Easton Analytics

Boston-based venture capitalist, Rudina Seseri, is the founder of Glasswing Ventures, and lucky for me, a close friend from my undergrad days.  Rudina has spend her entire career working in or around the tech industry, beginning with a stint with CSFB's Tech investment banking business under Frank Quattrone, (the famous, and then infamous tech investment banker,) followed by an MBA at HBS, and an managerial role at Microsoft.  From there she entered the VC world, first working for one VC and then starting her own. Click hear to listen to an interview with Rudina at a UK tech conference this week:   ow.ly/z1mh30b19MU   Rudina and her host are discussing the future of AI and what VC firms like her own want to see.  Rudina's firm focus solely on AI and machine learning-related businesses. One of the catch phrases the tech industry types likes to use when identifying good ideas and investment opportunities is "disruption."  AI was first invented in the 1950's

For the last three weeks I have been exploring Google Cloud and the GCloud ML (Machine Learning Engine) via a video labeling competition on Kaggle.  I thought I had no expectations other than that it would require me to apply the techniques learned in our Consumer Decision-Making class in a more depth project, and given this was a video classification endeavor there'd be some significant learning.  In fact, one of my expectations, which I took for granted, was that there would be some type of graphic user interface, a la SAS Enterprise Miner.  Initially I expected it to be Google's Tensorboard software, a modeling tool, which so far as I have experienced is not manipulatable, though it appears to be marketed as such. Maybe that comes later in the game. So far I have simply completed the training, but am stuck at building a model.  So here are my learnings for marketers wishing to try this out on their own. 1. Talk about a steep learning curve.  A solid knowledge of Python is

Anyone who is paying half a mind to politics has heard how Obama leveraged social media and business analytics to win the 2008 election.  Set aside, if you will, my admiration for Barack Obama the person, and take note of this very forward-thinking endeavor.  His campaign out-posted John McCain's campaign by 3:1 on social media. By pulling in data from communications channels Obama was able to leverage a reliable method of polling while simultaneously building a database of millions of passionate followers at a relatively early stage in the digital BI game.  I have no qualms with John McCain, but Obama was able to leverage the progressive youth of this nation to win the campaign, and that was not easily or  successfully repeated at a pivotal level by Hillary Clinton, despite what would seem like her obvious political and operational advantages and four years of preparation and hind-sighting.  Does that mean that at the end of the day it has less to do with analytics and social medi

Depending on which survey you read, the skills that you need as a digital marketer are either concrete skill areas (SEO, SMO, Google Analytics, etc), behavioral, or a mix of both.  Here are a few lists I'v run across recently. STANDARD LIST OF DIGITAL MARKETING SKILL AREAS 1. SEO 2. Pay-Per-Click 3.  Mobile 4.  Email Marketing 5. Social Media 6. Content Management 7.  Analytics (*Courtesy of the American Marketing Association) I have deleted their descriptions, which were pretty straight forward, but these field specialties seem rather expected, no? Now compare those points from America's leading marketing association, to this list, summarized from a Mashable survey of experts working in the field. VALUABLE SKILLS FOR DIGITAL MARKETERS ACCORDING TO IN-THE-KNOW EXPERTS 1. Paid Social Advertising Expertise - Be able to develop campaigns and segment those campaigns with iterative customized creative, then run Facebook analytics and insights against those cam

There are a number of analytics providers who have created business intelligence (BI) and analytics platforms.  Some of the big names are IBM's  Watson, Microsoft's Power BI, Tableau, SAS, and dozens of other smaller players.  Business Intelligence tools offer interactive, visually-compelling dashboards of real time or near real-time data accessible from numerous sources and data storage environments.  The tools, which can have a desktop or cloud setting, allow for companies to be FAST and FLEXIBLE in developing and sharing business insights across all types of devices and operating systems, engaging more people than ever within the organization in gathering insights and analysis.  Some companies build one-size-fits-all tools while others have developed for niche use and focus on out-performing in a specific category of the BI market.  As with all new and high-growth markets, the competition for users is stiff and large companies are beginning to buy small businesses in areas

While preparing for this week's long blog, I downloaded a white paper Tableau published entitled, " The Top Business Intelligence Trends for 2017 ."  According to their report, LinkedIn has listed business intelligence skills as one of the hottest skills to get hired for 2016; and beginning in 2017 data analytics is predicted to be a mandatory core competency for all types of professionals.  As much as this may be true as a trending "necessity" for business success (and I acknowledge I have been out of the workforce for a while, which may color my perspective) but I think they are overly optimistic about businesses and workers adaptive capacity.  Here's why. Change is hard and busy professionals, particularly senior ones, are going to have a hard time embracing the hands-on use of this data.  These tools, whether they are Tableau, Watson, SAS,  Microsoft's Power BI, or anything else worth its salt, are a really big deal not just as a tool for how a busin

We've not yet gotten to the skills necessary for being a Digital Marketing Analyst, and I have a feeling that many of you who have spent a large portion of your marketing careers honing your talents for salesmanship and selling big idea campaigns and product concepts, are starting to hyperventilated at how quickly technology is changing your job, and how your work measured. Digital marketing tools are soooo faarrrr away from your specialization that you are wondering how you can make it from here to retirement without having to learn said skills. Or perhaps you'll accept only having to gain a vague command of what digital marketers and digital marketing tools do, so that you don't make a fool of yourself in the board room.  You might even understand enough to place requests with IT for interesting types of data that you've always wished you could know.  Maybe this sounds like you? I'm certain I've had a few bosses that were wired for this outlook.   It is pr

I'm going to be honest with you.  This is a 2-part post about what skills Data Scientists and Digital Analysts need.  Now, I've never worked as either so none of the line items here are informed by my own experience, so you be the judge.  What I can say is that from all of the people I've talked to, and articles I've read, digital analysis, or data science if you are on the more technical side, are rapidly evolving fields.  If you are the type of person who wants to cram for 2-7 years and remain thereafter an expert in your field without constant continued personal learning, swipe right, these roles aren't for you.  I, on the other hand, spent seven years dedicating far, far too much time to coming up with language and pitches that were all essentially the same, selling beauty, luxury, and a vacuous fascination with sparkly items designed to make people feel special.  I am beyond tired of the monotonous view on that treadmill.   So, bring on the learning!  And the c

My first job working in marketing was in 1999 for 3COM. I somehow landed a summer internship, one of about twelve awarded to students from my college by one of our older grads.  I don't remember her name, but she was able to swing getting several of us great paying jobs for the summer and it was an amazing experience overall.  Our 3COM office was at their Silicon Valley headquarters, and we got the full experience of living and traveling in the region, as well as getting to know the software and hardware engineers who defined the company's culture and of course built all their fun toys.  That role was like no other marketing role I've had since though.  The department I was assigned to made routers.  For the entirety of the summer I worked for a Marketing Manager who tasked me with updating the copy in a 3-5" thick brand manual, which was essentially a collection of do's and don't for marketing the product and updating the product's spec as they evolved,