Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
We are excited to announce Wils Corrigan, Ph.D., has joined Anametrix as director of data science. Most recently, Wils worked as a senior data scientist at Geoscape International, where he created demographic datasets by enhancing U.S. government data and consumer surveys. Before Geoscape, he analyzed data at Nielsen Claritas as a core member of the research and development team. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Today, Anametrix CEO Pelin Thorogood talks with Anametrix’s motorcycle-riding director of data science about how he’s driving value for clients.
Wils, welcome to Anametrix. The data-scientist career is considered one of the fast-growing fields, and the Harvard Business Review even went so far as to label the data scientist the sexiest job of the 21st century. What led you into this field?
I hesitate to use the term “field” for data science, if only because an online search produces dozens of different definitions for both data science and data scientists. No one can agree on what it is. In its current use, it is actually a relatively new term. Personally, I see it as a combination of understanding data, statistics, machine learning and – more or less – programming. From my perspective, the field of data science sort of coalesced around me. It was as if suddenly, and rather recently, there was a new term to use for what I was doing.
Growing up, I loved sports, particularly football, basketball and baseball. Beyond watching the games, I always looked forward to the months before the seasons started when the sports magazines came out with all of the statistics from the previous season. I poured over all the numbers, and I knew that there must be something else that could be done with them. But, at ten years old, I certainly didn’t know what that was. After getting my master’s degree in statistics, I sort of had an epiphany where I realized I had become exactly what I wanted to be as a child.
What do you see as the future for this industry?
These days, people and companies have realized that there are vast amounts of data available and have started gathering it more systematically. There is no longer the same lack of knowledge about what is going on because you can actually find out through data. There is an old advertising maxim: half of the money spent on advertising is wasted, but no one knows which half. Now it’s possible to start figuring out which half it is. With the abundance of online and offline data available, marketing departments can get information out of that data and plan accordingly.
The “field” of data science is going to grow and change. There will be continued growth in the amount of data available. As more people and companies realize that there is useful information in all this data, they will find people who can analyze the data and provide insights.
The world is beginning to see the power of predictive analytics. Tell us more about how marketers can use predictive analytics in their campaigns.
First, predictive analytics is just one aspect of analyzing data and is enhanced by combining it with other methodologies. For example, the best predictive models are often terrible at explaining what is going on in a particular situation. Conversely, complicated models might help with an in-depth understanding of a phenomenon but provide only mediocre prediction. Using both, along with data graphics, optimization and other techniques, we can reveal a much more interesting and useful picture.
To answer your question, let’s use an online ad campaign as an example. We would first create a model that would help us understand which ads bring in the most business, are the most profitable, etc. We would fit a predictive model to the historical data and then forecast the most likely outcome. If the prediction is for a bad outcome, the marketers might decide to change their plans to improve this outcome. This would lead us back to our original model to see what works and what doesn’t work. It is all tied together, and it is an ongoing process of model fitting, seeing what is likely to happen and evaluating each scenario.
Tell us about what you’ll be doing at Anametrix as the new director of data science.
I will be helping clients gain information and insights from their data. Once we determine business objectives with the client, I will show them what we should be looking at analytically.
Like any statistician, I will spend time a great deal of time cleaning or scrubbing data, which I call data “sublimation,” using an archaic definition. Almost all data is messy, and all big datasets have problems. One of my tasks will be to evaluate new data and scrub the datasets to make them useful for reporting and analysis.
I will also be creating models for clients, devising efficient and automated processes within statistical software and the Anametrix platform and finding unique ways to help current and new clients.
If marketers have time to do only ONE thing with data science, what would be something they could easily do that would have a high impact on their business?
Pay attention to data quality! An analysis or data graphic can only be as good as the quality of the input data. I like to say that the only thing worse than having no data is having bad data. For a real-world analogy, let’s say you’re on a road trip; you’re driving, and your friend is navigating. Unbeknownst to you, your friend doesn’t know how to get to the destination. Would you rather your friend honestly say, “I don’t know how to get there” or start offering guessed directions? In the same way, results gained from bad data, or even good data with the wrong analysis, is a little better than guessing.
What else should our readers know about you?
When not analyzing or cleaning datasets, I’m often riding my motorcycle, a Triumph Sprint ST, or reading comic books. My favorite comic is Usagi Yojimbo, a story of a rabbit samurai living in late 16th century Japan. As a comic book fan, I do attend San Diego Comic-Con, unless it happens to conflict with the MotoGP or World Superbike championships. Motorcycles take precedence over comic books!
Wils, thank you for talking with us today about data science, predictive analytics and motorcycles. We look forward to hearing more about your work with Anametrix clients.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.