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August 25, 2006
Anybody can do Analytics!
Many times people will say "Analytics is only for a few really smart people". I think that's actually completely untrue, and is a function of job protection schemes by
some very smart stats people as well as the generally very bad user interfaces provided by most data analysis tools.
Let me use an example to prove my point. There's an awesome dataset out there of 65,000M records (yes, a few more than the 65,000 rows possible to load into Excel) and probably some 20-30 columns of data. It has both numbers, text, and imagery associated with it, and has all kinds of smart algorithms, graphs, etc.
Not only this - it's used by many many people. Way more than any "statistics package" - and by literally any type of user.
And not only this - they use it to create a competitive advantage against both their counterparty in high value transactions, but also to minimize the value of the middle man in complex negotiations
Ok enough of guessing - who am I talking about? Zillow of course! Great real estate site - if you haven't already, you must try it http://www.zillow.com. Literally arming anybody to do quite sophisticated analytics. And why does it work? Because of awesome user interface design and visualization - that allows anybody to use it. Not just to browse data, but to actually become the smarter party in a really important transcation - competing on analytics!
So please, forget this silly argument about analytics being only for a few people. It's a pitiful excuse. Now think about if you had the tools to design/build Zillow-like experiences in minutes and hours rather than months and years? For anybody in your organization, real fast. Wouldn't that be game changing?
Posted by Christopher Ahlberg at August 25, 2006 3:30 PM
