Goodbye Q3, Hello Q4!

How was your third quarter? Can you believe there are only 53 more working days remaining in 2024?

I've been quiet on my newsletters and online media presence temporarily in order to complete a number of key projects. As many of my readers wanted to learn what I'm up to, I'm giving you updates and key lessons today.

In the third quarter, I completed three major client projects:

• Data strategy assessment and roadmap for an online media company
• Overhaul of website design and web analytics for an online creator
• Data leadership coaching program for a data leader client

I also continued with my ongoing programs and partnerships:

• Data Leadership Community of Practice cohort meetings
• Data Leaders Networking Social event
• Data Leaders Masterclass for Team Branding
• Platform migration of Personal Branding for Data Professionals and Leaders online course

Q3 was also a shortened work-quarter as I needed to provide healthcare needs for others, and had the privilege to take a family vacation to Australia.

I'm also still preparing to speak to a live audience of up to 2,000 people this week regarding how to prepare for careers of the future. I expect to be able to share my full talk with you after the event, as well as resume my regular newsletter cadence.

For now, I'll share my key lessons in 2 areas of business ROI optimization.

1. Optimize ROI of Technologies

Do the technologies that you use continue to add value? If not, be ready to switch. These are some technologies that I've evaluated recently for my clients and for myself.

• Web analytics: Google Analytics and others
• WordPress plugins and themes
• Online ad networks
• Productivity tools: DBT ETL, Lucidchart/Draw.io, Driversnote
• Online course hosting services

Why stay with old clunky technologies when you have other choices?

I also continue to evaluate AI productivity tools. I'm sticking to ChatGPT for most text-based tasks for now.

Using ChatGPT and equivalent AI chatbots have been terrific in helping me learn and adapt to new systems faster.

• Need SQL code to query and analyze data in WordPress and GA/BigQuery? ChatGPT knows the standard schemas and can generate the SQL code for me.
• Need to create a database ER diagram? I use ChatGPT to generate the Mermaid-formatted code to be imported into Draw.io to create the diagrams.
• Need standard text for a website privacy policy? ChatGPT puts together the custom privacy policies for my simple situations.
• Need to write a sales proposal and contract? ChatGPT can draft my documents so long as I keep simple requirements.

ChatGPT can certainly provide productivity for relatively simple routine tasks. However, like other AI chatbots, it still has problems with "hallucinations" and "forgetting" earlier contexts. I think of it as an assistant to help me with my business, but I always need to direct it to what I want, and I always need to check its outputs. If a better tool comes along, I'll readily consider switching.

For more specialized work, including thought leadership articles and this newsletter, I still prefer to do the bulk of the work myself or via a qualified human.

For your own technology usage, consider what's essential "core" versus routine "context" for your specific situation. Adopt better technologies whenever you can for better ROI.

2. Optimize ROI of Salaries

Besides evaluating technologies, I've also been evaluating the people side of vendors, consultancies, and job candidates too. I'm doing this in the context of being the equivalent of a fractional Head of Data for my client company.

For example, labor costs need to be considered.

Businesses, particularly for-profit ventures, need to aim for 5x ROI from labor costs (unwritten rule of thumb). Whether you work in a traditional job or run your own business, consider how you can show 5x ROI value from your salary. Employees and team managers feel this ongoing pressure to demonstrate value to the company as a harsh reality.

I read research that 24% of US workers use generative AI for work each week (per The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI from Bick, Blandin, and Deming at NBER, Sept. 2024).

Presumably these workers use Gen-AI to become more productive, which will help them meet the 5x salary ROI expectation.

If you're not incorporating Gen-AI in your workflow like these 24% of US workers, then it's almost like you're still using an abacus to do math while others use an electronic calculator in a more productive way.

However, even if you do use Gen-AI to be more productive, so will most others eventually in the workforce too. Businesses will then set new expectations of workers needing to be even more productive at perhaps 10x salary ROI levels.

Who will benefit most from your new 10x salary ROI productivity? That's going to be a good question that society will need to answer.

My recommendations for you:

• Boost your productivity using AI. At the minimum, use AI to help accelerate your learning of new skills and topics, so you can be more adaptable. Then find ways to use AI for routine tasks like repurposing marketing content from one channel to another, or writing SQL statements. Try to provide at least 5x ROI value of your salary.
• Consider cutting out the overhead. If you're bothered by the idea that you won't personally benefit from your productivity gains resulting in 5x-10x ROI of your salary, then consider owning and/or running your own business with less overhead. You might need to manage with less economy of scale though.

I'm Here to Help

Contact me if you'd like my help in developing and implementing strategies to optimize your business with data and AI, or to optimize your own career. I'll be happy to discuss with you.

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Jimmy Wong Coach, speaker, and entrepreneur enabling people to thrive in the age of AI. Data science leader with 12 years experience at the LinkedIn company and 27 years in the industry. Visit aijimmy.com​ ​​​​​​

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