bis
big
lie
‘
How we thought we had Big Data and we built everything planning for Big Data but then it turns out we didn't have Big Data and while that's nice and fun and seems more chill, it's actually ruining everything and I am here at this conference asking you to please help us figure out what we are supposed to do now.
Founder + CTO
Field CTO
“Exploring something new”
“Advisor and angel investor”
“Independent contractor”
benn.substack
Data analyst
Data analyst
I am not Kamala Harris, and she does not endorse this message.
Founder + CTO
Sales rep
Suppose we have a company similar to LinkedIn, and this is our product dashboard that tracks standard metrics.
Suppose we have a company similar to LinkedIn, and this is our product dashboard that tracks standard metrics.
Let’s now say that folks on our sales team noticed people complaining about how hard it is to upload pictures, and we want to investigate if there’s a problem.
Suppose we have a company similar to LinkedIn, and this is our product dashboard that tracks standard metrics.
Let’s now say that folks on our sales team noticed people complaining about how hard it is to upload pictures, and we want to investigate if there’s a problem.
I’m pulling a bunch of event data that includes information about my users and the actions they’re taking.
investigate if there’s a problem.
I’m pulling a bunch of event data that includes information about my users and the actions they’re taking.
I now see that people aren’t uploading pictures very often. It’s our least used feature.
investigate if there’s a problem.
I’m pulling a bunch of event data that includes information about my users and the actions they’re taking.
I now see that people aren’t uploading pictures very often. It’s our least used feature.
I might now decide I need to dig deeper, and see how this relates to churn.
I now see that people aren’t uploading pictures very often. It’s our least used feature.
I might now decide I need to dig deeper, and see how this relates to churn.
This shows that churned customers upload fewer pictures. Does this apply to our biggest customers?
I now see that people aren’t uploading pictures very often. It’s our least used feature.
I might now decide I need to dig deeper, and see how this relates to churn.
This shows that churned customers upload fewer pictures. Does this apply to our biggest customers?
I want to build some models to assess its impact.
I want to build some models to assess its impact.
Interestingly, this model shows me inflection points in the data. I can clearly see something happened in late August. That’d be a good place to start looking to fix this problem.
I want to build some models to assess its impact.
Interestingly, this model shows me inflection points in the data. I can clearly see something happened in late August. That’d be a good place to start looking to fix this problem.
I can then build a report or dashboard. Here, anyone can explore my results further.
Data
Data
A blip
Data
Slice!
Data
Dice!
Data
Drill!
Data
Insight!
Drill!
Sales rep
Old sales rep
It works.
www.mode.com
© Mode Analytics, Inc
It doesn’t really work.
Despite the high up-front investment, companies continue to swap out their BI tools every 2-3 years.
IsNateSilverAWitch.com
Oil
Oil
Drill
Oil
Drill
Value!
Drill
Data
Insight!
Data contains value.
Data contains value.
Cleaned, updated, governed, documented,
Data contains value.
$73.3 billion
1.06 billion users
11.9 million at-bats
652 million votes
$73.3 billion
1.06 billion users
300,000 users
Slice?
Dice?
Squint
Up, ish?
bis
big
lie
‘
Data
Data
Insight!
Data
Insight!
Data
E
M
A
H
T
O
Data
E
M
A
H
T
O
Data
Up-ish?
We were promised previously unimagined insights.
And instead we got directional vibes.
We were promised previously unimagined insights.
And instead we got directional vibes.
Data
Insight!
benn.substack
Interpretation
is harder than exploration
BIG
DATA
WILMINGTON