Magnetic Data Science

SQL, Python, Tableau and/or PowerBI. As a data analyst, knowing when, where and how to use each of these in the analysis pipeline from source to stakeholder is a superpower few posses. If you can throw an automated pipelining tool like Fivetran in there, it'll multiply your efficiency. #analytics #data #datascience

Magnetic has officially entered its 4th year of business. 🎉 We're already up 30% vs last year. I've learned more in the past 3 years than I could have ever imagined. Here are three big ones: 1️⃣ Time & Attention > Money I've always thought of money as a finite resource. It's not. What is finite... Time and attention. Money is a tool to buy back time and attention. 2️⃣ Stress is never-ending There has never been a point where the stress level subsided. I've stopped with the whole... "If I just get over this one hurdle, everything will be better" mentality. It's a waste of time. I've learned to live in it... To trust the process. 3️⃣ This is terrible and amazing I wouldn't recommend this way of life. It's lonely, stressful, and will have you settled in the imposter-syndrome mentality, pretty much permanently. But... It's also amazing. Extremely rewarding. And for those with that special kind of crazy, it's the only way. #entrepreneurship #analytics #founder

The projects at Magnetic Data Science keep coming! I'm going dark for another couple weeks to focus and grind.

Coaching youth sports (almost 10 years now) is the most frustrating thing I do. It's also the most rewarding... Here's how: ⚾ Communication On a team of a dozen 12 year old girls, you get all types. And when they're hot and frustrated with how they're playing, you better be sure your communication is on point... Because they're experts at exploiting your weaknesses. 🙃 Oddly enough, this is the same in the business world... It might actually be easier there. As a 40 year old guy, nothing in the business world is as bad as getting put in your place by a 12 year old. ⚾ Discipline I'm a business-owner, there are weeks I easily put in 80-hours. Adding practices and games on top of that is not something I necessarily want to do. But when we're packing up and walking off the field, I'm always happy we did it. Every single time. There's some recharge affect that takes place in that 1-2hrs. This is the case in a lot of the things we know are good for us. ⚾ Relationships The biggest intangible is the genuine relationships I get to build with these kids. I'm one of the few dads at school functions that has these relationships, where the kids will actually come up and say hi. At sporting events, I also have the inherent permission to give them tips that I know will trigger them to do better in other sports, and they listen. It's hard to explain this one, but it's big. ❗So, if you get the chance to coach, or help coach, do it. It's going to be nerve-racking, extremely frustrating and you're not going to want to do it. But the benefits on the back-end substantially outweigh all of that. #coaching #life #contribute

The newest way ChatGPT is changing my life... Reading books for me. I'm notorious for buying books and never reading them. I have quite the stack built up. So here's what I do instead: - Buy the digital version (PDF or ePub) - Upload it to ChatGPT and ask it to read the book - Ask for a detailed summary of the key insights - Then ask for specifics on the things I'm interested in This has been a complete game changer. I can skip all of the fluff in most books, and get only the info I really need, in less than an hour of conversating with ChatGPT. Try it!! #ai #machinelearning #chatgpt

A life-changing shift in perspective... Think about money in terms of time. Stop thinking about it in terms of stuff / experiences. This didn't come for me until I started a business (or maybe it was age) and finally realized that time rules all. #business #money #time

We normalize data to find risks and opportunties in complex systems of distribution... So we can be smarter about how we allocate the resources we have. #cpg #retail #analytics

Data Normalization This is the tool we use the most to find hidden insight in complex retail, restaurant and even ecommerce systems. Here's a simple example: The chart on top is showing total sales by state for a national brand. This chart looks the same for pretty much all national brands. CA, TX, FL are almost always the high sales states. But in the bottom chart... We've normalized that same data for population of the state. Think of that chart as units-per-thousand-people. Now we have a different lense into sales performance. It's no longer CA, TX, FL as our big states... It's TN, LA, ME, even OK! You can see how, regardless of the business, you may start to think differently about how well a given market is performing. In this case, you might look at TX and reasonably infer that you have opportunity to grow there... Where in the top chart you may not come to that conclusion. Again, a simple example to demonstrate the point... There are a TON of ways to normalize all kinds of data. The point is, we're evaluating things on a different scale, migrating the various attributes to a level playing field, which brings light to their real differences. Very few people do this. #cpg #retail #analytics

Hiring contract-based data scientist(s)! I'm looking to add one or two media mix modeling experts to the Magnetic Data Science roster. This is on a freelance / contract basis. Work when you want, where you want! I'm looking for people with experience in Bayesian-based #MMM in #Python. Specifically with #pymc and pymc-marketing (this is what I like, but I could be swayed I guess) Our MMM projects are specific to the consumer space, in multi-unit systems of distribution with location and/or market level data alignment. All B2C, no pure-ecommerce (at the moment), no direct attribution. We've currently got 4 active MMM projects, at varying stages of development, in varying industries. You do not need major experience in data engineering, pipelines, etc. Specifically looking for expertise on the modeling side. If this is you, or you know someone... Shoot me a DM!

There are two fundamental principles of microeconomics that drive all of the analysis I do... Literally all of it. ❗ Supply & Demand ❗ I've got a marketing team right now that came to me with a demand issue. At least that's what they thought. 🤔 Particularly in certain markets, sales were low. Client thought it was because they didn't have enough of the right consumers in the struggling areas, or something was wrong in the ad strategy. That wasn't the case. We asked a lot of questions and looked at a lot of data... Ultimately identifying a hidden supply issue that was making it difficult (in some cases impossible) for these consumers to purchase. Fix this supply issue = Fix the demand issue. Especially as a marketing or sales group, it's super easy to be so focused on driving demand that we forget about supply. If supply is broken... Demand will be broken. Unfortunately the hard part is that these supply issues can be incredibly difficult to find, and a lot of times you stumble upon them by chance. We've got some methods that tend to work pretty well in bringing them to light, which I'll share tomorrow! #cpg #analytics #microeconomics