This week, we talk with Angela Wilkins from Mercury Data Science. She has an amazing background in Data Science and has built a team to help startups leverage their data. She tells some amazing stories about what her data projects have delivered and how she went about solving them.
Data visualization has become common place and more and more products have incorporated it and analytics into their apps. This article explores how you can better do this as a product manager and product designer. We do this by going through some of the good, bad, and ugly of data viz in product and some steps that you can use to ensure yours is good. Well implemented data visualization in products can lead to better product adoption and use but the reverse is true for bad data visualization.
Read More“What is the goal of bringing data into organizations? People make tens of thousands of decisions everyday... data can create more intelligent groups that improve those decisions.”
Combining multiple disciplines can so often be a recipe for success. Some of the best inventions, ideas, and movements were started because someone from a different background came in to an industry, saw things through a different lens, and approached a problem from a completely different angle.
For Dave, that “combination” has been through Chemistry, Law School, Product Management, and now Analytics.
For Matt, that “combination” has been through Computer Science, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and now Analytics.
For Lori Silverman, she brings a wealth of experience from her psychology background, but has also worked on many “up-and-coming” movements in the quality, organizational change management, and storytelling spaces.
In this episode, Lori shares incredible insights from 30+ years of helping organizations think differently, improve results, and “shift” the way they do business.
Lori is passionate about driving change and about helping her customers succeed in building data informed organizations. She’s also a consummate researcher, so she’s always looking at ways to combine research into “real-world”. We talk a little bit about the research behind an insight (literally called an “ahas"!”). We also talk about the research behind System 1 and System 2 thinking, developed by the amazing Dr Daniel Kahneman and Dr Amos Tversky, summarized in their book Thinking Fast and Slow.
If there’s one thing Lori does, it’s to inspire people towards becoming a champion for data. She tells us the story from early in her career, in Wisconsin working for a local hospital, where she identified a need, went out of her way to learn from great people on the topic, and then spent 2 years slowly building buy-in from various leaders to change how the organization thinks. This is exactly what data champions do! They influence their peers and get buy in from leaders to help facilitate the change they know is possible!
Check out the whole episode for lots of great tips and inspiring stories from a true thought leader!
LinkedIn - in/lori-silverman-700963
Website - www.partnersforprogress.com
Twitter - @LLSilverman
Lori’s Books - Business Storytelling for Dummies, Wake Me Up When the Data is Over
Heroes - Cassie Kozyrkov - Chief Decision Scientist at Google
Think of Data Principles as your manifesto or by-laws in how your organization uses data. Data Principles could be about how you go about collecting data. They can be an important right of setting the tone of your organization in how data is used from the C-level throughout. How you go about sharing data within the organization. What your view of data in the decision making process. What are your views around Data Governance. What is transparent and what is hidden to your consumers, partners, employees, etc. Certainly Data Principles can include a lot. In this article we will go through how you can establish good Data Principles.
Read MoreHappy Fall! Fall is my favorite season and living in the Northeastern region of the Continental US I look forward to chillier days and leaves changing. I enjoy seeing what Albert Camus describes as “Second Spring” where the leaves are a vibrant red, yellow and orange! The challenge I have every season is finding that right time to drive up to that scenic overlook to capture a picture perfect landscape of colorful leaves with just the right amount of blue skies. It looks like a data scientist, Wes Melton might have solved our problems by determining the precise future date that the leaves will peak in each area of the Continental US!
Wes Melton along with his co-founder David Angotti have created the Fall Foliage Prediction Map. According to Melton, this is one of the only fall leaf tools that provides accurate predictions for the entire continental US. Looking at the snapshot above, a user can take the slider across the 12 week period to see when and where fall foliage will peak in a given region. Looking at the week of October 5th, we can can see patches of the Northern US hitting peak season like Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Another great area that might not come to mind are the aspen trees in Colorado.
The story behind the creation of this map is interesting. At the time that they were starting their Smoky Mountains Cabin rentals six years ago, they were getting questions on the best times to experience the fall colors. They started conferring with meteorologists and the predictions were accurate. The advice was well received and they have been updating the tool ever since!
“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower”
To create the map, a complex algorithm was developed that carefully analyzes several million data points and outputs approximately 50,000 predictive data pieces. This data then enables the program to forecast county-by-county the precise moment when “fall peak” will occur. As time goes on and the algorithm is fed more data, it will only become more and more intelligent.
Some of the data points processed by the prediction algorithm include National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) historical temperatures, precipitation, forecast temperatures, and forecast precipitation; historical leaf peak trends; and peak observation trends.
I am excited about this story and this tool because it was birthed from customers looking to rent cabins and Melton and Agnotti went above and beyond to accommodate them. They didn’t stop at the Smoky Mountain Region but went on to answer this question for the whole continental US. They were also able to compile data points from several sources to piece together this aesthetically simple visualization.
Check out the map and learn a little bit more on how and why the leaves change color. I would love to hear about your favorite leaf peeping location!
Allen serves as part time faculty at Columbia University’s Applied Analytics program. He has extensive experience in developing and executing data analysis and integrating results into marketing programs and executive presentations. Allen is very passionate about data literacy and curates an article series that focuses on the importance of creating data narratives and spotlighting notable figures on how their use of storytelling made major impacts on society.
You can sample his work here: Three Reason Why Storytelling is Important in Business
Website: https://medium.com/@alglobehopper
LinkedIn: Allen Hillery
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlDatavizguy
Publication: https://medium.com/nightingale
Great products, insights, and experiences require a human-centered and data-informed approach. Let me, Dave Mathias, help you and your team through my fractional CPO, hands-on consulting, coaching/training, and speaking services.
Make sure to check out all the great thought leadership around product and analytics excellence shared at gobeyondthedata.com.
