January 1, 2021

Vision to Action: Turning ideas into actionable and measurable steps

It can be hard to figure out how to turn big picture ideas and goals into actionable and trackable steps. For many things, the “figuring out” lies in a mixture of clarity, and then reframing and rephrasing. Here we take a monetary target and some other information from a business model, and turn it into something that’s doable, measurable, and...

Categories Data Strategy

December 1, 2020

Analyzing customer reviews and other open-ended feedback to hone strategy

Star ratings are an easy way to measure customer sentiment. But if that’s where you stop, you’re missing out on some rich data. Chances are that you’re sitting on an untapped source of data – the text of customer reviews and other open-ended feedback. Why is it untapped? It’s complex, and it can be hard to know where to start, and...

Categories Data Strategy

October 25, 2020

Accessible PDFs: Good for humans, good for automation

If you’ve ever been to a workshop on accessibility – maybe you’re a professor that needs to create accessible materials for students, maybe you’re a business that needs to post accessible documents on your website or provide accessible documents internally – you’ve heard what sounds like a tired cliché: what’s good for people with disabilities is good for everyone. As...

Categories Data Strategy/Tech Stack

October 1, 2020

Where data comes from for data-driven decision making

It’s easy to say you need (more) data in order to understand what’s going on and make decisions. But where does all of this data come from? In this post, I’ll start with an everyday example – and a spurious correlation – before digging deeper into the nature of data. Do correlations and big data give us answers and insights?...

Categories Data Strategy

July 31, 2019

Don’t Be Caught Out by These 6 Hidden Software Costs

The upfront cost of new software tends to be perceived as rather obvious. There’s the money you spend on the actual software purchase (if any) and the money you spend on any required hardware (if any). Folks frequently overlook at least six additional cost considerations that can impact both your future budget and your productivity. #1: Hidden Upfront Cost: User...

Categories Tech Stack

May 31, 2019

How to Find the Best App Ever

People frequently ask me questions like, “What’s the best app for X?” That ‘X’ could mean the “best” CRM, the “best” photo management app, etc. It’s a good question, because there are a plethora of apps out on the market, some free and some not, some lackluster and some brilliant. So, how do you find the best app for a...

Categories Processes & Productivity/Tech Stack

April 30, 2019

Can you afford a $90,000 mistake?

In today’s world, we’ve digitized almost everything, including our invoicing and payment systems. Even so, when we don’t support our data flows with an underlying structure, it can be easy to introduce costly human errors. I recently worked with a training client who was using an electronic payment voucher form, but the form still required manual (i.e., typed) data entry...

Categories Data Strategy

March 31, 2019

Sometimes It’s the Process That’s Missing, Not (Just) the IT

Learning software isn’t always just an IT thing. I’m frequently called in to address what’s been identified as a technical skills deficit, only to learn that the IT skills gap is being blamed for a bigger issue, that is, an underlying process-based skills gap. IT-based skills gaps frequently come in the form of “here’s how this thing works, and so...

Categories Processes & Productivity/Training

January 17, 2019

Sluggish Applications: Is it a Software or Hardware problem?

There’s a fine line between software and hardware, and it can difficult to tell which one is causing your computer’s sluggish behavior. In this post, I present two case studies in which one was being blamed but the other was the cause. Redesigning Sluggish Excel Files TL;DR? Sometimes you need to rethink how you’re using the resources already at your...

Categories Tech Stack

December 7, 2018

Templates, Audit Trails, and Client Confidentiality

A few months ago, I was the client of another business person. At the close of our business, this person sent me a standard business letter (i.e., date, name/address, subject, salutation, body) with the intent of summing up the transaction. A quick review of this letter made obvious that the business person had opened a previous client’s letter with the...

Categories Processes & Productivity/Tech Stack