Weekend Notes

Odds and ends to start another work week with.

Jim Fulton tells us that the Royal Mail strike in the UK was settled yesterday. Per his recommendation, we'll spend a considerable amount of time talking about the impact of mail on a business during my Multichannel Forensics workshop at ECMOD/London next week.

Yes, you read that link correctly. It is a 3.5 hour session on Multichannel Forensics!

If you read technology blogs, then you're probably confused by the content you're reading this year. Since March, blogging died, yielding popularity to Facebook. Now Facebook stinks, and you should focus on Twitter, a glorified instant messaging platform. Maybe it is time to simply focus on what is best for your personal relationships, and in business, focus on what is best for your customer. You might be amazed to learn what happens when you actually speak with people, via a face-to-face in-person interaction!

David Raab tells us that DMNews dumped him as a paid contributor to their publication, ending a fifteen year relationship. I must be one of the most naive businessmen in America ... I freely contributed a dozen articles that they accepted and printed.

Speaking of DMNews, they are hosting an invitation-only morning session at the DMA conference this week, a session where they will introduce the "new" DMNews.

Do you like to hear real-time feedback from folks who attend conferences, or is it annoying? Do you want for me to write about ECMOD next week?

What do you look for when you hire analytics individuals? Here's a sampling of what I look for:

1. Ability to speak in everyday, plain language to business executives.
2. Innovation. I'd like for the candidate to have done something that others haven't done --- even if that means the person added a menu item at the restaurant they worked at.
3. Competence. I like to give a quiz to folks I'm interviewing, to make sure the person actually knows what they are doing. I'll create exercises where the candidate has to write SAS code, or calculate profit per e-mail delivered, or actually create a catalog circulation plan.
4. Humble. I prefer a confident, humble individual over a pundit who spews industry-speak.

What do you look for in an interview candidate?