Every Analyst Needs Their First Lemonade Stand
Coming Soon To Non-Fiction
Nothing can teach you more about business than your first paper route… oh, well those don’t exist anymore. Nothing can teach you more about business than your first lemonade stand. Setting up the stand. Picking out the ingredients. Calculating the price. Overestimating demand…
Nothing can teach you more about analytics than your first lemonade stand… Wait, does that not follow for you? Let me explain.
I Remember My First Lemonade Stand
Installing our first point-of-sale system. The one named for a shape — Triangle or Oval or something… Logging our routes in the Day Planner — then having to reenter them each week into that free spreadsheet tool — Open Desktop or whatever it was.
I remember when we integrated that accounting software — FastBooks, it so wasn’t! And of course, we were never so sophisticated to have the GPS tracking, SCM, or CRM software we wanted. But with a lot of hustle and plenty of data entry, we managed just the same. Of course, with all that time working the data, we had to outsource actually manning the stand. Ah, the good old days… right up until we had that issue with the State Labor Board.
LemonAlong Is Purely Fictional, But What If It Wasn’t?
Where do aspiring analysts go to get real world experience? Where can you practice analytics in a way that is cheap, practical, but real… Ok, lemonade stands are only sort of real, but you get the idea.
Technology has done wonders for the Entrepreneurial spirit, but it has added mad complexity to the world of analytics. And while there are certainly some young would-be entrepreneurs getting their hands into some interesting data generated by their homegrown apps or websites, they are no where near as prevalent as lemonade stands. In the world of analytics, they also are not nearly as relevant as they could be — though certainly better than nothing.
Youth today has the opportunity to build, create, program, code, and compete in ways that didn’t exist a few decades ago. Not all of the these opportunities are new, but technology (as often the case) has created — ease, speed, and scale like never before.
This is great for future developers, architects, engineers, and designers. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough for those who will make their living collecting, cultivating, and analyzing data. For starters:
- most lack real-world business connection
- almost all are short term and/or temporary
- few, if any, involve customers
- most is geared purposefully to be “not for profit”
- all lack suitable complexity and real-world feel (these aren’t the systems used at Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, or Walmart)
This is one area where the Xbox and Smartphone generation has fallen short. For all the technology, for all the data — they have lost their lemonade stand.
Over the next decade, when millennials are asked about their first analytic experience, they will name camps, classes, MOOCs, and YouTube videos. Subsequently, they will also talk about massive underemployment, frustration at finding a job, and working at some of the worst analytic shops in history. They will struggle. They will grind. Most will give up and look elsewhere — but those who survive will command great salaries… perhaps that is enough?
Or Perhaps?
Something new is on the horizon — something inspired by smart phones, Xbox, and even some Artificial Intelligence. But also something that looks, feels, and behaves like real-world environments. Here at Corsair’s we are drawing closer to releasing a new lemonade stand… although that is just the start.
My first lemonade stand looked nothing like the one above. But just yesterday, I was mining the POS system of LemonAlong — assuring it will provide the experience aspiring analysts will both need and want. It will be an experience. It will be hands-on. It will fuel tradecraft and much, much more. So stay tuned and thanks for reading.
