Bill Franks's Blog: Analytics Matters, page 2

Why Self-Service Analytics Really Isn’t A Thing

That title probably got your attention and now you think I have some explaining to do! The key word in the title is the word “A”. Self-service analytics isn’t a thing if “a thing” means a single, distinct corporate initiative or set of requirements. Many companies make the mistake of assuming self-service is “a” thing. In reality, it is many things to many people, depending on their skill level and role. In other words, self-service is actually many things. Let’s discuss why!

The Typical Narrow D...

Advisory Insights: Assessing Your Current State

In last quarter’s Advisory Insights blog, I introduced IIA’s Checkpoints offerings. In my regular Analytics Matters blog in June, I talked about several pitfalls that can occur as you try to measure and track progress in your analytics maturity over time. Here, I will tie the two together by discussing how the Checkpoints offered through IIA’s advisory services can help you navigate around those pitfalls.

A Review Of Some Common Maturity Assessment Pitfalls

The key takeaways section from the June...

What Keeps Analytics And Data Science Executives Up At Night?

One way to explore what trends may be emerging is to talk to people about what has them most excited or worried about the future. In the analytics and data science space, a recurring theme among experienced leaders is the concern of not being able to keep up with all of the rapid change taking place – both individually and as a team. New algorithms, platforms, data, business partners, and more are constantly challenging analytics leaders’ ability to stay current on everything they oversee.

The Ri...

Advisory Insights: Navigating The Analytics Cycle

Organizations today are navigating the long and difficult journey of becoming truly data and analytics-driven. As an analytics-oriented professional undertaking your own journey, you’re focused on building stronger teams, more confident leadership and having a bigger impact on organizational decisions. In the process of pursuing those goals, you’ll need to navigate a variety of issues and activities. By putting a logical structure around the challenges you’ll face, the process of advancing your ...

Pitfalls When Measuring The Success Of Analytics Programs

There are many factors that go into making an enterprise analytics and data science program a success. At IIA, the application of our Analytics Maturity Assessment methodology to hundreds of companies over the past several years has allowed us to identify some important and intriguing patterns. Recently, my colleague David Alles wrote about some of the challenges faced when advancing in maturity. Here, I’ll walk through a few of the patterns IIA has identified that can appear counter-intuitive a...

Avoiding Analytical Malpractice With COVID-19

The general population is not used to interacting with data and analytics and interpreting results. With the COVID-19 crisis, millions of people are now becoming armchair analysts and they have plenty of time on their hands to practice their newfound analytical “skills”. Add to this a media industry that loves to put forth shocking headlines to grab clicks and a social media complex that similarly rewards attention, however achieved. We are left with an environment ripe for widespread confusion ...

Managing Analytics & Data Science During A Crisis

As I write this blog, we are deep into the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and lockdown. At IIA, we’ve been tracking the impacts that analytics and data science organizations have felt thus far. You can track our regular COVID-19 impact survey updates, executed jointly with Burtch Works, at this link.

This whole mess has had me thinking about what type of analytics leadership is required to weather the storm. I’ll cover one angle in this post that relates to an often-missing layer within today’s analyti...

Being Trained Is Not the Same as Being Competent

Clearly, we only want people who are competent being responsible for work that we rely on. This is true across fields, but certainly holds for analytics and data science. The newer a field is and the faster it is growing, the easier it is for the lines between “trained” and “competent” to become blurred. This is a concern today in the world of data science and analytics.

What Does It Mean to Be Trained?

Getting trained in something new is easy these days. Not only are there traditional classes ...

Don’t Write Your Analytics Story . . . Tell Your Story!

I’m sure you’ve seen this scenario play out many times. You or someone you know has completed a very compelling analysis that has some very important findings. The project team is excited to present the findings to the stakeholders. However, the presentation doesn’t go as expected. The executives in the room don’t seem to grasp the main points and the team struggles to get through all of the content that was prepared. The more details the team provides in order to get its points across, the more...

20 Questions That Make Any Analytics Project Successful

Many would say that the most critical phase of any analytics endeavor is what happens at the very beginning. The way a project is defined and scoped has to be right or else everything that follows is irrelevant. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find the time to execute a proper scoping process. Not only are analytics and data science professionals very busy, but their business sponsors are as well. There is much temptation from both sides to start “doing something” quickly. Instead of falli...