@PDX_SNUG held a full day gathering today at United Way downtown. It was a blast. The crowd was friendly and social. Surprised myself and won the ice breaker “Bingo” game. Got a 2019 Dreamforce knapsack!
What did I learn?
New Info:
– The four admins I talked to – none had their certification
– Near all the orgs are bouncing between Classic & Lightning
– Non-profits really use SFDC differently than sales organizations
– A new term: Technical Debt – it hurts
– Automation gets better and better: Flow!
Reinforced:
– Track & measure business processes in ways easy on users
– Keep the Data cleaned up
– Be a net add to the organization
– Everyone is a customer: Staff to Management to Board to Donors
– Let the data/organization tell its story: Dashboards
– I learn something from everyone

Portland’s active Tech scene is well represented with many Meetup.com events. Dynamic Talks Portland recently hosted Peter Graven, Head Data Scientist at OHSU. His low-key approachable style was noted. Also, his explanation of his successes were based on soft skills.

My paraphrasing a few of his points:
– Expect the business question addressed by the model to change dramatically
– Carefully introduce customers to the model
– Watch a few early adopters use the model – likely in unexpected ways
– Help the customers incorporate the model into their efforts and processes

– Yes, the usual intense data prep and modeling efforts are the foundation
– One needs to work with people at all levels of the organization

His presentation was excellent!

I recently stumbled upon this graphic in an advertisement for WalkMe software.
Goodness, did it bring back memories of my staff trainings at IBM and NAVEX Global. Quickly realized that providing compassionate and discrete applications of relearning, with clear materials, are best then staff know I have their back. Also, because I’ve relearned topics too!

As one of my goals is to improve my communication – here’s a neat TED talk on the topic. Then Dominic Walliman uses his advice to explain quantum physics!
1) Start off in the right place: what your listener already knows
2) Don’t go too far down the rabbit hole: explain three key points
3) Go for clarity over accuracy: establishing a basic understanding
4) Explain why you think your subject is so cool:

Admond Lee recently posted on KDnuggets.com, “Top 10 Data Science Leaders You Should Follow.” Here they are!
1 – Randy Lao – Teaching Data Science via LinkedIn, Data Science Dream Job and ClaoudML.com
2 – Kyle McKiou – Also part of Data Science Dream Job and via LinkedIn
3 – Kirill Eremenko – founder of SuperDataScience.
4 – Favio Vázquez sharing on LinkedIn and YouTube Data Science Office Hours
5 – Eric Weber – Principal of Data Management & Data Science at CoreLogic
6 – Kate Strachnyi – Author of The Disruptors: Data Science Leaders and YouTube Story by Data.
7 – Tarry Singh – founder and CEO of deepkapha.ai
8 – Imaad Mohamed Khan – data scientist at Indegene
9 – Andreas Kretz – with the Youtube channel:  Plumbers of Data Science
10 – Andriy Burkov – director of data science at Gartner and author of The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book.

I’m becoming a fan of Neil.
– He gives marketing advice via podcasts and videos. A lot of advice.
– He talks fast and has a great sense of urgency.
– He has great deal of substance too.
Example: Doing SEO for a Tiny Website
Check him out!

There are a number of certifications I’ve been pondering. One of them is for PowerBI. Here is an article by Phillip Guglielmi on 1/9/18 “Preparing for the PowerBI certification exam.” He breaks the process down into a clear process.

Who should take the exam
What tracks are available?
Exam basics
Scheduling the exam
Preparation options
Skills measured

As everything revolves around mobile apps, Andy Cotgreave at Tableau poses “five questions to ask when designing a mobile dashboard” from a standard one on August 15, 2019:
1 – Do you need a mobile version?
2 – Do you need all the KPI’s on your mobile dashboard?
3 – Should it be portrait or landscape?
4 – Should it fit on one screen?
5 – Which text can you remove?