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May 13, 2019 · 23m · mad

The Case for Hiring More Analysts // Benn Stancil, Mode (FirstMark's Data Driven NYC)

Benn Stancil · 18m spoken Matt Turck · 38s spoken
0:00 / 0:00
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Benn Stancil, Co-founder of Mode, presents a compelling argument at Data Driven NYC for why tech organizations must invest in human analytical rigor over self-serve software tools alone. He outlines actionable hiring strategies, such as recruiting social science graduates, to bridge the critical gap between data access and strategic decision-making.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Matt holds 2.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Matt as informed peer 0.6 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 2.2 Matt pushing back 0.4
05100:0010:0020:000:14–2:47 · Matt as informed peer 0/10 Defining "Data-Driven" and Industry Perspectives As this is a solo presentation segment, the host scores are zero. Benn defines 'data-driven' using references from McKinsey, HBR, and Sequoia, gently challenging how underfunded analytics teams are relative to company lunch spending.2:47–6:26 · Matt as informed peer 0/10 The Myth of "Self-Serve" Data Platforms Host scores remain zero during this monologue portion. Benn dismantles the premise of self-serve analytics, arguing that access does not equal analytical rigor using design and marketing analogies.6:26–9:57 · Matt as informed peer 0/10 Real-World Impact: Avoiding Catastrophes and Myths Benn illustrates the real-world dangers of lacking analytical rigor, citing examples of flawed junior hiring decisions and email frequency myths. The monologue contains no host participation.9:57–14:44 · Matt as informed peer 0/10 Uncovering Growth Opportunities: The Knot Case Study Benn presents 'The Knot' case study and proposes hiring social scientists to lower costs while maintaining critical thinking. Host scores are zero for this final monologue segment.14:44–23:41 · Matt as informed peer 3/10 Fireside Q&A Session with Matt Turck Matt Turck hosts a brief Q&A, asking targeted questions about Mode's company size and target market before Benn fields audience questions. Benn politely dismisses Matt's customer sizing metric as a red herring while detailing their true ICP.0:14–2:47 · Guest teaching 3/10 Defining "Data-Driven" and Industry Perspectives As this is a solo presentation segment, the host scores are zero. Benn defines 'data-driven' using references from McKinsey, HBR, and Sequoia, gently challenging how underfunded analytics teams are relative to company lunch spending.2:47–6:26 · Guest teaching 4/10 The Myth of "Self-Serve" Data Platforms Host scores remain zero during this monologue portion. Benn dismantles the premise of self-serve analytics, arguing that access does not equal analytical rigor using design and marketing analogies.6:26–9:57 · Guest teaching 3/10 Real-World Impact: Avoiding Catastrophes and Myths Benn illustrates the real-world dangers of lacking analytical rigor, citing examples of flawed junior hiring decisions and email frequency myths. The monologue contains no host participation.9:57–14:44 · Guest teaching 3/10 Uncovering Growth Opportunities: The Knot Case Study Benn presents 'The Knot' case study and proposes hiring social scientists to lower costs while maintaining critical thinking. Host scores are zero for this final monologue segment.14:44–23:41 · Guest teaching 4/10 Fireside Q&A Session with Matt Turck Matt Turck hosts a brief Q&A, asking targeted questions about Mode's company size and target market before Benn fields audience questions. Benn politely dismisses Matt's customer sizing metric as a red herring while detailing their true ICP.0:14–2:47 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Defining "Data-Driven" and Industry Perspectives As this is a solo presentation segment, the host scores are zero. Benn defines 'data-driven' using references from McKinsey, HBR, and Sequoia, gently challenging how underfunded analytics teams are relative to company lunch spending.2:47–6:26 · Guest disagreement 3/10 The Myth of "Self-Serve" Data Platforms Host scores remain zero during this monologue portion. Benn dismantles the premise of self-serve analytics, arguing that access does not equal analytical rigor using design and marketing analogies.6:26–9:57 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Real-World Impact: Avoiding Catastrophes and Myths Benn illustrates the real-world dangers of lacking analytical rigor, citing examples of flawed junior hiring decisions and email frequency myths. The monologue contains no host participation.9:57–14:44 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Uncovering Growth Opportunities: The Knot Case Study Benn presents 'The Knot' case study and proposes hiring social scientists to lower costs while maintaining critical thinking. Host scores are zero for this final monologue segment.14:44–23:41 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Fireside Q&A Session with Matt Turck Matt Turck hosts a brief Q&A, asking targeted questions about Mode's company size and target market before Benn fields audience questions. Benn politely dismisses Matt's customer sizing metric as a red herring while detailing their true ICP.0:14–2:47 · Matt pushing back 0/10 Defining "Data-Driven" and Industry Perspectives As this is a solo presentation segment, the host scores are zero. Benn defines 'data-driven' using references from McKinsey, HBR, and Sequoia, gently challenging how underfunded analytics teams are relative to company lunch spending.2:47–6:26 · Matt pushing back 0/10 The Myth of "Self-Serve" Data Platforms Host scores remain zero during this monologue portion. Benn dismantles the premise of self-serve analytics, arguing that access does not equal analytical rigor using design and marketing analogies.6:26–9:57 · Matt pushing back 0/10 Real-World Impact: Avoiding Catastrophes and Myths Benn illustrates the real-world dangers of lacking analytical rigor, citing examples of flawed junior hiring decisions and email frequency myths. The monologue contains no host participation.9:57–14:44 · Matt pushing back 0/10 Uncovering Growth Opportunities: The Knot Case Study Benn presents 'The Knot' case study and proposes hiring social scientists to lower costs while maintaining critical thinking. Host scores are zero for this final monologue segment.14:44–23:41 · Matt pushing back 2/10 Fireside Q&A Session with Matt Turck Matt Turck hosts a brief Q&A, asking targeted questions about Mode's company size and target market before Benn fields audience questions. Benn politely dismisses Matt's customer sizing metric as a red herring while detailing their true ICP.

speaking balance: gold is Matt, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%0:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Matt 8.9% · guest 91.1%15:00 · Matt 8.9% · guest 91.1%18:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Matt 0% · guest 100%21:00 · Matt 16.7% · guest 83.3%21:00 · Matt 16.7% · guest 83.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:37 Calling Target Size a Red Herring

When Matt asks whether Mode targets mid-sized tech firms or Fortune 1000 enterprises, Benn directly rejects the framing by declaring company size a red herring.

 Hardest push from Matt ▶ 16:37 Drilling into Target Market Dynamics

Matt presses Benn to clarify Mode's market positioning by presenting a specific dichotomy between mid-sized tech enterprise and Fortune 1000 sales.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 18:40 Distinguishing Data Analysts from Data Scientists

Benn educates an audience member on industry terminology, explaining how companies muddy job titles and defining the core distinction between building machine models and aiding human decision-making.

 Matt holds his own ▶ 22:57 Contextualizing Industry Evangelism Trends

Matt leverages his domain expertise as host of Data Driven NYC to contextualize Mode's situation, noting how surprising it is that data startups still have to evangelize basic data culture years into the ecosystem's growth.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicMatt as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementMatt pushing backWhy
Defining "Data-Driven" and Industry Perspectives 0320 As this is a solo presentation segment, the host scores are zero. Benn defines 'data-driven' using references from McKinsey, HBR, and Sequoia, gently challenging how underfunded analytics teams are relative to company lunch spending.
The Myth of "Self-Serve" Data Platforms 0430 Host scores remain zero during this monologue portion. Benn dismantles the premise of self-serve analytics, arguing that access does not equal analytical rigor using design and marketing analogies.
Real-World Impact: Avoiding Catastrophes and Myths 0320 Benn illustrates the real-world dangers of lacking analytical rigor, citing examples of flawed junior hiring decisions and email frequency myths. The monologue contains no host participation.
Uncovering Growth Opportunities: The Knot Case Study 0320 Benn presents 'The Knot' case study and proposes hiring social scientists to lower costs while maintaining critical thinking. Host scores are zero for this final monologue segment.
Fireside Q&A Session with Matt Turck 3422 Matt Turck hosts a brief Q&A, asking targeted questions about Mode's company size and target market before Benn fields audience questions. Benn politely dismisses Matt's customer sizing metric as a red herring while detailing their true ICP.

Statements from this episode (9)

Insight
Stancil: Being data-driven means strategic decision-making, not dashboards
“And so, ah, a very uncontroversial statement for this group is probably that data driven means it is not dashboards and daily emails to execs, ah, it is decision making and strategic analysis.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 1:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Benn Stancil: Data teams average 2% to 5% of tech headcount
“For the most part these groups average somewhere between like two and five percent. Ah, so about four percent of a company is, is analytics focused.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 1:43
Insight
Benn Stancil: Self-serve data tools provide access, not analysis
“It is strictly like a data access tool. It doesn't tell you what to do with that data after the fact. It doesn't actually tell you how to analyze it. And so this access is not analysis.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 3:21
Insight
Stancil: Knowing SQL and charts doesn't make someone a data analyst
“Me knowing SQL and me knowing how to create a chart doesn't make me an analyst any more than knowing Photoshop makes me a designer.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 5:56
Insight
Stancil: Unverified data analysis quickly turns into hard-to-erase corporate myths
“Things that may or may not be true end up becoming part of the culture, and it's very hard to get rid of it once they're there.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 9:52
Insight
Stancil: Companies should hire social science graduates for data analytics roles
“If you want to find these folks, there's a really good place to look which is hiring social scientists. So social scientists are trained to think this way. They are analytical thinkers without some of the technical and quantitative background that a lot of STE…”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 13:03
Insight
Stancil: Technical data skills are learnable, analytical thinking is harder to teach
“They're gonna need SQL skills, they're gonna, they might need Python or R skills, they'll need something like Excel but those things are learnable, whereas I think, like, the way of thinking is often harder to teach.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 18:24
Insight
Stancil: Data roles divide into machine-automation modelers versus human-decision analysts
“There's folks who build models to help machines make decisions, and there's folks who, like, build charts and help people, humans make decisions at a much lower frequency.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 18:53
Insight
Stancil: Practice problems and tutorials fail to build real analytical skills
“I think that, that it's basically find problems that you're interested in and try to answer questions about it. That the, if you take a bunch of practice problems, it doesn't really work. It doesn't stick.”
Benn Stancil May 13, 2019 ▶ 20:23
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