NEWS

The Dog and Pony Show: Surveys and Time Vacuums

Kevin Henderson — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:23:01 +0000

I’m not a huge fan of surveys. Whether by email or phone (I especially dislike phone surveys), I feel like they are an intrusion on my personal time. The only thing that might lessen my survey pain is if I feel like I’m going to get compensated for it. I’m not talking about the chance to win a prize, I’m talking about a guaranteed prize – like a dollar off on my next trip to Starbucks (my best survey experience to date.)

Season's Greetings from dataMind

Kevin Henderson — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:23:24 +0000

you might be a dataMind if...

Kevin Henderson — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:05:48 +0000

Each month I write to you about using analytics in industry. I discuss something I've learned at Northwestern or how a specific technique can be applied to make an organization better. This month is a little different... instead of focusing on what we know, I chose to focus on who we are. This month also marks the one year anniversary of dataMind. I'd like to say a special thanks to all of you who helped me complete the following statement: "You might be a dataMind if..."

polishing the big data cannonball

Kevin Henderson — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:14:12 +0000

Earlier in my career I had the opportunity to serve on a nuclear powered submarine. My Captain always instilled in me the importance of making good decisions with limited information. He would say that "once you have 51% of the data you need, make your decision, and move on to the next problem." He emphasized that rarely do you need 100% of the data to make a decision, and the more time you spend trying to obtain the data is like spending countless hours "polishing a cannonball."

Predictive Maintenance: Beware of Multiples of 7

Kevin Henderson — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:16:04 +0000

Like many organizational policies and procedures, maintenance practices are inherited from previous generations. When to perform particular maintenance evolutions becomes part of the organizational culture. "Filters are changed every Tuesday." "Inspections are done every Friday." "Liners are always changed on day shift." In response to "this is the way it's always been done," dataMind asks the following question: Why?

Predictive Analytics at NU

Kevin Henderson — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:17:37 +0000

Last March I started taking classes at Northwestern University with the goal of obtaining a Master's in Predictive Analytics. I've almost completed my third course. This newsletter summarizes why I chose the program and a few of the topics I've explored to date.

So my kid wants to go to Harvard. Now what?

Kevin Henderson — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:56:41 +0000

This is what Dr. Eric Fredland and I talked about over lunch in June of 2006. We were trying to better understand the economics of private vs. public education by answering the following hypothetical question: If my kid is accepted to both Harvard and The University of Texas, which should I recommend?

The Overtime vs. New Hire Dilemma

Kevin Henderson — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:43:49 +0000

Overtime policies are a good example of "gut" decisions trumping "logical" ones. Intuitively, overtime seems bad. Logically, it can make a lot of sense. We visualize paying $30 per hour for overtime vs. $20 per hour for regular time. In reality we are utilizing our existing labor resources during periods of peak demand. Contrary to conventional wisdom, overtime is most valuable when you least need it.

The Importance of Outliers

Kevin Henderson — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:28:39 +0000

When I first started studying economics, I remember my professors cautioning us against discarding outliers. They would say that the outlier you're about to omit actually happened. Including it might not give you the model you're looking for, but it occurred, and there's probably a good reason.

The Science of Making Decisions

Kevin Henderson — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:40:57 +0000

This month I had the opportunity to re-connect with you to explain the goal of dataMind and discuss how our services benefit business. I've always been interested in how individuals and institutions make decisions, especially when there's a divergence between feeling and logic. In my experience observing decision-making, "gut" feelings usually trump logic.