DSA Insights

Occasionally, here at Support Analytics, we like to share an experience with you in an effort to pass on some valuable [hopefully] insights.  This is a real story that actually happened a few weeks ago. 

I answered the phone to find a sales person on the other end asking to speak with the head of household, which was my first clue there was going to be a sales pitch coming.  I’m not sure what kept me on the phone because the only thing the caller usually hears at that point is the click of me hanging up.  Reluctantly, I said this was the head of the household (my wife may disagree, but that’s for another post).

After that response, it all became a blur.  The woman talked so fast and word-for-word from a script about how now was the best time to get replacement windows and their company was the best … blah, blah, blah.  I tried to get a quick, “not interested” reply in, but she was so fast in talking, I couldn’t get a word in.  I really wasn’t interested because I just purchased new windows six months ago.  Finally, I tried to interrupt with a, “Miss”, but she wasn’t even fazed.  She kept up at a blinding speed apparently in the “zone”.  Getting annoyed, I said again and louder, “MISS”, which again went unanswered.  Finally, I was really annoyed and just said “STOP” in the phone.  She seemed to be taken back a bit and stopped her tirade.  I informed her that I just bought new windows and was not interested.  Click!

Here is where the lesson comes into play.

If this woman had been nice, spoke in conversation or just a polite manner, I may have shared with her that everyone on our street is probably in the market for new windows because of all the houses are 20 years old with poor initial windows installed.  Also, I may have given her the names of probably five neighbors that I knew were interested in windows.  At almost $20k each, I guess that one call was a missed $100k opportunity for that sales person. 

If she merely asked nicely if I was interested and spoke in a civil manner, I may have shared this information with her.  Those sales probably would have made her year’s quota or at least a nice bonus. 

My guess is that she gets paid by the number of calls she makes or the amount of time she keeps someone on the line, which is a BIG mistake.  Compensation should be based on value and not an arbitrary number that may promote bad behaviors such as this one.  If all else fails, just be nice because it can go a long way.

This video is a little long, but Hans does an excellent job presenting statistical data.  It’s worth the time to watch, trust me.

Happy Independence Day / 4th of July!  Not only is today a great day to celebrate our independence, but it’s also my wife’s birthday.  Happy Birthday!  I hope you take some time and relax from the norm and do something fun!  We will be celebrating the 4th on our new deck with a family cookout and cocktails!

Have a happy and safe 4th and enjoy your long weekend!

This video is a good view for a lazy weekend!  Mixed into the video are some good data/info visualizations with a significant shock factor.  Enjoy and thanks Chris Jordan!

Join in and download Mozilla’s Firefox 3 browser.  I recently switched to Firefox from IE and haven’t really looked back except to transfer my bookmarks.  BusinessWeek claims that they now hold nearly 20% of the browser market share.  Firefox 3 claims to have:

• Many new features like one-click bookmarking and a smart location bar (whatever that is…)
• Added security
• Better productivity like spell check, session restore and full zoom
• Much customization with over 5,000 add-ons

Today is the launch of version 3, so let me know if things don’t look right on DSA Insights with Firefox 3.

Good luck and Godspeed!

Download Firefox 3 here.

RISK

I was enjoying a great round of golf at the Pine Hills (Jones) Golf Course in Plymouth, MA last week, when I came to a dilemma on one of the PAR 4 holes.  The yardage was about 320 with a wide open, but well protected green.  The source of my dilemma was which club to hit.  Do I take out my driver, which I can hit somewhat straight and GO FOR IT or do I go with a 3-wood or low iron and lay up?  Technically, regulation says it’s two shots to get to the green.  But, what do they know?

What would you do?  Without Risk there’s no reward.  Sometimes you just need to go for it! 

COMFORT

Hole #1 at my local golf course (Fairway Hills), where I play regularly, is a very short PAR 4 at about 319 yards.  The right club would be to hit a low iron or a 3-wood, both of which I am struggling with of late.  I often find myself going for the club I can hit the most consistently versus the club I should hit.  You may ask, so what?  In the short term, I may PAR or Birdie the hole using my driver, but over time, I will limit my progression.  Without practice and venturing out of my comfort zone, I will only get so good. 

My suggestion here is to try new things and practice them to improve your value over time!  There are always opportunities to learn new ideas, approaches, tactics, etc. to add to your toolkit or in this case, handicap.

From phdcomics.com, Graduate Student Motivation Level - Visualization.

I love the steep decline immediately after, "realizing just gave 10-minute talk on 6 years of work."

Last weekend I got a little carried away while enjoying some one-on-one time with my daughter. At just over two years old, she was able to design a better dashboard then many of the software vendors in today’s market (shown below). She understands that less is better…

Thinking back to grade school, I remember being introduced to fractions and percentages. Like almost every other person, I think fractions were taught using a pie [cutting] metaphor. e.g. halves, quarters, eighths, etc. If you didn’t learn with the pie, it may have been the candy bar. Either way, if that is how we are taught at an early age, this could explain why pie charts are so prevalent in business, annual reports, presentations, analytics, etc.

Pie charts may be less effective in data visualization scenarios, but when introducing fractions, they are effective.

Besides the fact that these two charts [above] are 3-D, I think they are very Tufte compliant. I can clearly see that the attention span of a two year old dramatically decreases after hour one and hour two (top chart). Also, note the percentage of color used to create the pie chart:

20% Blue

30% Yellow

50% Pink

I can just imagine what we could do with more colors, Photoshop and a larger data set… Forget the zoo animals, I may take this to the next level and start her on bullet charts, bubble charts and thematic maps . With thematic maps, I could reinforce learning of both geography and data visualization in one shot!

Recently, I made an appointment to get a passport for my daughter due to the new restrictions about U.S. travelers vacationing in the Bahamas. If you have ever tried to call the Post Office, you can empathize. The word NIGHTMARE comes to mind. I can’t tell you how many times I had to call just to get someone to answer the phone. I finally got someone to answer the phone and made my appointment for the next Monday at 10:30.

I arrived at the Post Office at exactly 10:30. The passport office door was closed and there was already one person in line ahead of me. Soon after I got in line, a family got in line behind me with their paperwork in-hand. I just assumed that they were running behind in appointments.

The Passport Warden exits his office with a family in tow and asks, “Who had the 10:30 appointment?” Surprisingly, I raise my hand along with the gentleman to my rear. The warden excused himself to get his appointment book (a notepad). When he returned, he said, “Mr. Rose?” I replied, “Yes, that’s me.” He claimed, “I had you down for 10:45″ and ushers the other family in.

I looked to my wife who gave me an icy glare about obviously getting the time wrong. Reading her mind, I said, “I’m positive it was for 10:30.” Finally, we got called in at about 11:00 and started the process, which only took about 10 minutes or so. I had a bad feeling when the Warden mumbled a comment to himself about the Patriots beating the Giants a day earlier. I also noticed Giants memorabilia on his desk. Of course, I just happened to wear a Patriots hat that day.

What really got me upset was when I saw the Warden’s appointment book (remember - notepad) that had in writing “Tony Rose - 10:30″. If it hadn’t been for needing an expedited passport and him controlling the paperwork, I would have immediately called him on his mistake. I could imagine telling him that he was wrong and finding my daughter’s paperwork in the wrong outbox (recycle bin).

My message here is this; if he had said, “I’m sorry, but I have inadvertently double booked. Who was here first?” All would have been well, even if I got there after the other family and still had to wait. Everyone makes mistakes. But, when you lie, making someone feel stupid thinking they can’t record the right time, that’s flat out wrong! I have made mistakes (though rare), but always take ownership, apologize and never make that mistake again. It goes a long way when you don’t try to lie, finagle, back pedal or play the blame game. Be humble, honest and never compromise your integrity.

[Stepping off soapbox]

2007 Best:

1) Al Gore’s presentation - An Inconvenient Truth. Yes, it was complete in 2006. However, it wasn’t until after winning an Academy Award in February 2007 that it became popular. It truly is a visual masterpiece! Also, I believe he used Apple’s Keynote software to develop the presentation.

2) Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning , by Davenport & Harris. I’ve said it before, get it and read it.

3) New York Times - Simply for the two InfoVis pieces below. If you haven’t seen them already, check ‘em out!

1. Naming Names - Debate
2. Debate - Analyzing the transcript

4) Tableau Desktop 3.5 - Arguably the best data analysis and visualization tool on the market.

2007 Worst:

1) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart. I am probably in the minority group for not liking Super Crunchers. Maybe if I didn’t first read Tom Davenport’s, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, I may have had a different opinion.

The summary on the left is Super Crunchers. The one on the right is Competing on Analytics . I wouldn’t bet my house on Amazon’s reviews, but the ratings may support my opinion of the book.

It had some repetitive examples and I just found it lacking pizzazz. Since I’m not a quitter, I finished the book with the thought that it’s probably worth the $15 (3 Starbucks trips). Although, I don’t think I would recommend it like I have Tom’s book.

2) Microsoft Office 2007 (Office 12) was released on January 30, 2007 with a new look and feel, but still had the same old problems. Yes, it can handle more data, but the data visualizations are still lacking, the default charts are horrid and in-cell graphing is flawed.

3) Proliferation of gaudy dashboard applications (chart bling). I won’t name any specifically, but type ‘Dashboards‘ in Google and take a look for yourself. Gaudy, gauges, pies, background images - developers trying to cram as much as possible into one piece of software without understanding what the users really need to be effective.

For 2008, I want to discuss Intelligent Business versus Business Intelligence.

Happy New Year!