How does one build a strong culture of experimentation at an organization (and what does that even mean)? One way is to spend a few years working at a company that already has such a culture… and then jump ship to another organization that is well on its way! That's (sort of) what our guest, Lukas Vermeer , did when he left booking.com to go to Vista. With Val Kroll guest-co-hosting, we dug into the challenges — organizational, educational, and mindset-al (?) — when it comes to having an organiz...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr
When it comes to simulation, we're all really asking the same question: are we living in one? Alas! We did not tackle that on this episode. Instead, with Julie Hoyer as a guest co-host while Moe is on leave, we were joined by Frances Sneddon , the CTO of Simul8 , to dig into some of the nuts and bolts of simulation as a tool for improving processes. It turns out that effectively putting simulations to use means focusing on some of the same foundational aspects of effectively using analytics, dat...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Do you listen to this podcast because you're pretty sure that you're a professional fraud, and you're hoping-hoping-hoping that you will absorb enough knowledge to stay ahead of being exposed as such? Well, stop that negative self-talk! Impostor syndrome is a very real thing, and we've devoted a whole show to digging into it! Julie Hoyer and Val Kroll joined Moe on this International Women's Day episode to discuss the topic. It turns out that there has been a lot of research in the area, there A...
Mar 07, 2023•52 min
When it comes to data, there are data consumers (analysts, builders and users of data products, and various other business stakeholders) and data producers (software engineers and various adjacent roles and systems). It's all too common for data producers to "break" the data as they add new features and functionality to systems as they focus on the operational processes the system supports and not the data that those processes spawn. How can this be avoided? One approach is to implement "data co...
Feb 21, 2023•53 min
What's more sexy: analytics or innovation? What about combining them! That sounds great, and Thomas Davenport would be so proud if you pulled it off, but the reality is that the idea of innovation through analytics is one thing, while the reality of making it happen is another thing entirely. Dr. Tiffany Perkins-Munn , Head of Marketing Data & Analytics at JPMorgan Chase & Co., joined us for a discussion on the subject! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this ...
Feb 07, 2023•56 min
We've been on a bit of a streak of culture and career discussions, which means we want to assure you that Tim is not actually tied up in a basement with no access to our content calendar. Actually, in this episode, Tim plopped down on the therapy couch as a vessel for the wisdom of Moe and Michael about structured techniques for analysts to chart the best paths for their careers. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the s...
Jan 24, 2023•55 min
Happy new year! We're not really resolution-making types, but the incrementing of the annum is a good time to take a breath and think about some ways we might want to approach our work differently. On this episode, we took a pretty big swing at "culture" — sitting down with Aaron Dignan , founder of Murmur , author of Brave New Work (and host of the eponymous podcast ) — to discuss some of the ways modern organizations are, well, broken! From there, to the analysts within those organizations, to...
Jan 10, 2023•1 hr 10 min
It's that one-time-of-the-year when we do a little bit of navel-gazing, a little bit of prognostication, and, when the year is a year like 2022, a little more cursing than usual. Not only did the podcast hit a fairly meaningless vanity metric milestone this year, but we also maintained our explicit rating! Executive producer Josh Crowhurst joined us to look back on the podcast and the analytics industry in 2022, as well as to do a little bit of crystal ball gazing into 2023 and beyond! For compl...
Dec 27, 2022•1 hr 5 min
You've got some solid experience under your belt, and you're starting to feel like you're ready to move into a data leadership role. What does that even mean? Shifting your keystrokes from SQL to slide decks? Maybe (but maybe not). Katie Bauer , Head of Data at GlossGenius , has held multiple data leadership roles over the course of her career, and she penned a thoughtful post on the various tactics she employed to find a role that is a good fit. She wrote the post so that she wouldn't have to k...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr
As analysts, we conduct analysis on behalf of the business to (hopefully) provide them with clear and objective information to help with making decisions. We use visualizations of data and, when we're really hitting our stride, we even tell data stories. So, how does that compare to mainstream journalism and the stories they tell, especially when there is data that can be visualized in support of the story or the analysis? There could be no better guest than Philip Bump , long-time columnist for...
Nov 29, 2022•54 min
Ethics in AI is a broad, deep, and tough subject. It's also, arguably, one of the most important subjects for analysts, data scientists, and organizations overall to deliberately and determinedly tackle as a standard part of how they do work. On this episode, Renée Cummings , Professor of Practice in Data Science and Data Activist in Residence at the University of Virginia (among many other roles), joined us for a discussion of the subject. Her knowledge of the topic is as deep as her passion fo...
Nov 15, 2022•57 min
So, you finally took that recruiter's call, and then you made it through the initial phone screen. You weren't really expecting that to happen, but now you're facing an actual interview! It sounds intense and, yet, you're not sure what to expect or how to prepare for it. Flash cards with statistical concepts? A crash course in Python? LinkedIn stalking of current employees of the company? Maybe. We asked Jay Feng from Interview Query to join us to discuss strategies and tactics for data scientis...
Nov 01, 2022•54 min
Have you ever built a data-related "thing" — a dashboard, a data catalog, an experimentation platform, even — only to find that, rather than having the masses race to adopt it and use it on a daily basis, it gets an initial surge in usage… and then quietly dies? That's sorta' the topic of this episode. Except that's a pretty clunky and overly narrow summary. Partly, because it's a hard topic to summarize. But, data as a product and data products are the topic, and Eric Weber , the data scientist...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Do analysts make things more complicated than they need to be, or is the data representing a complex world, so that is just the nature of the beast? Or is it both? Stakeholders yearn for simple answers to simple questions, but the road to delivering meaningful results seems paved with potholes of statistical complexity, data nuances, and messy tooling. What is a business to do? Frederik Werner from DHL joined Michael and Tim for a discussion that definitively determined that, well, the topic is…...
Oct 04, 2022•1 hr
Here at the Analytics Power Hour, we have a very clear delineation of who owns what when it comes to the show production. And ownership is the topic of this episode. It's possible that the owner of the episode description feels like this is an awfully touchy-feely topic, but said owner also knows that teamwork means going along with the majority when it comes to show topics. I guess that's joint ownership? Can that work? Sadly, that, specifically, was not discussed, but the show definitely earne...
Sep 20, 2022•58 min
Our podcast junkie co-host heard the following statement on another podcast a while back when he was out for a jog: "I actually think the word 'uncertainty' is used in English in a very different way than the word 'uncertainty' is used in statistics." He almost ran into a tree (causation is unclear: he's not known for his gross motor skills, which may have been a confounder). Not only is that quote, essentially, the theme for this episode, but the person who said it, Dr. Rebecca Goldin from Geor...
Sep 06, 2022•1 hr 6 min
We try not to navel gaze too much on this show, but our 200th episode felt like just enough of a milestone that we could do a mid-year "look back, look forward" show with a 7-year range. And we tracked down our original Commonwealth representative to join us for that discussion. Did we (first) party (cookie) like it was 1999? Maybe not, but that's the sort of reference you get with Jim Cain , the founder of Napkyn Analytics , and a co-founder of this very podcast! For complete show notes, includ...
Aug 23, 2022•59 min
Multi-touch attribution, media mix modeling, matched market testing. Are these the three Ms of marketing measurement (Egad! The alliteration continues!)? Seriously. What's with all the Ms here? Has anyone ever used experimentation to build a diminishing return curve for the impact of a media measurement technique based on how far along in the alphabet the letter of that technique is? Is "M" optimal?! Trust us. You will look back on this description after listening to this episode with John Walla...
Aug 09, 2022•59 min
We've always said that the genesis of this podcast was the lobby bar of analytics conferences across multiple continents, and this year's Marketing Analytics Summit in Las Vegas was a reminder of our roots on that front. All three co-hosts made the trip to Caesars Palace for the event. Moe presented on bringing a product mindset to analytics (by "presented on," we mean "workshopped content for a future podcast episode"), and the closing keynote was a recording of the show in front of a live (and...
Jul 26, 2022•55 min
Sure. GPT-3 and large language models in general can take a prompt and spin out in any of a million human-sounding directions. That's neat, but maybe not exactly what you'd want to turn loose as your guide through a narrative multiverse of AI-boosted creative play and community. "A what?" You say. Exactly. In this episode, we dug into Hilary Mason' s latest endeavor, Hidden Door , and how she and her team are working to apply the right level of "human" to AI-driven narrative play. Intrigued? You...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Every consumer is now aware, at some level, that they are constantly generating data simply by moving through the world. And, every organization that puts physical devices or digital experiences into the paths of consumers has to make decisions about what data they collect, how they manage it, and what they do with it (both the immediate plans and what unknown plans may emerge in the distant future). The questions, decisions, and mindsets that this reality brings into play are just one big gray ...
Jun 28, 2022•1 hr 11 min
The Web3 world—blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and more—seems to be everywhere these days. And, as analysts, how could we not salivate at the idea of a data set that is just one flat, immutable, ever-growing table with a handful of columns (aka… a blockchain-powered public ledger)? We sat down with Anthony Mandelli from Coin Metrics to see whether Tim and Moe could be moved from "totally clueless" to "barely knowledgeable" on the topic in a single hour (Michael was already a knowledgeable enth...
Jun 14, 2022•1 hr 5 min
The workplace is changing! Even before COVID, the look, feel, and layouts of offices went through various phases: the rise of cubicles in the 1960s (ick!) and then, decades later, the rise of the open office ("Headphones…deployed!") are just two examples. What does the "next" workplace look like in a world that supports remote work, hybrid work, and in-office work? It looks… complicated (but exciting). On this episode, David Stella from db.19 joined us to discuss how data (and experimentation!) ...
May 31, 2022•1 hr 14 min
It's easy to get sucked into the "technology" side of things when it comes to improving the effectiveness and scaling up data teams, but, much to Tim's dismay, shoring up the people, process, and culture is often just as (if not more) critical. So, sure, we can talk about the modern data stack, but what about the modern data CULTURE stack? Prukalpa Sankar , co-founder of Atlan , joined us for a lively discussion of the topic! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this ep...
May 17, 2022•1 hr 4 min
If you're like most data workers, you probably spend a little bit of time reacting to and servicing data requests, a bit more time on some larger analysis projects, and then you've got a big pile of free time where you're wondering what else you should be doing. Oh. No? You're absolutely drowning in work and questioning whether you're actually providing value? Yeah. That's actually much more common. We were just kidding with that opener. The great news, though, is that Emilie Schario joined us t...
May 03, 2022•1 hr 6 min
"The people" are often the most valuable asset for a company, so getting the ones who are a good fit, supporting them in their work and their careers, and figuring out what motivates (and demotivates) them is critical. And data—both quantitative and qualitative—can help with that. It's a topic we've wanted to tackle for a long time (well, Moe and Michael have; Tim was confused, as he thought it couldn't be that hard to analyze a data set consisting of a single "Do they do their f***ing job?" boo...
Apr 19, 2022•1 hr 12 min
"Modern art" was a terrible label because, ya' know, time would pass and here we are 50 years after the end of that period shaking our heads at what a short-sighted semantic gaff that was. We share that observation for no particular reason. On this episode, we sat down with broad, deep, and entertaining thinker Benn Stancil from Mode to talk about one facet of the modern data stack: the metrics layer. What is it? Who's thinking about solving for it? What is a monthly DAU? These are questions to ...
Apr 05, 2022•1 hr 3 min
We are excited to announce APH+ , a subscription that includes bonus content and other perks for our most dedicated listeners.
Apr 01, 2022•3 min
Can a digital analyst make it to the C-suite? And, if she does, will she wonder, "Oh, dear. WHAT have I gotten myself into?!" The answer to the first question is "Yes!" And our guest for this episode is a proof point: Mai AlOwaish is the Chief Data and Innovation Officer at Gulf Bank, and she spent a good portion of her career in digital analytics before taking on that role! The answer to the second question is, "Not if you go in with a clear vision and strategy!" But, of course, there's a lot m...
Mar 22, 2022•1 hr 7 min
What does Machiavelli have to do with International Women's Day? It turns out, if you read his writings through the lens of the challenges that women face in the workplace, then quite a lot! So much, in fact, that a whole book could be written on the subject. And one was! Machiavelli for Women author Stacey Vanek Smith joins Moe and guest host Julie Hoyer for this women-only episode of the show. If you're a dude and think this show isn't for you, too, then think again! For complete show notes, i...
Mar 08, 2022•1 hr 2 min
