Lessons From The Line
The First Week of TradeCraft
Name your company after corsairs and you can hardly be surprised when you launch a platform and start to wonder who is boarding who. I had done this all before. I was a software developer during the dotcom craze, but this has been really different.
The platform is broader, the experience less structured, and the user base has more diversity than … well, a pirate crew. Couple with that a shoestring & bootstrapped budget, our maniacal passion for experimental design, and some early AI which is already developing a sense of humor — and well, you are starting to get a sense of what is going on here.
Just one week ago, we opened our new TradeCraft platform for BETA testing. TradeCraft is an analytic simulator designed to provide aspiring analysts with access to real-world data. It is a platform that enables users to build hands-on experience with the systems, tools, and techniques used in real-world business situations. Demand was everything we had hoped.
In less than two weeks, we had recruited dozens of volunteers. College students and professors, recent analysts and twenty year veterans were all among the many who signed up. It would be hard to ask for a more diverse group, nor a more representative group of testers. The consequences have been entertaining.
Analytics draws a diversity of experience and talent. It is one of the things that makes it so special. That said, it also creates a diversity of opinion and perspective. In just the first week of testing, this has led to passionate feedback from our users. One recent battle revolved around our usage of varied spreadsheet technologies. Never did I imagine that so varied a set of opinions could be held about anything so innocuous as Excel. And yet, there it was. Perhaps not as bloody as a sea battle, but it was certainly as blustery as a broadside.
It seems in some analytic circles — Excel or any spreadsheet functionality is deemed unreliable, if not dangerous. It is an opinion I have experienced in the industry, but I was unaware how rooted this sentiment actually was in some niches and specializations. I was far more prepared for the opposing view — why teach any spreadsheet technology other than Excel? Why waste people’s time? It all created some interesting tension. Read more here.
That diversity of opinion actually extenuates many of the issues that create the data divide — the gap between aspiring analyst and real-world opportunity. Analysts often fall into siloed training and experience. This makes it difficult for many analysts to move across industry. They simply don’t have the breadth of knowledge needed to operate in different sectors. TradeCraft is being engineered to combat this as well — and so we will not be abandoning Excel any time soon, nor selling out to it.
Feedback is great, but sometimes consensus requires a broader perspective. It is one of the reasons why we wanted TradeCraft to include experienced and knowledgeable mentors. It is a perspective that is difficult to incorporate otherwise.
It takes time and iteration, something currently beyond the prowess of Cami our AI mentor. After all, she is only a few weeks old. It is also why she is just one member of the crew (and currently the only AI member). It is also why we believed TradeCraft was so necessary!
That belief and so many others are ripe for the testing. That is our attitude, although it certainly fuels the chaos. But then that is real-world analytics in a nutshell, it is why sample data, online video tutorials, and open source data platforms fail so miserably at preparing aspiring analysts. Our vision was always one of action, chaos, and energy. That is what the business of data really is.
Interested in learning more? Stay tuned as more articles are coming or take some action! Use the link below to join our Early Access list.
And thanks for reading!
