Category Archives: Survival Skills

Survival Skills

Refresh Your Mind: Getting Started in Data Strategy

Spring is in the air and these podcasts, readings, videos and tips will breathe new life into your arsenal of survival skills. We’ve hand-picked our top 5 geared for anyone starting in Data Strategy, or looking for a gentle refresher.

Top Podcast

If you listen to one Podcast about COVID vaccine hesitation, listen to this ~8 min episode of More or Less by the BBC. In “Deciding When to Suspend a Vaccine,” Tim Harford explores why we often misjudge risk by confusing coincidence with causality, and the dilemma regulators face balancing public health with pure science.

Top Article to Read

Why Data Culture Matters, McKinsey Quarterly Sept 2018. Alejandro Díaz, Kayvaun Rowshankish, and Tamim Saleh. Since its publication in 2018, this article has been in our go-to bookmark folder whenever Data Strategy rears its head. With its focus on making clear business decisions, common red flags to watch out for, and a rich articulation of the breadth of roles necessary for success, this article is foundational reading for the Data Strategy leader.

Top Tip in Tableau

This tip from Robert Saunders answers a question that has plagued us for a year: how can I create a way to quickly focus a date range based on an observable data point? Apparently we weren’t the only ones who didn’t know about a “brush filter” and you can download Robert’s example from Tableau Public to see how it’s done.

Top Video in Alteryx

One of the first steps in a Digital Transformation is confronting the rats’ nests of Excel workarounds scattered around the company. We’re big fans of Alteryx for its support of citizen Data Scientists and for offering an escape from Excel Hell. This series of ten interactive videos (5 min each) has been on our list of cornerstone intro videos for Analysts of all skills and ability.

Top New Tool

It’s way more than a virtual sticky-note board. And while not a new tool per se, MURAL found a special place in our hearts for helping guide those sticky Data Strategy conversations with lots of stakeholders. Before meetings, we design a custom canvas in MURAL for brainstorming on subjects like Data Governance. Participants add stickies in real time along a predesigned path, preventing meetings from getting stuck indefinitely.

Listen to this, Survival Skills

Take a Walk with these Statistical Podcasts

Whenever the weather permits, I choose to walk the 45-minutes to work along the streets of Boston. In addition to enjoying the sunshine, I have found a number of statistics-themed podcasts to listen to along the way that are insightful and enjoyable for listeners of any background.  Here is a shortlist of some of my favorites: 

Stats + Stories (NPR)

Stats and Stories hosted by John Bailer and Richard Campbell is “about the statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the statistics.”  Weekly, 30-min episodes explore quantitative ideas in our daily lives and feature distinguished professionals and scholars presenting their research, work products, or just bubbling new ideas. Some recent topics I really enjoyed include the reproducibility crisis in biomedical research, the statistics behind aging, and ways to make forensic science more scientific.

More or Less: Behind the Statistics (BBC Radio 4)

More or Less is instantly addictive. Hosted by Tim Harford, a brilliant economist and award-winning journalist, this podcast is devoted to explaining the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. Episodes are issued several times a week and last between 10-25 minutes. The focus is on explaining, or debunking, the statistics reported in the news, political debates, or just daily life.  I especially enjoyed the episode that raised awareness of the historical lack of women in clinical trials and the one that questioned the Chernobyl disaster death count (this topic hit home with me as I grew up in Ukraine).

Planet Money (NPR)

Planet Money is an “economics-for-dummies” podcast and one of my long-time favorites!  Episodes are brilliant, engaging, and are just the right length (20-25 min) for an easy listen.  They come out twice a week and explore complex topics on latest events in global economy in fun and accessible way. Originally launched during the financial crisis of 2008 as a series of episodes trying to make sense of the Great Recession, today Planet Money is still going strong and continues to provide insights into everyday events with an economics angle.

In addition to my three favorites above, here are some runner-ups:

Microsoft Research Podcast is a rather technical full-length podcast that comes out every week and covers the company’s investigations into new cutting-edge tech research.

The R-Podcast: Authored by Eric Nantz, a Research Scientist at Eli Lilly, this podcast helps me keep up-to-date with the latest news in the R/RStudio world.

ASA Biopharm’s Podcast is a monthly podcast that features leaders from pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies talking about upcoming statistical conferences and events, and discussing current issues in Biopharmaceutical statistics.