Essays on AI strategy, machine learning in practice, and what it actually takes to lead organizations that benefit from both.https://kefrailey.com/en-ushttps://kefrailey.com/writing/data-quality-literature-review/https://kefrailey.com/writing/data-quality-literature-review/A survey of how data quality has been defined, measured, and debated across decades of research — and why the field still lacks the practical, quantitative foundation modern AI demands.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityMachine Learninghttps://kefrailey.com/writing/fit-for-what-use/https://kefrailey.com/writing/fit-for-what-use/Data doesn't need to be perfect to be useful. It needs to be fit for a specific purpose. A framework for evaluating data quality against the use case that actually matters.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityAI Strategyhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/measuring-fitness-resource-allocation/https://kefrailey.com/writing/measuring-fitness-resource-allocation/How do you measure whether data is good enough to guide the distribution of critical resources? An applied case study in defining and quantifying data quality for a specific, consequential use case.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityMachine Learninghttps://kefrailey.com/writing/measuring-fitness-surge-prediction/https://kefrailey.com/writing/measuring-fitness-surge-prediction/Building a model to predict COVID-19 deaths is hard enough. Building one that accounts for how the underlying data changes over time is harder — and significantly more honest.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityMachine Learninghttps://kefrailey.com/writing/producing-americas-covid-data/https://kefrailey.com/writing/producing-americas-covid-data/How America's COVID-19 data was actually made — the fragmented public health infrastructure, political decisions, and reporting failures that shaped what we knew and when we knew it.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityAI Strategyhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/rising-from-the-dead/https://kefrailey.com/writing/rising-from-the-dead/Tracking California's COVID-19 death data daily — watching numbers disappear, reappear, and rewrite history — and what it reveals about the state of modern data.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityMachine Learninghttps://kefrailey.com/writing/the-data-revolution-blind-spot/https://kefrailey.com/writing/the-data-revolution-blind-spot/We have built sophisticated ways to use data — machine learning, generative AI, real-time models. We have not built the methods to know whether that data is worth using.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityAI Strategyhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/visualizing-the-problem/https://kefrailey.com/writing/visualizing-the-problem/Standard line graphs hide how data changes over time. Shifted line plots, filtered heat maps, lag plots, bifrost plots, and impact plots — a visualization toolkit for data that revises itself.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityMachine Learninghttps://kefrailey.com/writing/what-data-quality-demands/https://kefrailey.com/writing/what-data-quality-demands/Data doesn't need to be perfect. But its imperfections must be understood. A closing argument for building a practical, urgent field of data quality research.Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMTData QualityAI Strategyhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/women-data-leaders-panel-2023/https://kefrailey.com/writing/women-data-leaders-panel-2023/A panel conversation on leadership, career trajectories, and what it takes to advance equity in data science and analytics. Data Leaders USA, 2023.Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMTLeadershipCareerTalkhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/ai-roi-questions-you-need-to-ask/https://kefrailey.com/writing/ai-roi-questions-you-need-to-ask/AI ROI isn't a measurement problem you solve at the end of a project — it's a strategic question you answer at the beginning. The talk, with the questions to ask before, during, and after you build.Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMTAI StrategyROILeadershiphttps://kefrailey.com/writing/essential-data-literacy/https://kefrailey.com/writing/essential-data-literacy/What every professional — technical or not — actually needs to understand about data in order to make better decisions, ask better questions, and hold data-driven claims to a higher standard.Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMTData LiteracyLeadershipTalkhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/building-effective-data-science-portfolio/https://kefrailey.com/writing/building-effective-data-science-portfolio/What actually makes a data science portfolio stand out — project selection, storytelling, and demonstrating judgment and impact rather than technical execution alone.Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMTCareerData ScienceTalkhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/the-impact-hypothesis/https://kefrailey.com/writing/the-impact-hypothesis/Data science teams spend months building models that technically work — and fail to move the business. The culprit is almost always the same: an unstated assumption between output and outcome.Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTAI StrategyProductLeadershiphttps://kefrailey.com/writing/the-impact-hypothesis-after-thoughts/https://kefrailey.com/writing/the-impact-hypothesis-after-thoughts/A follow-up on why data science projects fail to deliver business value even when the models work — and what naming the problem actually changes.Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTAI StrategyProductData Sciencehttps://kefrailey.com/writing/talk-the-talk-data-science-jargon/https://kefrailey.com/writing/talk-the-talk-data-science-jargon/AI, machine learning, models, features — the words get thrown around in every boardroom. Here's what they actually mean, in plain language, with no condescension.Fri, 08 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTData LiteracyLeadershipAI Strategyhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/rabbit-holes-red-herrings-rewards/https://kefrailey.com/writing/rabbit-holes-red-herrings-rewards/Curiosity is a data scientist's greatest asset and most dangerous liability. How to follow interesting threads without losing weeks — and how to know the difference between a distraction and a discovery.Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTData SciencePractitionerCareerhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/the-revolution-will-be-data-driven/https://kefrailey.com/writing/the-revolution-will-be-data-driven/A keynote for nonprofit and civic sector leaders on how the data revolution was reshaping civil society — the opportunities, the risks, and what organizations need to do to use data without losing sight of the people behind it.Tue, 01 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTData ScienceLeadershipTalkhttps://kefrailey.com/writing/in-context-finding-ourselves-through-data/https://kefrailey.com/writing/in-context-finding-ourselves-through-data/A talk on the human dimension of data work — how data can illuminate community, identity, and connection, and what it means to use data in service of people rather than in spite of them.Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMTData ScienceLeadershipTalk