Focus on the basics [data edition]

If you've ever played an organized sport you'll be familiar with your coach's incessant mantra about focusing on the basics. That, and a sadomasochistic love of cardio conditioning drills with cute names like cross court suicides.

It turns out that your coach was actually passing on valuable life data analytics skills.

Not sure where I'm going here? Hear me out - I promise it'll be worth your minute.

If you were to ask me what my number one pet peeve is in the data industry, I would have to say it's the issue of unrealistic expectations for new analytics projects.

Source: Tenor

These expectations are often subtle. After all it's not like someone demands to see a business case for justification to build a new dashboard. 

No, instead these expectations often come in the form of pet projects littered with buzzwords like #AI, #ML, #neuralnets, #deepneuralnets, etc.

Every wants to be associated with the sexy projects for a whole host of reasons, but I think it comes down to just wanting to hang out with the cool kids. Or to at least make your boss think you do.

However, just like the rookie backbencher who decides to go all in with a skyhook 3-point shot from centre court, the only thing that matters is whether the ball ended up in the hoop.

Source: Giphy

Bear with me - I promise to bring this back full circle. I promise.

What if I told you that 95% of the companies we talk to have issues centralizing their data, and that done properly good data infrastructure practises can improve every aspect of reporting, analysis, #ML, #AI, #neuralnets, #deepneuralnets, etc.

What percentage of prospective clients do you think jump on the opportunity to do that kind of project?

It's definitely not 95%, I can tell you that. Don't press me for a number here because I'm sure you would see it as a poor reflection on our ability to sell the value of boring data infrastructure projects. What I can say is that we often have to tie these unsexy projects to sexier reporting projects to get client buy-in.

I can also guarantee that if a client chooses to ignore delay these infrastructure projects, we still end up addressing them at some point in the future where they inevitably cost more.

So I truly sympathize with basketball coaches who struggle to get their players to focus on the basics.

And I'll just keep grinding it out, working to convince my audience to do the same.