Ideas on data, AI, leadership and the parts of work that get messy.
I write about the problems that tend to show up after the presentation is finished: AI projects that stall, data teams that need to prove their value, difficult leadership decisions, and career situations nobody really teaches you how to handle.
The articles I would read first.
If you’re new here, start with these. They cover the problems I write about most: making AI useful, proving value, leading data teams, and working with executives.
AI Pilot with guardrails
How to Pilot AI Without Setting Anything on Fire At 2:43 AM on a Tuesday, the alert notification lit up multiple phones: “Critical: Demand forecasting system recommending 847% increase in orders…
The Complete AI ROI Roadmap: Turning Artificial Intelligence Into Measurable Business Value
AI Return on Investment: How to Build Numbers Your CFO Can Defend AI return on investment gets interesting the moment somebody from Finance asks a very simple question: “How much money…
Data driven Decision Making
Data Driven Decision Making: 7 Decisions Leaders Get Wrong Data driven decision making does not mean letting a dashboard make the decision for you. It means using evidence to improve your…
CDO CTO Responsibilities: What Your Reporting Line Actually Means
CDO CTO Responsibilities: What Your Reporting Line Actually Means for Your Budget and Mandate The email arrived in Matt’s inbox at 7:22 on a Wednesday morning, forwarded by his CDO with…
Fresh from the blog.
A few of the newest pieces, while they’re still fresh.
Databricks Genie Tutorial: Build Your First AI/BI Agent
BEGINNER DATABRICKS TUTORIAL Databricks Genie gives business users a familiar chat interface for asking questions about company data. Instead of starting with SQL, they can ask a question such as “What…
Databricks Genie Tutorial: How Business Context Improved Accuracy From 0% to 93%
Asking an AI tool a business question can feel deceptively simple. The user types “What were sales last quarter?” and expects one dependable number. Behind that question are decisions about order…
AI Inventory Management: I Tested ChatGPT on Reorder and Overstock Decisions
Inventory reports have a habit of looking simple until you actually have to decide what deserves attention. A product can be below its reorder point and still be fine because stock…
AI Contract Review: I Tested ChatGPT Against a Contract Playbook
Vendor contract review can involve a surprising amount of repetitive comparison work. A reviewer reads a clause, checks the company’s contract playbook, decides whether the position is acceptable, and then moves…
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Databricks Genie Tutorial: Build Your First AI/BI Agent
BEGINNER DATABRICKS TUTORIAL Databricks Genie gives business users a familiar chat interface for asking questions about company data. Instead of starting with SQL, they can ask a…
Databricks Genie Tutorial: How Business Context Improved Accuracy From 0% to 93%
Asking an AI tool a business question can feel deceptively simple. The user types “What were sales last quarter?” and expects one dependable number. Behind that question…
AI Inventory Management: I Tested ChatGPT on Reorder and Overstock Decisions
Inventory reports have a habit of looking simple until you actually have to decide what deserves attention. A product can be below its reorder point and still…
AI Contract Review: I Tested ChatGPT Against a Contract Playbook
Vendor contract review can involve a surprising amount of repetitive comparison work. A reviewer reads a clause, checks the company’s contract playbook, decides whether the position is…
AI for Accounts Payable: I Tested ChatGPT on Invoice and PO Matching
Accounts payable has a lot of work that is individually quite simple and collectively quite annoying. A vendor sends an invoice, someone finds the purchase order, and…
How to Deal With a Toxic Coworker (And What to Do If You’re the One Managing Them If You’re Managing Them)
How to Deal With a Toxic Coworker (And What to Do If You’re the One Managing Them) You know the feeling before you can even name it.…
Professional Presence Isn’t Just About the Room You’re In
Professional Presence Isn’t Just About the Room You’re In Most advice on professional presence covers the same three things. Gravitas. Communication. Appearance. Stay composed under pressure. Speak…
How to Build a Data Team: The Roles Nobody Hires For
How to Build a Data Team: The Roles Nobody Hires For and the Trap That Breaks Most Teams Monday morning standup. One team member had called in…
Why Am I Not Getting Promoted? The Six Signals Committees Look For
Why Am I Not Getting Promoted? The Six Signals Committees Actually Look For Four performance reviews. Two reorgs. The same phrase from three different managers, delivered with…
CDO CTO Responsibilities: What Your Reporting Line Actually Means
CDO CTO Responsibilities: What Your Reporting Line Actually Means for Your Budget and Mandate The email arrived in Matt’s inbox at 7:22 on a Wednesday morning, forwarded…
Managing Up: A Data Leader’s Guide to the CDO, CTO, and Peers Who Test You
Managing Up: The Three Relationships That Decide Whether Data Leaders Get Funded, Trusted, and Promoted On a Tuesday in October, a data engineering director named Matt learned…
Building Data Culture
A Data Driven Culture Framework That Actually Changes Behavior A data driven culture framework is not a dashboard, a data catalog, or a training program. It is…
AI Pilot with guardrails
How to Pilot AI Without Setting Anything on Fire At 2:43 AM on a Tuesday, the alert notification lit up multiple phones: “Critical: Demand forecasting system recommending…
AI Change Management
AI Change Management: What to Do When the Technology Works but People Don’t Change AI change management gets difficult at the exact point where most project plans…
AI Product Design
Designing AI Products People Actually Use The demo went perfectly. Clean visualizations showing predicted demand for the top 100 products. Confidence intervals indicating forecast reliability. Historical accuracy…
AI Adoption Playbook
The AI Adoption Playbook: How Enterprises Turn Pilots Into Business Results The AI system was working perfectly. Model accuracy at 89%. Zero downtime. Response times under 200…
Data driven Decision Making
Data Driven Decision Making: 7 Decisions Leaders Get Wrong Data driven decision making does not mean letting a dashboard make the decision for you. It means using…
Data Readiness for AI
Data Readiness: The Hidden Ingredient of Every Successful AI Project You can have the best data scientists, the most sophisticated algorithms, and unlimited budget. But if your…
Why Most AI Projects Fail (and How to Beat the Odds)
Why AI Projects Fail: 7 Mistakes Leaders Can Fix Why AI projects fail is usually less mysterious than it looks. A team can have capable engineers, a…
The Complete AI ROI Roadmap: Turning Artificial Intelligence Into Measurable Business Value
AI Return on Investment: How to Build Numbers Your CFO Can Defend AI return on investment gets interesting the moment somebody from Finance asks a very simple…
The ideas continue in the books.
Each book takes one part of the work much further than a single article can.
The Data-Driven Executive
Influence, teams, executives, budgets and leading in the age of AI.
AI to ROI for Business Leaders
From the original business problem through production and measurable value.
The Lost Map to Your Career
The unwritten rules around visibility, relationships, politics and growth.
Find me on LinkedIn.
If something here started a useful thought, or you want to talk about data, AI, leadership or one of the books, LinkedIn is the easiest place to reach me.