Introducing Win With Data, and why we're making yet another data newsletter

It's all about winning, with data.

The data space is so interesting distracting right now. Our field is rapidly evolving, and consensus has been difficult to attain on nearly every facet of our domain: best practices for doing the work, organizational structure and operating guidelines, optimal tooling setups. And as we navigate the ambiguity of how we should be doing things, it grows increasingly difficult to keep in mind why we’re doing those things.

• We build endless dashboards, without offering interpretation.

• We write elegant SQL, without asking why.

• We construct vast networks of data models, without considering impact or ROI.

As data people, we're in a uniquely powerful position: our technical chops give us privileged access to a world of knowledge invisible to anyone else. Yet we too often focus on more on building skyscrapers in our little world, rather than getting actionable knowledge out of it. Over the past few years in particular, it feels as if there's been a growing rift between popular discourse in data and our raison d’être: driving business impact with data.

This newsletter is our attempt to rectify this. Here, impact will always be top of mind

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. We’ll be discussing a wide range of topics to help you leverage data science and analytics to generate better business outcomes — not just construct paper data stack cathedrals.

Welcome to Win With Data.

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Other things

If you’re based in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’re hosting a casual data community meet-up this Thursday, December 1st. Drop me a line if you want me to add you to the list/a calendar invite!

1. Well, and we'll talk about the occasional interesting thing happening in data - though we’ll do our best to tie it back to ROI.