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Hi, i'm heather mannA social scientist by training, I spent a decade using quantitative research methods to explore why people think and behave as they do. I have always been interested in human psychology and decision-making.
More recently, I’ve been gaining interest in how decision-making is impacted by the digital revolution (the fourth industrial revolution), and the explosion of data this revolution is producing. How do we make meaning out of all this data? And, how can we use data to make better decisions? |
I currently work as a data strategy consultant, helping clients design and implement strategies for gaining insight from their data. My consulting business is Blossom Data Strategy Consulting; you can link to my business website here.
a bit of background
I was fortunate to do my PhD under the guidance of the brilliant behavioural economist, Dan Ariely. Together, we explored how people engage in dishonest behaviour across cultures. (Spoiler alert: we found similar patterns of cheating in every country we studied!)
After earning my PhD, I helped to launch Brighter Investment, a social enterprise focused on financing higher education. I then joined Ayogo, a health technology company, where I led research and analytics efforts.
Over the past several years, I have become increasingly interested in how data can be used to answer questions in the “real world”. Businesses, government, and the social sector can gain from skillful use of data. Data offers a lens for understanding our world, our customers, our society, and ourselves. Used appropriately, it can help to evaluate options, expose new relationships, and drive organizational growth.
The good news is, there is more data available to us than ever before. By one estimate, we have produced more data in the past two years than in the entire history of the human species.
The bad news is that this amount of information can be totally overwhelming! The problem most organizations face is not that they don’t have enough data – it is that they don’t know what to do with the all data they have. Let’s face it, most of us are overwhelmed by the amount of information coming at us these days.
After earning my PhD, I helped to launch Brighter Investment, a social enterprise focused on financing higher education. I then joined Ayogo, a health technology company, where I led research and analytics efforts.
Over the past several years, I have become increasingly interested in how data can be used to answer questions in the “real world”. Businesses, government, and the social sector can gain from skillful use of data. Data offers a lens for understanding our world, our customers, our society, and ourselves. Used appropriately, it can help to evaluate options, expose new relationships, and drive organizational growth.
The good news is, there is more data available to us than ever before. By one estimate, we have produced more data in the past two years than in the entire history of the human species.
The bad news is that this amount of information can be totally overwhelming! The problem most organizations face is not that they don’t have enough data – it is that they don’t know what to do with the all data they have. Let’s face it, most of us are overwhelmed by the amount of information coming at us these days.
BETTER QUESTIONS, BETTER DECISIONS
I am interested in how we can sift through all this information to identify the signal from the noise. I believe the best way to improve decision-making with data is to start with intelligent questions. Good questions can guide data analysis, reporting, and sometimes how data are collected in the first place. As every social scientist knows, nothing beats a well-run experiment when it comes to understanding relationships in the real world.
With all the talk these days around “big data” and “data-driven decision-making,” we must remember that generating data is not the ultimate goal. Data is only useful to the extent that it leads to improved understanding and more effective decisions. Effective decisions do not magically arise from data; they arise from the interaction between raw digital material (data) and human judgment. The process of data analysis is itself a series of decisions!
With the rise of artificial intelligence, we are now seeing machines make decisions on our behalf. Yet, humans are still making choices when it comes to the algorithms these machines follow. As we offload more and more of our decision-making power to machines, our ability to think critically and with a sense of ethics may be more important than ever.
Feel free to explore my website. If anything intrigues you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
With all the talk these days around “big data” and “data-driven decision-making,” we must remember that generating data is not the ultimate goal. Data is only useful to the extent that it leads to improved understanding and more effective decisions. Effective decisions do not magically arise from data; they arise from the interaction between raw digital material (data) and human judgment. The process of data analysis is itself a series of decisions!
With the rise of artificial intelligence, we are now seeing machines make decisions on our behalf. Yet, humans are still making choices when it comes to the algorithms these machines follow. As we offload more and more of our decision-making power to machines, our ability to think critically and with a sense of ethics may be more important than ever.
Feel free to explore my website. If anything intrigues you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
EDUCATION>> PhD in Psychology and Behavioural Economics (Duke University)
>> Graduate level classes in statistics >> MBA class on Social Entrepreneurship taught by Cathy Clark >> UBC Centre for Social Innovation and Impact Investing (s3i) program graduate |
RESEARCH AND ANALYTICS>> Over 12 years experience
conducting behavioural research in academic and applied settings >> Data analysis using Tableau, SPSS, and R software, some SQL >> Led an international research project spanning 5 countries with over 2400 participants >> Six publications in peer-reviewed journals |
INDUSTRY ROLES>> Data Strategy Consultant with Blossom Data Strategy Consulting
> tech and social enterprise sectors >> Research Director at Ayogo > led analytics efforts to understand user engagement > designed evaluation frameworks for multi-stakeholder projects > developed user research strategy >> Program Director at Brighter Investment |