As an Analytics group that serves a lot of clients directly, we face a lot of headwinds.  I see it all the time from small and large companies alike – do these sound familiar?
 
“Analytics – we’ve got that covered.”
“We already do that here.”
 “We have our smart guys on board.”

To quote Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday in Tombstone, “Well you’re a daisy if ya do.”

And by Analytics, I don’t mean “reporting & dashboards” or spreadsheets.  I mean the real difference makers.  Predictive Analytics, Optimization – you know – the real game changers. The stuff that can fundamentally change your business.  Predicting customer behavior – optimizing your approach.  Spending your marketing $$ millions, or hundreds of millions, to get and ROI of 3, instead of a 2.

Translation – the stuff that will get you an extra $100 million.

But over the years, it occurs to me that I have done a decent job at selling the power of Analytics. People really do get it.  However, I have actually been missing the point.  I’ve been talking to clients and prospects about the wrong thing – I’ve been using the wrong angle. Convinced that my team is the best group in history (which they are, by the way), I have charged in with guns blazing. 

Oops.   

But now I know better.  And my hope is that a few key lessons here will help you folks out there truly assess whether your Advanced Analytics team is getting the job done.  Internal or external – it doesn’t matter.  I don’t care why.  I’m sure I will in a later post, but not now. 

Three words to live by:

Speed.  Speed.  Speed. 

Why?  Your competition is doing the same thing and they are trying to do it better and faster every day. Competition + Better & Faster Analytics = Stealing Your Customers.

To borrow from Vince Poscente, and terribly prescient given the economic times we face – This is the “Age of Speed”. Speed in Advanced Analytics is everything:

1. Speed to suggest problems that Analytics “could” solve, not just the same old problems or approach. If Analytics isn’t proactive, it’s not any good.
2. Speed to build solutions.  I mean fast.  A day.  Maybe days. Not weeks.  Certainly not months. 
3. Speed in recognizing when solutions are “ready to roll”.  People we are dealing with probabilistic reasoning here – it’s never perfect.  Models degrade – they’ll get rebuilt.  Get stuff out the door and working for you.
4. Speed in monitoring Analytic performance – how well are the Analytics working? It depends on your industry, but you should know performance weekly, or monthly.
5. Speed in rebuilding - you already built it once – rebuilding it should be fast. Does your team anticipate “rebuilding” and plan for future data needs, enabling it to pounce when rebuilding is required?    
6. Speed in integration – Analytics should NEVER be the bottleneck.  It should be seamless.
7. Speed in recognizing inconsistencies in the data and  in the results.
8. Speed in shifting methods, and recognizing the next best approach.
9. Speed in understanding business needs – getting to the real problem now.
10. Speed in the ability to design tests to ensure Marketing is effective.

But a firm may say, “There is not enough of us to get it done.  If that’s you, you made my point for me.

You may say, “…but my Analytics team is swamped with other stuff.”  Again – you’ve made my point for me.  You may not believe they should be dedicated to only doing the advanced work, but that’s only because you fail to realize just how valuable the advanced Analytics really is.  It’s game-changing.  Enough with the Excel charts already.

In the harshest terms, you should not care “why” a team is not getting the job done. You must determine if they are or if they aren’t. Companies should care a lot more about the bottom-line issue:  Is the Analytics team getting it done, correctly, right now? This is especially true in the macro-economy of 2009.

Assessing Your Team

There are some other key things to look for to assess your team.  I think what you’ll find though, is if you have answered the questions above – and your team IS THAT fast, that the following is pretty much true:

Education –  A lot of it.  Hopefully applied in business.
Experience – Depends on the position.  But business experience is critical
Communication – If your team members can’t have a normal dialogue with Analytics, then they wont trust the Analytics.  By extension, they won’t use the Analytics.
Passion – Advanced analytical problems are confusing.  Data is frustrating.  Your people better be tenacious about problem solving.

If you are part of your firms Analtyics team – use the above as a diagnostic.  Prove the ROI of your team, don’t assume its known. Plead for more resources.  Insist on Speed, and the best resources to get there.

If you are a firm using Analytics – insist on Speed.  Period.

Stay tuned for the next post.  Some insights into what your Analytics team needs to look like in order to support Speed.