On data quality

I believe that the single easiest and more impactful thing you can do to improve your analytics is to check your data quality. Sometimes, however, ensuring quality data can have a direct impact on improving your business results. Case in point, I have a client whose business depends on the accuracy of personal information given to them by their customers. However, they did no address verification on the data; they took whatever information that was provided with out checking its accuracy. We just did a check on the quality of their data. Turns out over 20% of the people do not give accurate personal information. This is an easy fix: Put in an address verification system to make sure that at least the address they get are valid. If someone is going to make up an address, at least force them to give you a valid address. This can only make the problem better.

Best Electoral Prediction Site

One of the things that drives me nuts during campaign season is the reporting of national polls. There is a little thing called the Electoral College, CNN. Ever heard of it? You need to look at the state level polling. Problem is, the state level polls are often conflicting. The margin of errors can be large or the results not reliable due to bias in the polling methodology. What is a political junkie to do. Go to Five Thirty Eight. This is the best site I have seen on predicting the outcome of the election. In fact, if you had asked me how to predict the election, I would have suggested something like this. Note that they don't say who is going to win, but the probability of a win by either candidate.