Blog
Wringing Data Out of PDFs
What happens if the data you need to analyze comes in PDF forms? This is what I tackled and solved last week. I wrote recently about the frequent need to work with data in the format it comes, but the examples in that blog were already spreadsheet data albeit requiring rearrangement to ingest for…
The Toughest Data Problem
The toughest data and modeling task, as measured by time spent, is usually (drumroll) not logistic or multivariate regression or control charting or building complex visuals or even machine learning. It is just getting data out of unstructured but repeatable forms and into structured tables where…
Data “Straightening”: Our Toolbox is Ready to Help
My 6-year journey with Data Delve LLC consulting has had the (very intentional) side effect of building a suite of generic tools. These are useful and cost-effective for helping small to medium sized businesses with what I call "data straightening" applications. I'm now offering a "data tuneup"…
Data And Modeling Tools – Training Beyond the Basics
It's a challenge to build a personal toolset for working routinely with business and technical data and for doing more advanced analytics and modeling. This blog is an opinionated but hopefully well-informed guide to that. The opinions are based on my decades of corporate experience combined with…
“Courteous” (and Efficient and Accurate) Data Entry
Data entry is a great illustration of making modeling and data software courteous as discussed in a previous blog. However, with the data entry use case, this is not just a nicety. Accuracy and efficiency are necessities for entering panel and other measurements where results are typed in by…
Getting Color Right in Products
Color is a feature of many products’ branding and benefits. Here I discuss how the “easy way” is not preferred for tolerancing color –that is quantifying how close one measured color is to another either for quality control or for quantifying cleaning product efficacy. To do this appropriately in…
Data And Models that Behave Like A Considerate Human
Can a data table or calculation model be designed to be either courteous or rude? They certainly can! Designing for courteous and considerate is a guiding principle for enhancing usefulness of these products –helping customers get insights from their data whether these users are expert or…
Spreadsheet Models…Why Talk About It Now?
Why talk about spreadsheets in the closing months of 2023? This blog answers that question and serves as an intro to a series on spreadsheets’ role in companies, how to use them with excellence and their role in the general topic of personal digital transformation. The series will include sharing…
The Right Modeling And Analysis Tools For the Job
Software tools in the data and modeling arena often lead individuals and teams into counterproductive patterns. By being informed and intentional, you can choose the best tool for a particular job. It’s good to recognize that software providers, meaning companies and open-source communities, keep…
What Data Delve LLC Does for Clients
My Data Delve LLC business comes down to a simple benefit for people I work with. Namely, I help you and your team be more effective at getting insights from your data to grow your business. Here are six strategies I use for this. It is a toolbox from which we mutually pick the right tools. I help…