Writing
Notes and essays on data, AI, and building businesses.
Things I've written down, partly to think them through, partly because they keep coming up in conversation. Most of it overlaps with the book.
29 Aug 2023
That's all for now, folks.
That's a wrap on the essay roll-out. If they hit home, grab the book — 288 pages of human-written ideas on data done right.
27 Aug 2023
Measurement Plans – The Missing
Why a Measurement Plan is the document most marketing teams skip — and a practical structure for building one in Google Sheets.
24 Aug 2023
Personalisation Strategy in a Nutshell
A simple matrix for picking a personalisation strategy that actually fits your business, plus how to summarise it on one card.
22 Aug 2023
Data Sovereignty, TickTock and The Cold War
Where your customer data lives, who really owns it, and why data sovereignty now matters for every marketer — not just governments.
19 Aug 2023
Apples to Apples and GA4
Most data isn't wrong, it's just answering a different question. How to compare metrics like-for-like, especially across GA3 and GA4.
17 Aug 2023
It Comes from the Top – or Not
Most data dysfunction starts with missing or unloved SMART strategies at the top. Here's why that breaks everything downstream.
15 Aug 2023
The Divide
How to structure data and analytics teams across two tracks — engineering and strategy — without one quietly swallowing the other.
13 Aug 2023
Cookie Monster Forever
Third-party cookies are dying but tracking isn't. What the cookie apocalypse actually means for marketers, and how to prepare.
10 Aug 2023
Solution Design for Marketers
The Solution Design is the living blueprint of your MarTech stack. What goes in it, who owns it, and why marketers need one.
8 Aug 2023
The Pillars of Personalisation
The Pillars of Personalisation framework: how to climb the Analytics Maturity Curve without skipping the foundations underneath.
6 Aug 2023
Let's (First-PARTY) Data.
Post-pandemic, first-party data is the asset every marketer talks about. What it really is, and how to start collecting it well.
17 Jul 2023
Hey Mr 'iNsErT cUsToMer NaMe'
Personalisation done badly is worse than none at all. A short note on broken merge tags and the local-market test.
11 Jul 2023
Levelling-Up
The vital tasks for moving from analytics maturity level 1 into levels 2 and 3, without skipping the unglamorous middle work.
5 Jul 2023
The Two Tracks
What I look for in data and analytics hires across the two tracks — engineering and strategy — and why most teams confuse them.
4 Jul 2023
The Forgotten Role of the 'Marketer'
Data and analytics work can feel disconnected from marketing itself. A reminder of what the marketer's job actually is.
4 Jul 2023
Leveraging the DIKW Pyramid
Russell Ackoff's DIKW pyramid, applied to modern marketing: turning raw data into information, knowledge and useful wisdom.
4 Jul 2023
Reporting vs. Dashboarding
Reports and dashboards aren't the same thing. Who needs which, and how to stop confusing the two inside your organisation.
4 Jul 2023
Off-the-Shelf or Off-Track
Buy MarTech off-the-shelf or build your own? A practical way to decide, and the trade-offs most teams discover too late.
4 Jul 2023
Predictions and Reflections
Will our data always be f**ked? A look at the forces likely to shape analytics, AI and marketing measurement over the next few years.
4 Jul 2023
Prediction 2 – Track 2 Has More Distance
Why the strategy and analyst track will outlast the data engineering track as AI keeps eating routine technical work.