Carving A Wheel or Assembling A Widget? Insights Into the Management Of Advanced Analytics

Medieval guilds and assembly plants are unlikely metaphors in an information-based economy. Our recent experience with advanced analytics suggests that such descriptions are nevertheless apt. This paper explores two distinct experiences within a single firm. In one department, predictive models were generated through adopting a “craft” style approach. In another department, a production type of approach was deployed. We then explored the likely reasons for the adoption of each, and their consequences for job satisfaction, performance, staffing, change-management, and more. Craft and production approaches had implications not just for modeling analysts and their managers but also for senior leaders, business partners, and human resources staff. Finally, we described the pressure to adopt a production approach, and attempted to unravel the extent to which this reflected broader cultural and technological influences or firm-specific traits. We end our reflection with a call for professionals to share their experiences with advanced analytics.