"Technical Chinese": Data Mining and Autopsy

Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He created the column "Vom Fach" in the NZZ FOLIO and was in charge of it for years. He presents and decodes words and terms from the field of marketing.Data mining, Noun, neuterMines are currently experiencing a revival, but the new working-class heroes are not miners but nerds: data mining is dirty and dangerous work. In the geological shallows of digitization, where all the data we leave behind with our computers and mobile devices is stored, the new miners dig for information, evaluate it and thus form the basis for new algorithms. They do exploratory drilling before removing layers, dragging them to the light of day, and gutting them there. Like prehistoric tissue samples in the perpetual ice, our traces are neatly stored in so-called server farms and data knowledge centers. Some decay over time, while others are evaluated, sold, mixed up - and often misinterpreted. The stuff is highly explosive: if it's particularly valuable data like private emails or Facebook likes, it can sometimes divide a country or make a loudmouth president.Data mining is also becoming increasingly important in marketing and communications in the age of digitalization. Documenting, interpreting and structuring the euphorically collected data everywhere are becoming gamechangers for an entire industry; "computational thinking" is becoming the new core competence. The miners in the mines of the Ruhr region used to call out "Glückauf!" to each other before they went down into the tunnels, meaning two things: 1. access a new tunnel and 2. come out safely. The tunnel was both a promise of salvation and a threat.Autopsy, Noun, feminineIt was U.S. series like "CSI" that made forensic scientists into stars and morgues into places of action. Today, the hypothermic scientists are making their way into the communications industry to perform autopsies there, too. The unfamiliar word 'autopsy' has replaced the confusing 'debriefing'. Too often, it was not understood to mean the same thing - which seems embarrassing in an industry whose core competence should be communication. The most common misconceptions: Was debriefing a) the supplementary informing after a briefing or b) the rapport after a completed project? Often the client thought they could still debrief while the agency had long since shopped. So let's clear this up once and for all: Before a project, we brief and - if necessary - debrief. After the completion of a sprint, a flight, a campaign or a project follows: the autopsy. Then you dissect the project, analyze exactly what happened and why, which mistakes were repeated and which are new. It is important to proceed with cool, unsparing meticulousness. Like the forensic experts at Netflix.