In many cases, machine learning needs to be deployed to augment human decision making, not automate it. What are you doing to account for this dependency on the success of your data product?
Self-reflecting on #BLM, the makeup of my podcast guests to date, racism, and the responsibilities of consultants with platforms and audiences in fighting injustice.
I performed a rapid UI/UX and data visualization audit on the MITRE Covid-19 Healthcare Coalition Decision Support Dashboard. Watch it here, and see my recommended design changes the team should make.
How to avoid spending 6-8 months on a technically right, effectively wrong model. Are you successful with ML if nobody uses your solution, model, or application?
Covid-19 presents a major disruption to our lives and businesses. However, sanitizing your hands isn’t the only thing you data leaders need to be considering. Your data product, dashboards, or UI may also need to be cleaned up. No hard-to-find Clorox wipes needed; just some good design thinking centered around your customers.
My conversations and research suggest that individual contributor UX designers and data scientists share one thing in common: it’s often a challenge to “get to do the job I was hired for.” People, process, and political roadblocks at every turn—so what can you do about it if this is you? And if you’re managing these people, what are you doing to ensure these people don’t leave?
It takes more than math and technical skills to develop simple, useful, and usable decision support solutions. It starts with problem clarity, customer empathy and…
It takes more than math and technical skills to develop simple, useful, and usable decision support solutions. It starts with problem clarity, customer empathy and…
It takes more than math and technical skills to develop simple, useful, and usable decision support solutions. It starts with problem clarity, customer empathy and…
How should we be innovating in AI? Work backwards from in-shape data? Or start with a vision for how we’ll create value for the customer or organization?
You got the data. Your model rocks. Your analytics are impressive. But, do customers see indispensable decision support….or a metrics toilet?
Today I want to tell you why your ugly, clunky, hard-to-use data/AI product or analytics solution should scare you. But first, you, your boss, your customer, your stakeholder—somebody—has to pass that judgement on it. They probably have, but don’t expect it to necessarily come out in the words you may expect. Just as most designers (in … Read more
One trend in analytics and data science I am hearing from the top thought leaders in this space is that (finally!) companies are realizing that the biggest opportunities for data that lay before us is in the pursuit of new products or enhancing existing ones, as apposed to solely focusing on incremental operational improvements. Gartner’s … Read more
As Seen in the Book: 97 Things About Ethics Everyone in Data Science Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts 1st Edition The essay below was eventually published as the #2 essay in this 2020 O’Reilly publication by Bill Franks. Buy Now License our latest AI automation platform now, and get a free “Ethics Power … Read more
This is a two-part article focused on “what” to ask users of data science solutions and data products, and how to ask/conduct these types of research sessions. In part one, we will look at the “what,” and part two will cover the “how.” Human-centered design for data products and data science solutions doesn’t happen without … Read more
A few years ago when I started DFA, I wrote this article that aggregates many of the studies on failure rates for big data, analytics, and now AI projects. It serves as a reminder that you can keep throwing money at data projects, but if you don’t focus on the people involved, you can easily … Read more
Technology-driven projects that do not center around human needs continue to fail at a high rate. Here are the continued numbers to back it up.
There’s a lot of buzz about analytics translators these days. In general, I find the name to be a really poor choice for what effectively is a product management role applied to internal data science or analytics services. But, I think the skills are really important. The question is, do you really need another role/headcount, … Read more
This post is from Brian’s weekly mailing list. As I write this, I’m heading off to London for another edition of O’Reilly’s Strata conf. If you are headed there, you can catch my talk and mini-workshop on Wed, May. With the schedule this week, in lieu of writing a longer insight piece, I thought I … Read more
A UX and UI framework for designing effective decision support software applications that leverage data science and analytics.