The Gang
Gravity Falls Inspired Profiles in Analytics
Most often analytics is a team sport. So everyone needs “an awesome crew to roll with”. Gravity Falls gives us a gang of teenagers to draw some insights from. They are a fairly tight knit group, with a variety of personalities.
Wendy
We will gloss over Wendy as we have talk about her before, but every team needs a leader. While never quite officially, Wendy is the clearly the leader of the gang. She makes most of their hardest decisions and handles recruitment.
Thompson
Ever gang of teenagers needs a guy with a van. These teens probably needed one with a bigger van to be honest. Very few images from the series actually capture all the teens — there is always one left out. But the van here is actually some nice symbolism — it brings the group together.
Thompson is the protector of the gang. He is willing to do almost anything to keep them together. He recognizes the importance of their relationship. Analyst teams often overlook and under-appreciate their Thompson. The Gravity Falls teens do as well. But Thompson may be the most important member of the gang.
Robbie Valentino
He is part emo, part ladies man, and a somewhat incompetent alpha male. On Gravity Falls, Robbie is laden with plenty of teen angst and emo stereotypes, but he is still a solid profile of the team “rock star”.
He is the guy with the ego, with the style, and often with the drama. He is never really fit to be the leader, but the team derives a lot of their personality from him. Keeping him happy becomes a burden in itself. Fortunately Mabel steps in to be the gang people person.
Tambry
Welcome to the new millennium! Every diversified analytic team is going to have a Tambry. Introverted (by appearance), often distracted, infatuated with their phone, and sometimes you wonder why she is there. Does she really like any of us?
Not to get into some sort of ill-advised gender rant, but Tambry is symbolic of the “other” female analysts. She is not a Tomboy-esque leader type like Wendy. She wouldn’t even be comfortable playing that role (right now). She herself is a little unsure how she fits in, but a good team will help her figure that out (enter Mabel).
Nate & Lee
To be honest, I don’t know which is which… and I am keeping it that way. Every team has a core similar to these two guys. There is no questioning their friendship and camaraderie. They are the heart of the gang.
The fact that they are difficult to distinguish is a double edge sword. A strong core like this is a boon for any team, but at some point they will want to be recognized as individuals. The catch — if you recognize one but not the others, this will create friction. The solution individual promotions, awards, etc — but all at the same time!
This may seem odd, but the writers of Gravity Falls saw it too. They want to earn the reward for being themselves. They want a little individual acknowledgement. If, by odd coincidence, the other members of the core also get that acknowledgement — that is just win-win. (This runs counter to what a Robbie would want).
Dipper & Mabel
Every team needs some fresh blood, regularly. Every team needs to recognize their gaps. For our Gravity Falls gang, they needed two things; a people person (Mabel) and an idea man (Dipper).
The teens are an excellent profile in analytics, but mostly as a group. Too many executives have a mind set of individual excellence. They think they are trying to collect the greatest pool of top thinkers… nonsense. Teams require team work. They require relationships. They require role playing. Don’t lose sight of that and you too can find an “awesome crew to roll with”!
Our final article is coming next… our cipher (more of a clue) — Patrick Stewart. Thanks for reading!
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