LARS TRIELOFF – BLUE YONDER – I’M @TRIELOFF ON TWITTER 
AUTOMATING DECISIONS – THE 
NEXT FRONTIER FOR BIG DATA
WHAT NOBODY TELLS YOU ABOUT 
THE FRONTIER
WHO IS USING BIG DATA TODAY
WHERE BIG DATA IS USED 
Effective Use 
Marketing 
Finance 
Everyone Else 
SOURCE: OWN, POTENTIALLY BIASED OBSERVATIONS
WHERE BIG DATA IS USED 
Potential Use 
Marketing 
Finance 
Everyone Else 
SOURCE: OWN, POTENTIALLY BIASED OBSERVATIONS
Better Decisions 
Faster Data 
More Data 
THREE APPROACHES
DIGITAL MARKETING’S APPROACH: 
MORE DATA
FINANCE’S APPROACH 
FASTER DATA
BUT WHAT ABOUT BETTER 
DECISIONS?
Self-Actualization 
Love/Belonging 
Safety 
Physiological 
Esteem
Storage 
Collection 
Prediction 
Analysis 
Decision
Storage 
Collection 
Prediction 
Analysis 
Decision 
Self-Actualization 
Love/Belonging 
Safety 
Physiological 
Esteem
“… all others bring data.” 
! 
— W. EDWARDS DEMING
HOW DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS SHOULD WORK 
COMPUTER 
COLLECTS 
COMPUTER 
STORES 
HUMAN 
ANALYZES 
HUMAN 
PREDICTS 
HUMAN 
DECIDES
HOW DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS REALLY WORK 
COMPUTER 
COLLECTS 
COMPUTER 
STORES 
HUMAN 
ANALYZES 
COMMUNICATION 
BREAKDOWN 
HUMAN 
DECIDES
COMMUNICATION 
BREAKDOWN 
Communication Breakdown, It's always the same, 
I'm having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane! 
— LED ZEPPELIN 
• Drill-down analysis … misunderstood or distorted 
• Metrics dashboards … contradictory and confusing 
• Monthly reports … ignored after two iterations 
• In-house analyst teams … overworked and powerless
HOW DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS REALLY WORK 
HTTP://DILBERT.COM/STRIPS/COMIC/2007-05-16/
HOW DECISIONS REALLY SHOULD WORK 
COMPUTER 
COLLECTS 
COMPUTER 
STORES 
COMPUTER 
ANALYZES 
COMPUTER 
PREDICTS 
COMPUTER 
DECIDES
99.9% of all business decisions can be automated
HOW DECISIONS ARE MADE 
Human Decisions 
Business Rules 
No Decision, Decision-by-default
BUSINESS RULES = PROGRAMMING 
• Business rules are like programs 
– written by non-programmers 
• Business rules can be contradictory, incomplete, 
and complex beyond comprehension 
• Business rules have no built-in feedback 
mechanism: “It is the rule, because it is the rule”
HUMAN DECISION 
MAKING 
• • System 1: Fast, automatic, 
frequent, emotional, stereotypic, 
subconscious 
• • System 2: Slow, effortful, 
infrequent, logical, calculating, 
conscious 
DANIEL KAHNEMANN, THINKING FAST 
AND SLOW
HOW TO DECIDE FAST 
FREQUENT DECISION MAKING MEANS FAST DECISION MAKING, 
MEANS USING HEURISTICS OR COGNITIVE BIASES 
Anchoring effect 
IKEA effect 
Over-justification effect 
Bandwagon effect 
Confirmation bias 
Substitution 
Availability heuristic Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy 
Gambler’s fallacy 
Illusory correlation 
Rhyme as reason effect 
Hindsight bias 
Zero-risk bias 
Framing effect 
Sunk cost fallacy 
Overconfidence 
Outcome bias 
Inattentional Blindness 
Benjamin Franklin effect 
Anecdotal evidence 
Negativity bias 
Loss aversion 
Backfire effect
HOW COMPUTERS DECIDE FAST 
MACHINE LEARNING OFFERS AN ALTERNATIVE TO HUMAN 
COGNITIVE BIASES AND CAN BE MADE FAST THROUGH BIG DATA 
K-Means Clustering 
Markov Chain Monte Carlo 
Support Vector Machines Naive Bayes Affinity Propagation 
Decision Trees 
Nearest Neighbors 
Least Angle Regression 
Logistic Regression 
Spectral clustering 
Restricted Bolzmann Machines
Better decisions through predictive applications
HOW PREDICTIVE APPLICATIONS WORK 
COLLECT & 
STORE 
ANALYZE 
CORRELATIONS 
BUILD 
DECISION 
MODEL 
DECIDE & 
TEST OPTIMIZE
WHY TEST? 
“Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its 
eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look 
over there’” 
–RANDALL MUNROE
STORY TIME 
(Not safe for vegetarians)
THE GROUND BEEF DILEMMA
THE GROUND BEEF DILEMMA 
Yesterday Today Tomorrow Next Delivery Next Day 
In Stock Demand
THE GROUND BEEF DILEMMA 
• Order too much and you will have to throw meat 
away when it goes bad. You lose money and cows 
die in vain 
• Order too little and you won’t serve all your 
potential customers. You lose money and 
customers stay hungry.
CHALLENGE #1 
ACCURATELY PREDICT DEMAND
CHALLENGE #2 
AUTOMATE REPLENISHMENT 
COLLECT 
STOCK AND 
SALES 
PREDICT 
DEMAND 
TRADE OFF 
COSTS 
CREATE 
ORDERS IN ERP 
SYSTEM 
OPTIMIZE & 
REPEAT
@BYANALYTICS_EN 
@TRIELOFF

Big Data Berlin – Automating Decisions is the Next Frontier for Big Data

  • 1.
    LARS TRIELOFF –BLUE YONDER – I’M @TRIELOFF ON TWITTER AUTOMATING DECISIONS – THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR BIG DATA
  • 2.
    WHAT NOBODY TELLSYOU ABOUT THE FRONTIER
  • 3.
    WHO IS USINGBIG DATA TODAY
  • 4.
    WHERE BIG DATAIS USED Effective Use Marketing Finance Everyone Else SOURCE: OWN, POTENTIALLY BIASED OBSERVATIONS
  • 5.
    WHERE BIG DATAIS USED Potential Use Marketing Finance Everyone Else SOURCE: OWN, POTENTIALLY BIASED OBSERVATIONS
  • 6.
    Better Decisions FasterData More Data THREE APPROACHES
  • 7.
  • 8.
  • 9.
    BUT WHAT ABOUTBETTER DECISIONS?
  • 10.
  • 11.
  • 12.
    Storage Collection Prediction Analysis Decision Self-Actualization Love/Belonging Safety Physiological Esteem
  • 14.
    “… all othersbring data.” ! — W. EDWARDS DEMING
  • 15.
    HOW DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONSSHOULD WORK COMPUTER COLLECTS COMPUTER STORES HUMAN ANALYZES HUMAN PREDICTS HUMAN DECIDES
  • 16.
    HOW DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONSREALLY WORK COMPUTER COLLECTS COMPUTER STORES HUMAN ANALYZES COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN HUMAN DECIDES
  • 17.
    COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN CommunicationBreakdown, It's always the same, I'm having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane! — LED ZEPPELIN • Drill-down analysis … misunderstood or distorted • Metrics dashboards … contradictory and confusing • Monthly reports … ignored after two iterations • In-house analyst teams … overworked and powerless
  • 18.
    HOW DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONSREALLY WORK HTTP://DILBERT.COM/STRIPS/COMIC/2007-05-16/
  • 19.
    HOW DECISIONS REALLYSHOULD WORK COMPUTER COLLECTS COMPUTER STORES COMPUTER ANALYZES COMPUTER PREDICTS COMPUTER DECIDES
  • 20.
    99.9% of allbusiness decisions can be automated
  • 21.
    HOW DECISIONS AREMADE Human Decisions Business Rules No Decision, Decision-by-default
  • 22.
    BUSINESS RULES =PROGRAMMING • Business rules are like programs – written by non-programmers • Business rules can be contradictory, incomplete, and complex beyond comprehension • Business rules have no built-in feedback mechanism: “It is the rule, because it is the rule”
  • 23.
    HUMAN DECISION MAKING • • System 1: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, subconscious • • System 2: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious DANIEL KAHNEMANN, THINKING FAST AND SLOW
  • 24.
    HOW TO DECIDEFAST FREQUENT DECISION MAKING MEANS FAST DECISION MAKING, MEANS USING HEURISTICS OR COGNITIVE BIASES Anchoring effect IKEA effect Over-justification effect Bandwagon effect Confirmation bias Substitution Availability heuristic Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy Gambler’s fallacy Illusory correlation Rhyme as reason effect Hindsight bias Zero-risk bias Framing effect Sunk cost fallacy Overconfidence Outcome bias Inattentional Blindness Benjamin Franklin effect Anecdotal evidence Negativity bias Loss aversion Backfire effect
  • 25.
    HOW COMPUTERS DECIDEFAST MACHINE LEARNING OFFERS AN ALTERNATIVE TO HUMAN COGNITIVE BIASES AND CAN BE MADE FAST THROUGH BIG DATA K-Means Clustering Markov Chain Monte Carlo Support Vector Machines Naive Bayes Affinity Propagation Decision Trees Nearest Neighbors Least Angle Regression Logistic Regression Spectral clustering Restricted Bolzmann Machines
  • 26.
    Better decisions throughpredictive applications
  • 27.
    HOW PREDICTIVE APPLICATIONSWORK COLLECT & STORE ANALYZE CORRELATIONS BUILD DECISION MODEL DECIDE & TEST OPTIMIZE
  • 28.
    WHY TEST? “Correlationdoesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there’” –RANDALL MUNROE
  • 29.
    STORY TIME (Notsafe for vegetarians)
  • 30.
  • 31.
    THE GROUND BEEFDILEMMA Yesterday Today Tomorrow Next Delivery Next Day In Stock Demand
  • 32.
    THE GROUND BEEFDILEMMA • Order too much and you will have to throw meat away when it goes bad. You lose money and cows die in vain • Order too little and you won’t serve all your potential customers. You lose money and customers stay hungry.
  • 33.
  • 34.
    CHALLENGE #2 AUTOMATEREPLENISHMENT COLLECT STOCK AND SALES PREDICT DEMAND TRADE OFF COSTS CREATE ORDERS IN ERP SYSTEM OPTIMIZE & REPEAT
  • 35.