culture,” presented by Kevin Chaplin and Mike Lewis of the consulting firm Slalom, headquartered in Seattle. Their definition:

“A modern culture of data is an environment of experimentation, empowerment, curiosity, critical thinking and collaboration.”

...

Another Fascinating Talk from Promotable: Discovering the Meaning of a Data-Driven Work Culture

One of my New Year’s goals is to hone my education about big data. After going to Promotable’s talk about healthcare analytics (read my recap) with WellCare Health Plans’ Pamela Taylor, I attended their next event about “Creating a Data-Driven Culture,” presented by Kevin Chaplin and Mike Lewis of the consulting firm Slalom, headquartered in Seattle. Their definition:

“A modern culture of data is an environment of experimentation, empowerment, curiosity, critical thinking and collaboration.”

...

A Grounded First Talk about Big Data Kickstarts the Latest Series from Promotable

In the converging worlds of business, design and tech, talk of “big data” is ubiquitous. As a term, I’ve heard of it. As a phenomenon, I recognize it. As both a topic and field, it goes over my head since it’s a “big deal” and hyped as such. What does it really mean? How does big data translate into tactical efforts in the workplace? This year, I’m making it a personal initiative to better understand big data.

Scouring books and blogs would certainly be good ways to learn about big data....

Not Finding a Scottish Whisky Distilleries Map that Matched His Requirements, Designer Dale Watson Illustrated His Own

What are you working on—on the side?

My side projects are mostly illustrative. Over the past year, I’ve been working on multiple whisky-related projects, including simple illustrations of each Scottish distillery (an ongoing project) and detailed Whisky Maps of Scotland and Japan. The maps plot the location of each whisky distillery for a handy (and hopefully beautiful) reference guide.

I’ve also recently moved onto another subject I’m passionate about, nature, and am currently working on a...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Creative Mother-and-Son Time between Designer Joni Trythall and Ben

What are you working on—on the side?

I started Bologna and Ben a few years ago with my son. Ben took an interest in my work early on when he would catch me making things in Illustrator or planning animations on CodePen. One day, he got home from school as I was finishing up some icons and he began to replicate them on paper next to me at my desk.

I found the level of detail he picked up on incredible for a four-year old and it inspired me to start the project as a way to document these types of a...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Designers Miho Aishima and Kat Garner Founded Creative Space “Rye Here Rye Now” as a More Friendly, Less Formal, Gathering for the Creative Community

What are you working on—on the side?

We run Rye Here Rye Now, a creative platform based in Peckham Rye, London. We hold monthly meetups bringing together creatives from all areas of the industry. We’ve also run events with Tate Modern, the Great Get Together and Peckham Festival.

We started holding our monthly meetups two years ago because we felt that a lot of the design talks and events we were going to were quite formal and could be intimidating to people just starting out. We wanted to crea...