QuantumBlack

QuantumBlack featured in The Economist Intelligent Life issue May/June 2013

sam — Fri, 03 May 2013 05:50:14 +0000

Intelligent Life’s cover feature/lead article, The Age of The Algorithm (p. 64 -70), delves into the world of deciphering data and the role increasingly sophisticated algorithms play in determining the choices that are shaping today’s society.

Alongside some of the world’s most exciting up-and-coming business minds, QuantumBlack CEO Simon Williams describes to IL his view of this new age, one in which businesses routinely have to sift through “a shed load of data”.

QuantumBlack’s minute attention to detail and creative use of algorithms/ data processing frameworks has secured a profitable partnership with F1, where, Simon insists, “the fun isn’t in the race, it’s in the strategy – the smallest margins win or lose races.”

Article available here.

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QuantumBlack featured in the Economist Intelligence Report on the Future of Intuition

sam — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:00:47 +0000

There’s an interview with Simon Williams in the latest Economist Intelligence Unit, talking about QuantumBlack and the role of people in technology-driven organisations. Details below:

Humans and machines

Humans and machines: The role of people in technology-driven organisations is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by Ricoh. The report consists of a series of articles examining issues posed by human-technology interaction in selected sectors (financial services, healthcare, education and manufacturing) and their implications for decision-making, customer relationships and other areas. The sector-specific articles are also being published separately, and can be found here under the “Thought Pieces” tab.

The analysis in the report is based on a two-pronged research effort. The first is a survey of 432 senior executives (including 63 from the financial sector; 40 from healthcare, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals; 50 from education; and 80 from manufacturing), conducted in November and December 2012. The sample is global, with roughly equal numbers emanating from Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. All respondents are at a senior level: 50% hold C-suite or board positions. They hail from over 20 different industries, with the aforementioned ones being the most heavily represented. Just over half of the firms in the survey (53%) have annual revenue in excess of US$500m, with nearly one in five having US$10bn or more. Complementing the survey was a series of 20 in-depth interviews conducted with prominent business and technology thinkers as well senior corporate executives across different sectors.

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Strategic Management Society Conference

sam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:44:26 +0000

We’re delighted to be invited to speak at the Strategic Management Society conference in Geneva, March 20-23, 2013 in partnership with CERN and IMD (http://geneva.strategicmanagement.net/).

The conference aims to explore the practices of ‘outlier’ organisations and the substantial impact they have made across industries, often changing the competitive landscape. Our Chief Executive, Simon Williams will be joining the ‘Meet The Mavericks’ panel that discusses how market leaders are frequently toppled not by large competitors doing “more of the same”, but increasingly by smaller companies that manage to shift the basis of competition in their industry with disruptive innovations. This session brings together C-level executives from successful “outlier” companies to explore several real examples of when, how, and why such shifts happen. It’s a great opportunity to collide theory with fact and deepen our understanding of the outlier phenomenon.

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MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

sam — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:39:37 +0000

We love our sports and our analytics, so we’re delighted to be speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference in Boston, March 1-2, 2013. (http://www.sloansportsconference.com). Our Chief Scientist, Jacomo Corbo, is joining the Motorsports panel to showcase how analytics are used in Formula One to make split-second race strategy decisions and gain race-winning competitive edge.

The wider programme and speakers looks fascinating, so make sure to track @sloansportsconf and hash-tag #SSAC13

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Wanted: UI/UX Visual Designer

admin — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:41:13 +0000

We’re looking for a User Interface (UI) Designer with a precocious talent for creating highly impactful and visually engaging UI designs, to join our exciting boutique Data Science and Visualisation consultancy based in Old Street, London.

You will be leading the UI design of data visualisation and analytics applications for a wide variety of interesting and innovative projects. You will be working with a small dynamic and vibrant team that values design thinking and UX processes at every stage and aspect of its work.

You will be someone with an excellent and varied portfolio of UI design work that speaks for itself. You will be someone with a passion for beautiful design and effective creative processes. You can take complex information and present it in a way that is meaningful, simple and elegant. You will already be comfortable in (or interested in learning) the full spectrum of: wireframing, storyboarding, concept design, visual interface design, typography and iconography, information architecture, data visualisation.

We don’t have boring projects – everything we do is interesting, suitably challenging, and demands innovative design. This is an exciting position in the emerging areas of Data Science and Big Data, and in the heart of the vibrant start-up scene in Old Street and Shoreditch.

You will be taking a lead role in the design of visual assets for our (web, desktop, and tablet) applications. You will be involved in projects from the very start: sketching ideas, defining pen-portraits/personas, working with others to create concept designs, then storyboarding, wireframing, and designing the visual interfaces for our solutions. This is a fun, dynamic and stimulating role that you will grow in to.

Location: Old Street/Shoreditch, London (plus flexible working).

Salary: Top Market rates, dependant on experience.

Start: January or February 2013.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

Solid experience of UI/UX design with a strong portfolio (please provide a link or attachment).

Deep knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator and standard tools of the trade.

A strong understanding of interface and graphic design principles.

Ability to rapidly prototype ideas.

Able to organise and respond quickly/effectively to difficult creative challenges.

Meeting deadlines while handling multiple projects.

DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE

Designing across devices – tablet, mobile, and desktop.

Demonstrable experience or interest in Data Visualisation.

It would be wonderful if you have some creative coding experience and interest – Processing, Javascript, D3.js.

Likewise – HTML, CSS.

Strong typographic layout skills

Client side experience is a plus

Styling and theming WordPress

Working with Agile Development teams

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Wanted: Lead .Net Web Developer

admin — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:38:01 +0000

We’re looking for a Lead Web Developer with strong experience of designing and developing web applications with ASP.Net, MVC 3/4 and C#, to join our exciting Data Science consultancy based in Old Street, London.

You will be leading the web-based development that sits on top of our Azure-hosted data and analytics platforms. You will be someone with a passion for good architecture, keeping up to date with technologies, interested in events and conferences, someone who is opinionated about development but has good interpersonal skills as well.

A self-starter with a relentless focus on getting things done. You will be strong problem solver and be able to work in a dynamic and fast pace environment. You will be comfortable writing code on the whiteboard and working in a team.

This role will suit a Lead Web Developer or Architect looking for an interesting and dynamic company and set of projects, or a talented and experienced Senior Developer looking for their opportunity to lead.

We don’t have boring projects – everything we do is interesting, suitably challenging, and demands excellent solutions using the best technology and methodologies available. This is an exciting position in the emerging areas of Data Science and Big Data, and in the heart of the vibrant start-up scene in Old Street and Shoreditch.

You will be taking a lead role in developing the web application aspects of our Data Science and Data Visualisation projects. You will be involved in establishing best practices for our development processes for building, testing and maintaining our code, and for growing & structuring our code-base. You will be building a brand new greenfield application from the start.

Over time, you will be leading the development of a suite of greenfield web-based applications, and overseeing the conversion of our existing Silverlight/WPF Data Visualisation platforms into ASP.NET MVC, HTML, JavaScript, D3.js.

The software will be built using the latest tools and technologies that include C# 4.5, ASP.Net MVC 4, Visual Studio 2012, SQL Server 2012, Azure, and integrated within wider solutions that include Python, Hadoop, MATLAB, R, D3.js. The company develop software using Agile techniques that include Test Driven Development, Continuous Integration, etc.

Location: Old Street/Shoreditch, London (plus flexible working).

Salary: Top Market rates, dependant on experience.

Start: January or February 2013.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

At least 5+ years development experience

Strong ASP.NET MVC, C#

Strong Web Services – WCF, Web API, REST or SOAP

JavaScript, jQuery, knowledge of JavaScript frameworks

HTML, CSS

Willingness to mentor and lead others

Good understanding of software design patterns and best practices – TDD, IoC, CI, etc

DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE

Microsoft Azure

Entity Framework

Strong SQL Server Skills

Working in Agile Development teams

Apache Hadoop

Graphical frameworks – Processing, D3.js

Ensuring compatibility across both tablet, mobile, and desktop browsers

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QuantumBlack featured in the FT Podcast

sam — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:49:01 +0000

This week the FT Connected Business podcast had a special episode on Data, Technology, and Strategy, in the world of F1 racing.

Stephen Pritchard interviewed QB Chief Executive Simon Williams on what businesses can learn from the sport of F1. You can listen to the show here (Simon’s bit starts at 12min in).

And here’s the blurb for the show:

In a special show focused on the high-octane world of motor racing, we hear how the Lotus F1 team is updating its back office IT, so it can put more resources into racing, and how Sahara Force India updated its website to provide a better service to its fans. Plus, F1 data specialists QuantumBlack on what businesses can learn from the sport.

Presented and produced by Stephen Pritchard

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DATA SCIENCE: A TRINITY OF DATA, JUDGEMENT AND PROCESS

sam — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:44:33 +0000

The next decade will see a step-change in how organizations, governments and individuals perceive and use data. They may see data purely as ‘truth’ giving the cold hard facts on a particular topic, or they may see it as ‘entertainment’ (think about your fantasy football team or graphics used in the Olympics to show world record pace), or even as a metaphor, as in mapping over the years.

Whatever the perception, when added to mix of increasing speed, highly complex problems and evolving cultures, many industries, from healthcare to aerospace to sport to media are recognizing that it’s a Moneyball moment.

However for all the breathless promises of Big Data, companies face a challenge in retooling their organisations and enabling their employees to make best use of data in complex decision-making.

To do this, they need to recognize that the Data Science is not just about the data (or its sexy cousin analytics), otherwise they risk making three common mistakes: confusing understanding with information, confusing clarity with detail and confusing outcomes with measures.

Instead, they must blend this data expertise with human judgment and processes that treat it as a design problem rather than a pure maths problem.

This is hard.

In April 2012 HBR published an article Good Data won’t Guarantee Good Decisions that shared research by the Corporate Executive Board that evaluated 5,000 employees at 22 global companies

They discovered three groups: “unquestioning empiricists” who only trust analysis, “visceral decision makers” who rely on their gut feel and “informed skeptics” who balance judgment and analytic skills.

Unsurprisingly they concluded that this latter group are “best equipped to make good decisions” and “are the kind of data-savvy employees that every company should try to cultivate”. They even suggested that teams whose members had the highest average score performed 24% than other teams. The sting in the tail was that only 38% of employees and 50% of senior managers fell into this group.

Companies are not alone here in facing this issue of the right skills being concentrated in too few people.

The US Army Command and General Staff College recognized that with every advance in technology and information processing, the delta between the trained cognitive capabilities of their intelligence analysts and the data they collect widened.

In response they commissioned a thesis on Transforming Army Intelligence Analysis by Major George E. Lewis III. In it, they highlight that in recent history investment in intelligence operations has focused on automated tools, yet when faced with modern adaptive and complex asymmetric threats, the need for strong reasoning in intelligence analysts and leaders has risen to the forefront. They argue for a new doctrine that invests in improving capabilities in judgment as well as data collection, processing and automated tools.

This idea of splicing the power of data with the human touch is where firms need to focus. But it’s not enough.

At QuantumBlack, we see firms starting to hire experts well versed in new forms of analytics and using data, often believing that the skills and mindset will spread across the organization. We’ve seen too many firms stuck in this “expert” phase to believe that this is enough.

The goal is not to have an expert data science team making magic, but for product owners, brand managers, country managers et al (roles that have ‘proper’ day jobs) to make use of the data and its insights to know what it is, why it’s important and what to do about it.

To achieve this, firms need to make the data and associated analytics accessible and consumable. They need to care about the design of how decision-makers access, consume, interpret and respond to data. It’s as much as design process challenge as it is a data problem.

Being design process-oriented, not data driven, is one of the most important and difficult skills for a Data Scientist to develop. The architect and author Matthew Frederick described this orientation as:

Seeking to understand the intent and problem before chasing after solutions;
Not force-fitting solutions to old problems onto new problems;
Removing yourself from the prideful investment in your projects and being slow to fall in love with your ideas;
Making design investigations and decisions holistically (that addresses several aspects if a design problem at once) rather than sequentially (that finalizes once aspect of a solution before investigating the next);
Making design decision conditionally – that is, with the awareness that they may or may not work out as you continue toward a final solution;
Knowing when to change and when to stick with previous decisions;
Accepting as normal the anxiety that comes from not knowing what to do;
Working fluidly between concept-scale and detail-scale to see how each informs the other;
Always asking ‘what if…’ regardless of how satisfied you are with your solution.

The award-winning designer Yves Behar, founder of Fuseproject, a San Francisco-based agency, talks about the importance of a designer ‘being there all the way’ and being in love with the process.

The same is true for Data Science. From understanding (and in some cases defining) the strategic intent, designing the analytics, communicating the insights, evaluating the impact on the business, crafting the strategic response and shaping the capabilities to deliver that response – it’s this ‘holistic making’ that Béhar believes helps not only create great ideas but also accelerate their adoption and usefulness.

Ultimately it’s improving the trinity of data, judgment and process that help inform companies and leaders on doing the right things to shift the odds in their favour.

Simon Williams

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US HEALTHCARE

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 04:40:40 +0000

THE CHALLENGE A smarter approach to health screening

Preventative screening policies for chronic conditions like hypertension or coronary heart disease or even for cancers like prostate and breast cancer are largely based on demographic information, and specifically age and gender.

Yet age and gender are often not the most salient variables informing a person’s propensity for developing many conditions. At the same time the growing adoption of electronic health records has led to an explosion of fine-grained, patient-level data.

Given the high cost of health screening, our client was keen to explore smarter ways of understanding and predicting individual’s risk of contracting certain conditions in order to deploy more effective and efficient approaches to preventative screening.

THE APPROACH Applying machine-learning to predicting hypertension

Using a population-based, longitudinal study of risk factors for the development and progression of coronary heart disease and stroke we built a model that combined a Buckley James estimator with a machine-learning approach based on support vector machines to predict the age-of-onset for hypertension.

We started with hypertension as it is a major risk factor for a number of serious conditions including stroke, heart attacks, heart failure, aneurysms of the arteries, and even chronic kidney disease. Even moderate elevation of arterial blood pressure is associated with a shortened life expectancy so an accurate prediction of hypertension is highly valuable for early intervention.

THE BENEFITS Opportunity for $400m savings in US health screening costs per annum

Our approach outperforms the current state-of-the-art and forecasts the age-of-onset of hypertension with an average error of less than 3 years for the most at-risk populations.

We derived a screening policy on the back of our results and compared the results to the current guidelines set forth by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. We found that this policy offered an opportunity to achieve an annual cost savings approaching $400m.

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CAPITAL IQ

admin — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:53:08 +0000

THE CHALLENGE Improving understanding of customer behavior

Our client wanted to improve their understanding of how clients used their flagship web application to improve their product design and customer experience.

The opportunity was to tap the latent asset of client usage data to discover new insights into their clients’ use of their products, understand how different market segments behaved and identify key decision-points throughout the journey of a user. The challenge:

First, is it possible to use usage data to identify and cluster patterns of how clients are using the platform?

Second, how to use usage data to improve product design by understanding navigation efficacy?

THE APPROACH Searching for patterns in large data sequences

Our approach was to explore the patterns in usage data across different users and understand the causal factors behind these differences in usage.

We faced a challenge in finding patterns in a large set of attributes and matching these to meaningful categories of possibly co-related sessions. To cope with this we applied methods derived from genome sequencing to show patterns in large volumes of usage data; including data normalization to separate noise to signals, feature extraction and clustering techniques on both string similarity and generalized features.

To explain the clustering and sequencing analytics we developed a visual language to describe profiles of users, segments, behavior clusters, and pages of the products to show ‘at-a-glance’ how they differed, and how they evolved over time.

THE BENEFITS Enhanced Product Design & ROI

Our analytics discovered patterns in the usage data that identified new groups of users and new ways in which the client were using the product.

We discovered that there are ‘efficient frontiers’ in the product UX; helping improve the overall customer experience, navigation design and efficiency of product development.

Our clustering analytics were able to predict the next step in a client journey with an accuracy of 80% offering both new capability to predict client behavior and compelling operational performance benefits.

These sophisticated analytics were wrapped in simple ‘at-a-glance’ visualizations that created a common visual language for product marketing, engineering and leadership to understand the data, why it was important and how it could be used to improve product design.

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