In the analytics arena, we love to discover and to share new tools. A recent article in DataScienceCentral was titled, “40 Techniques Used by Data Scientists.” (see: http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/40-techniques-used-by-data-scientists) That much hubbub must surely give us a tool or solution to any fundraising problem that we have. However, those of us who love to identify new tricks don’t always have the right tool in hand when our internal clients ask for help. There is a divide separating our data toys from our clients’ solutions.
I’m one of the many data analysts who are running around talking about all the nifty toys that we can use for analytics. When I teach analytics, my message goes something like this:
- Using a tool like Random Forest, you can…
- [missing information here]
- …And therefore your organization will do much better
Meanwhile, when I am consulting with clients, they are saying to me:
- For my organization to do much better, we need to…
- [missing information here]
- …In order to make our annual fund more efficient
See the difference? The client wants us to figure out which tool to use; we want to play with new tools all the time. Okay… well, I do.
Then there are the times that we get entrenched in using one tool. I remember teaching a class on analytics with Joshua Birkholz, some ten years ago now. I introduced decision trees to the audience. It was a first for them. Now I and other analysts have leap frogged that and moved onto much more sophisticated data mining techniques, including data mining techniques like forest and trees, and modeling methods like Naïve Bayes. But a lot of us still head to the linear regression slot in our toolbox first or last in our work: It’s the tool we first learned to use.
So, given that we are sometimes tool crazy and sometimes stuck on one tool, are we really taking care of our clients? Do the Data Science Central articles named “More than 100 data science, analytics, big data, visualization books” (see: www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/more-than-100-data-science-analytics-big-data-visualization-books) really help, or do they distract us from making our clients’ workday more efficient? I have two allegories to help think about these questions.
The first is my use of my microwave ceramic bowl with the chimney on top. The ecstatic man on my TV showed me lots and lots of dishes I could easily make in my microwave using this dish. Instead, I use it only to make single-serving microwave cake for that occasional cake craving.
The second is the time I walked into a Tru Valu hardware store to buy screws to make a bookcase. The salesman asked me what I was using the screws for, and I answered him, rather resenting his questioning. He told me that I wanted a drill bit as well, “Or you’re gonna’ be making that bookcase for a long time.” And I needed a counter sink. That day I learned about counter sinks and I still, to this day, make excellent bookcases with countersunk screws.
Let’s, then, take a look at some examples of what our internal clients ask us for, and then a statistician’s translation of what I think they mean. Using these, you can move from being just a data analyst to being a problem-solving consultant. In the end, a problem solver is really who we all want on our team. Take a look at these:
- Your organization’s top officer asks, “Are we doing analytics?” Translation: His or her board has businesspeople who want your organization to do the cool stuff. You are especially prone to this question after your top brass come back from a conference. Your answer: “Yes.” No details unless you are asked for them.
- Your major gifts head asks: “Tell me exactly how you arrived at this new list of prospects.” Translation: He or she is insecure and doesn’t like to trust a black box (the trust thing is not about you). Your answer: “We used several sophisticated techniques to arrive at this list.” And then disengage. I have gone down way too many rabbit holes trying to answer that question.
- Your gift officer group says, “Yeah, but your magic model doesn’t tell us who will give on the first ask.” Translation: They are either saying that they want to see more detail about the characteristics of the better donors or they are putting up a block so they don’t have to take new prospects. Your answer: “Great idea. Let me work on that suggestion and get you a propensity score.”
- Your campaign director says, “We are really short of prospects for the building campaign.” Translation: Find new building campaign prospects. Your answer: “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll work on that.” Then go work on that.
- Someone watching your presentation asks, “Isn’t this creepy?” Translation: This person is asking himself, “Is Amazon doing this to me, too?” Answer: “No. This is approaching people who are more likely to want to engage with us and leaving people alone who would rather not engage with us.”
Getting the gist? Listening to the full story from a client is a great way to get where he or she is coming from. I am often guilty of going for the answer right out of the gate, but sometimes it’s just a matter of discerning the modeling or mining question from it. Someone complaining on the elevator or in the break room about lack of constituent engagement is telling you that there is a problem you can solve. Listen first, then suggest that you can try a project.
Our clients don’t talk like we do. Gift officers want to tell the story of this particular prospect or that. They want to communicate with us face to face or by phone. We like to look down at our notes and get out of the room as fast as possible. Sitting back for a minute and letting our clients open up allows us to drill down to the real question on their minds.
We are learning in management classes that we need to work on our empathy. When I am prospecting, analyzing, training, or consulting, I try to see from inside my client’s mind. And my gift officers are my clients. The best answer you can give to any internal client – gift officer or top officer – is this: “I can take of that.” But know what you’re taking care of. Even echo back what you’re hearing to start building buy in. It’s worth the work.