The Data Science Renaissance

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” -Michaelangelo

Renaissance means rebirth. A variety of factors, coming together at the same time, can spark a rebirth. In the analytics world, we are facing a confluence of factors: economic disruption, a great re-skilling, and unprecedented access to data. The combination of these factors is sparking the rebirth of data science, with the expert-led model a relic of the past. History is a great teacher, and demonstrates that this Renaissance is not all that dissimilar from the original.

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Suggesting a 'pilot' is a weakness

This was my observation on Twitter/LinkedIn a couple weeks ago:

Nearly everything I share in such forums is based on actual events/observations, not theory. I didn’t expect any reaction. 82 comments later, I clearly struck a nerve. The interesting thing is the dichotomy of reaction. A portion of people think I don’t understand design thinking, MVP’s, and experimentation. Another portion vehemently agree with my statement. Given the passionate debate, I felt it appropriate to clarify my thinking. The background for this starts with a couple core beliefs I hold.

Belief #1: The job of a business executive is to maximize return on invested capital.

Many companies are myopically focused on growth. Growth is wonderful, but in isolation it ignores the fact that the true value of a business is determined by the discounted value of its future cash flows. The future cash flows ultimately determine what can be distributed to shareholders, and they can be maximized by growth, but also by optimizing profit margins and capital efficiency.

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Everything Starts With Design — You Should, Too

“There is no such thing as a commodity product, just commodity thinking.” — David Townsend



Anthony DiNatale was born in South Boston. He entered the flooring business with his father in 1921 and began a career of craftsmanship and woodworking. In 1933, he founded DiNatale Flooring in Charlestown, working job to job, primarily in the northeast United States. In 1946, Walter Brown approached DiNatale and asked him to build a floor for a new basketball team to use. DiNatale quoted him $11,000 to complete the project, and the deal was struck.

DiNatale quickly went to work, knowing that he had to be cost-conscious to complete the construction, since he had bid aggressively to win the project. He gathered wood from a World War II army barracks and started building. He quickly noticed a problem: the wood scraps were too short for him to take his traditional approach to building a floor. So he began to create an alternating pattern, changing the direction of the wood pieces to fasten them together. He kept creating 5-foot panels, and when he had 247 of them, his work was completed.

Walter Brown was the owner of the Boston Celtics. When the Celtics moved into the Boston Garden in 1952, the floor commissioned by Brown in the year of their founding went with them. The floor was connected by 988 bolts and served as the playing surface for 16 NBA championships between 1957 and 1986.

DiNatale was a craftsman, an artist, a woodworker, but most prominently a designer. He made use of what he had and designed what would become the iconic playing surface in professional sports. The floor became a home-court advantage for the Celtics, as competitors complained about its dead spots and intricacies.

Design is enduring. Design is timeless. And, every once in a while, design becomes a major advantage.

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Joe


"Don't confuse my kindness for weakness." - Joe Schutzman


I was a 26 year old consultant on my first real project in 2000, working for a client in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The project was a mess. We had very little subject matter expertise, even less leadership, and it was going the wrong direction. Joe Schutzman was one of the people that came to the rescue. He brought a sense of calm and composure, and the ability to simplify a complex situation. And, he taught me the difference between being principled and being stubborn.

I've known a number of stubborn people in my life, probably most notably my Grandfather. It doesn't make them bad people, it just makes them, well, stubborn. Sometimes principled people get confused for stubborn, because they are so tied to their belief system. But, there is a big difference.

Joe was flexible on details, but determined on direction. This applied in business, as well as his life. This is the essence of a principled life. He was the champion of the pirate spirt in our team at work. I believe it originally came from the quote, "I'd rather be a pirate, than join the Navy." Regardless of where it originated, it embodied his spirit of never accepting the status quo. He was the consummate transformation agent, which is not necessarily common in someone so principled. There is often beauty in contradictions.

Joe passed away this morning, with his family in Kansas City. He will be missed, as a colleague, friend, father, husband, and sibling. But, his impact will live on, setting the bar for all of us to live a principled life, yet never being afraid to disrupt the status quo. He will be missed by all that knew him.