On Transparency

Edward Tufte draws Bigger Crowd than Sarah Palin

He has been called the “Leonardo da Vinci of data” by the New York Times.  This was evident at the San Francisco Westin in mid-December as close to 1500 devoted followers paid almost 400 bucks each to hear Edward Tufte talk about visualizing complex data.  Given what we do at Transpara, there was no way we would miss it.

Tufte’s thesis is “do whatever it takes to explain something.”  By this he means use a diversity of display methods, a diversity of data, remove “chart junk” and replace it with evidence.  Key themes:

• De-emphasize (or better yet, eliminate) the process of looking at data
• Allow the viewer to see as much as possible all at once 
• Don’t adorn the data, let the data speak for itself  (see example below of US cancer patterns)

All three of these may sound contrary to your average PowerPoint skills curriculum, but there is a reason Tufte has this following. 

Mr. Tufte thinks there is no relationship between the amount of detail and the ease of understanding.  The optic nerve processes the equivalent of 20 megapixels per second, so there is no doubt our physiology supports high-bandwidth displays.  “Information Overload” is always bad design, not too much data.   Tufte shared a good design for showing 400,000 pieces of data on a single 11x17 piece of paper without being overwhelming and still allowing for immediate grasp of meaning (hint: he used “sparklines” to condense the space required to show huge data sets, just like we do in Visual KPI).

Tufte goes on to use the Sports Page in a newspaper as a great example of data density and information layout and compares this to PowerPoint charts and graphs.  There are an average of only 12 data elements in a typical PowerPoint table, but an average of 150-200 data elements in a sports score table.  “Did we suddenly get stupid just because we arrived at work?”  has asked us.  He suggested that we relegate PowerPoint to being the “operating system for the overhead projector.”

Information wants to be free of the shackles of over-designed user interfaces, 3-D charts, perspective views, all of this “non-data” simply gets in the way of communication for the purpose of understanding.  Data should always be arranged to support reasoning about the information.

The Dangers of Glitziness and Other Visualization Faux Pas

My personal highlight was his page-by-page review of our mobile scorecard application.  While much of Visual KPI is already organized in the spirit of Tufte, his personal review and critique of the Visual KPI design has meaningful implications for us going forward.  I won’t share the details here, but expect a few incremental improvements to further embrace the parsimony and simplicity of Edward Tufte.  But I digress…

For us, or anyone who cares about visualizing data, scorecards, KPIs, dashboards, or just good design, the lesson is that you must understand the differences between Tufte’s view of data and the sometimes overly popularized view of simplicity for simplicity’s sake or you are missing more than half of the story (and Tufte would also disapprove of doing that). 

His books are amazing (and beautiful, right down to his choice of paper) and there is much to learn about him on the interwebs.  In fact some people take some pretty good notes when they attend these things: http://terriemiller.com/notes/presenting-data-and-information-class-notes/

Enjoy and feel free to comment as always!

Michael Saucier

Breaking News: Michael Saucier Caught in Tiger Woods Scandal!

At a routine analyst briefing last week, Transpara CEO Michael Saucier was ambushed by TMZ.com and questioned about his alleged long-running affair with Elin Woods, wife of professional golfer Tiger Woods.   Tara Dugan, head of Transpara Corporate Communications, stepped in and stopped the surly reporter, who was waving around a picture taken at a recent charity ball, where Michael escorted Mrs. Woods at Tiger’s request.  Mr. Saucier explained that Tiger had asked for a favor so that he might check on some of his other properties in New York, Australia, and Dubai.   TMZ then presented dozens of other photos showing Mr. Saucier and Mrs. Woods together, at various locations including St. Bart’s, Paris, Kabul and Moscow.  At this point, Transpara General Counsel Gloria Allred put a halt to the proceedings and ushered Mr. Saucier to a waiting limo.  Since this hasty exit, nothing has been heard from the Saucier camp, fueling speculation that a multi-million dollar “hush money” deal might be in the works.  

Can it possibly be?  Actually, while stranger things have happened, this wasn’t one of them.

As Tiger’s situation mushroomed over the last several days, it illustrated what can happen when facts are concealed and people are forced to “interpolate” and even “invent” data to fill in the missing gaps.  This lesson applies equally well to business, where people are expected to work in unison as a team.  Without shared access to timely, consistent, and contextual operating data, people can never truly work as a team.  They end up making assumptions and using old “rules of thumb” to overcome the lack of real performance metrics.  They end up with “dueling spreadsheets” at morning meetings – each side claiming that their spreadsheet is the true measure.  Sometimes decisions are made based on politics or gut feel instead of rational measurements.  All of this can be solved by creating a culture of transparency, where everyone has up-to-the-minute data on their most important metrics.  It is easy to keep to the intended course when you have ready access to cold, hard facts. 

Might some of the 10,500 internet stories about Tiger Woods have been avoided if the facts were readily available in a timely manner?  The press might not concur, but I’m sure Accenture, Nike and a few other folks might.

Why I became an engineer – part I. I remember the exact day.

I had just  returned from giving a speech to high school students at the Discover Engineering Weekend at UCSB and without much thought I inserted “why I became an engineer” as the theme which incidentally went over quite well.  That night I told a good friend of mine about it and he convinced me to blog the story. 

So, here is the first of several huge events that led me down this path.

I was always the “fat kid” and the one picked last for any sport.  Odie Hallowell was a guy that lived across the street from me and he was ALWAYS the team captain for ANY sport or team game we played as kids.  He used to say “if I have to take Saucier, then I get an extra guy.”  Over a bunch of years, that kind of thing did weird things to me and steered me away from situations where I might be embarrassed by my complete lack of physical coordination.  I never really had any plans about what I was going to be.  I never wanted to be an astronaut or a fireman or a doctor.  I was pretty sure that I would be “picked last” for those as well.  I just stopped thinking about the future. 

That all  changed when I took Mrs. White’s Chemistry class at Dos Pueblos High School.  Because of my late birthday, I was always the youngest kid in my classes, sometimes by a whole year, so on top of being a pudgy klutz, I also missed out on a lot of the banter, inside jokes and inappropriate humor that comes with being a year older.  So it was a pretty ironic that my lab partner turned out to be Pam Wilkins – the absolutely hottest girl  in school.  I am not sure what she thought, but I was in heaven.

One day early in the year, we had some trivial experiment involving mixing some liquids and seeing a color change (yes, it pre-dates the manufacturing intelligence work we do now by just a bit).  No one was getting the results in our book and people were getting riled up.  Each group was just dumping the materials together and then getting a sludgy material instead of a well-mixed material.  I saw the problem – the mixing was supposed to take place slowly vs. all at once.  It turned out that the process of mixing the materials just as important as what you were mixing!  After this revelation, Pam the hottie and I had no trouble getting the correct results and she named me “Professor Sauce” on the spot.  Her status as class supermodel (and a SENIOR no less!) rubbed off on me instantly, and the rest of the Chemistry class started calling me Professor Sauce as well.  Before I knew it the immature, pudgy klutz had become popular for something—something I was actually GOOD at.   I knew on that exact day that I wanted to figure out how to make stuff, solve chemical problems, and to do it right.  I only later found out it was called Chemical Engineering.

This was only the first of several key moments that would lead me to a great education, creating software companies, and much, much more. 

Oh, and the same friend I referred to at the beginning is trying to talk me into adding the other key events as a short series and I promised him I would try.  Wish me luck and please add a comment if you like what you read (or if you don’t).

Michael

Obama Should Read (or re-read) Atlas Shrugged

I find myself constantly stupefied by the news on TV or in the newspapers that our government sees fit to dole out more subsidies for companies that are "too big to fail" or institutions that "form the American backbone."  This economic lunacy makes it seem like "Hope" is the entire text for Obama's strategy to dig out of this mess.  I keep thinking of our President as the "next generation" compared to me, but since his birthday is less than a year earlier than mine, Obama does not have the excuse that he has "heard of--but not read--Atlas Shrugged."

Back to the Future

Has this generation failed to grasp even the simplest lesson from Ayn Rand?  Is it possible that this administration sees Atlas Shrugged as simple fiction, and not the harbinger of doom that we all thought could never happen in a society like ours?  Why does 2009 seem so much like 1957?

Writing in the Wall Street Journal recently, Stephen Moore observed that "The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."

A Way Forward

People are good and want to do the right thing.  Let's find a way to tell our government that enough is enough.  To stop mortgaging our future and let us craft a workable recovery to our government-inflicted wounds.  To let entrepreneurship and hard work once again form the true backbone of the American people.  It might be time to listen to the words of Rand's hero John Galt, and take the words as seriously as she meant them:  “The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath: I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.”  Redistribution and the disdain for wealth created by hard work will bring this country down faster than any terrorist act.

Golf Equals Tiger and Phil. Period.

Last week, I flew in my dad to stay with me for a few days so we could watch the Master's Tournament together.  I had it all planned out:  TiVo set to ESPN HD for the 4 televised rounds, PC all set to watch pre-show streaming footage at Amen Corner, iPhone loaded with the Master's Scoreboard App and a note pinned to the door:  "If you are not Ed McMahon, then please go away."

As the days unfolded, neither of my guys were even close to leading--much less dominating--the field on Thursday, Friday, or (gasp!) Saturday.  I was starting to feel like I had just paid 13 bucks to see another crappy Keanu Reeves movie and by the time Sunday morning finally rolled around I was bored.

That is, until I found out that Tiger and Phil were paired for the final round.  I didn't even care that neither of them could win the tournament, thefun of watching them battle each other would make up for everything else.  As we watched Phil tie the Augusta course record of 30 on the front nine, and watched Tiger grind out what seemed like a comeback, we both realized that THIS was the Master's for us, not the other 75 guys slugging it out for the Green Jacket.  

So for  us, the Master's started on Sunday morning at 10:35AM when the dynamic duo teed off and ended when Phil plopped his 9 iron in Rae's creek on 12, effectively squashing his momentum and what looked to be a come-from-behind win. More drama unfolded, and a winner was eventually crowned, but the 3 hours of Tiger and Phil on Sunday is something my dad and I will talk about forever.

SmartGrid City Affects Homeowners, Utilities & The Environment!

I spent part of this week in Denver at the Xcel Energy-sponsored SmartGrid City Roadshow with Transpara partner OSIsoft.   Utilities are tackling a massive upgrade effort over the next decade aimed at meeting the rising electrical demands while reducing emissions, increasing efficiency of the grid and allowing for something called "distributed generation" where any company or individual can supply electricity back to the grid in order to help level supply and demand.  

How Does Electricity Get to Me?

The supply of electricity to your home is composed of three main parts: Generation, Transmission and Distribution as shown in the diagram.  Xcel's SmartGrid City effort is aimed at the "last mile" of Distribution, with a goal of making electricity usage transparent to (and manageable by) the homeowner. 

Where is SmartGrid City?

Boulder, CO is the site of this 50,000 home experiment, with residents getting the latest computer and electricity management technology installed courtesy of Xcel and its consortium partners.  How many times have you looked at your electric bill and wondered "why is my bill so high?"  Boulder residents can now manage their electrical usage and monitor the results in real-time, changing their habits and usage patterns in order to save money. 

Why is Xcel sponsoring SmartGrid City?

Why would Xcel want to reduce demand for its product?  Because the current electric grid is built for the "peak load" and thus over-engineered for normal daily use.  Helping homeowners reduce consumption helps avoid building new Power Generating plants, which in turn means less pollution and lower energy costs.  If this works, utilities can actually free up "virtual plants" of generating capacity instead of building new ones.  Good for the environment, consumer and the utility all at once. 

Check out the mainstream TV coverage of the Smart Grid in action

Blackberries & Smartphones are no longer status symbols

It wasn't that long ago that people referred to Blackberry-toting executives at their company with a wise-crack.  That was until folks realized that the ready availability of business data--not just e-mail--would change the way they work.

A recent InformationWeek Analytics survey of 412 business technology pros found that most companies no longer question whether to give at least some employees access to their jobs via smartphones and other handheld devices. In fact, two-thirds of companies are deploying or planning to deploy mobile apps. The questions they face are what to provide access to, how to do it, who should get access, and from which types of devices.