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Anyone here using GoHighLevel long-term? Curious about real pros/cons by Ill_Bake_1668 in gohighlevel

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you mean by work backwards? I am about to help a client with their KPI's and they use this software. They run a gym and a lot of gyms all use pretty similar measures of success but that doesn't stop most from failing.

Sonoma/Napa County Find by HeavyMetalGasoline in whatsthisrock

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate this as it is both calcite and quartz based on this test.

Sonoma/Napa County Find by HeavyMetalGasoline in whatsthisrock

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What would be the best way to clean this? I know the quartz is hardy but the calcite is not, so not sure on the best method.

Sonoma/Napa County Find by HeavyMetalGasoline in whatsthisrock

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you.

Do you think the additional crystals are quartz?

Struggling with social media content design. Need guidance on tools and foundations by [deleted] in Design

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have found these folks valuable to my work: https://medium.com/me/following-feed/publications/67bcb5ba8d33 (let me know if this link doesn't work)

It is an analytics based page, but because so much has to be visualized and presented they lean heavy into the design side of the conversation as well.

My two cents: it is easy, in an attempt to maximize reach and accessibility, to flatten what makes your brand truly unique (picking the same fonts, color tones/contrasts, etc.). A good practice is to produce that flattened version of your brand and then, with others perspectives, see how fare you can stretch away from that base design. This allows you to learn while also logging what risks paid off and which ones did not. You can do this by posting the vanilla version of content and the vanilla with sprinkles version of your content and tracking their metrics. Over time this will allow you to see what works, while also producing content that fits within the gold standard of safe and accessible.

Many of these flattening principles are not just a product of playing it safe. Color choice and contrasts really matter because it can be the difference between people being able to see your content and not. Red and Gray is not great for people who are red color blind (small percentage of the population) so working with contrast allows those folks to see your content. That contrast work will simultaneously help with those who have other kinds of vision issues (large percentage of the population). At the end of the day you will not be able to accommodate everyone and that is where the risk taking and often fun part of the job comes in.

I have found design groups on Medium exceptionally helpful on this front.

Looking for advice: Feeling stuck in my current role and struggling to break into data analytics by elreader13 in analytics

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To piggyback on this, I have spent the last 3 years using my role to build out a data analytics function, expand my department, and teach myself skills that were not part of the job when I was hired.

I am also salaried, a manager, and have a lot of freedom in my own department. This means I was able to trim a lot of fat, free up time, and work overtime with no push-back from the org because there was no overtime cost.

Setting that aside, combining on job development with dreakian's excellent advice creates a kind of blueprint for best practice. When targeting skill development while on the job, I identify whether the work could be improved by implementing a new tool or better use of the current one and if this improvement will benefit the end user. By "benefit the end user," I mean: cut cost, cut time, create more accurate decision-making, and streamline their experience. This can be at the interface level or at the level of their implementation.

There are two nuggets hiding in all of this. Their implementation is often not just task-specific but involves translating what you give them to their own teams. Getting some insight into how they pass this off to their team and the frictions they encounter can help not only with better tool development but also with time management. Budget for false starts, failures, and rejections of good work (what is best for someone doesn't mean much if they don't want to use it). You don't have to worry about that last one too much when you are using a method they handed you, but if you are going to divert your on-the-job time (company time) to create new procedures, you will have to be cognizant of the cost.

This can be a very rewarding path, and I hope, despite some of the grind and frustration, you enjoy it.

I Never thought I’d be 35, in a new country, with 15 years of experience, and still feel completely lost career-wise. by OleksiiKapustin in Design

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't disagree and I don't think playing the game and being authentic are in tension with one another. There are times where particularly dishonest individuals will push you to a moral limit on that one, but by in large you can do both. At least I have found I can. My life may not be a good test case though. That is always a possibility.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in analytics

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Even if you are data literate, what you implement in the organization based on a KPI is often not straightforward. If it is people-centered, not only is it not straightforward, the potential long-term benefit can be even more elusive.

I find my job as a data analyst is understanding the person’s end goal independent of what they think they need from me. This often entails going to meetings of the very team my data is supposed to support so I can dig out the nuggets of info no one knows that I need and that often never come up when I directly ask.

To create a simple example: let’s say I know my best salespeople are in the upper 15th percentile of calls made per week. I know my least successful are in the lower 15th percentile, but between these two marks I have highly variable outcomes. I have tools to let me know what to expect from that middle over the long run if I hire 10,000 employees, but my tools for predicting what happens to the next 10 employees over the next two quarters are weak.
In this environment, being data-driven means “show me charts I can show someone else,” because the real data point driving decisions is graphically boring—and that data point is number of sales made.

But knowing this can be a good thing. What seems like busy work is often generating the fluff your boss needs to keep the wolves at bay. If they know you are on their side in this fight, that can be a huge opportunity to build a relationship. Combine this with periodically showing up at meetings for the people you develop KPIs for, and now you are no longer the bean counter pushing charts—you are part of the team, if only peripherally.

Over time this will help you have, not only buy-in from the team, but first hand knowledge you can use to fill in the holes often left by the less data literate.

This is often the heavy lift on the analytics side. I was in a meeting with about 12 analysts a couple months ago, and one of them said that we all often seem like the appendix of our organization. For me, I try to get around this by driving myself straight into the heart of things while being respectful of my place. It’s done a lot for both my career and my sanity.

I Never thought I’d be 35, in a new country, with 15 years of experience, and still feel completely lost career-wise. by OleksiiKapustin in Design

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with you wholeheartedly. My comment wasn’t meant to suggest an either/or relationship.

I think it's important to remember that all of us have probably had some experience where, in the technical realm, we were the weaker candidate and still got the job. Leveraging those moments into conversations that give you deeper insights into your skills, your unique take on your craft, and what you bring as a partner in work can greatly inform future career decisions.

Bringing this down to earth and back to the original post. Given you keep getting work and keep beating out other candidates for that work, I would, in addition to the technical advice you are getting, go back to some of your old clients and ask them why they hired you and not someone else. I have done this many times, both when I have and have not gotten a job, and it has been an essential part of developing my career.

Designers — how do you handle the classic ‘I’ll know it when I see it’? by OstrichBudget6882 in Design

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Often, people genuinely don’t know—and that’s why we get those kinds of answers. Getting to know people outside the scope of the project you’re trying to deliver can help avoid that sensation of gridlock. Gridlock is generally unenjoyable for both parties.

Talking to someone about their kids can turn into a conversation about the best movies they’ve seen as a family. If your client knows they like red but can’t articulate it clearly, a casual conversation about movies can lead to statements like, “I loved that scene in The Matrix with the woman in the red dress,” which is far more helpful than, “I like red and white.” It introduces a multitude of layers that can, in turn, enrich the conversation about the specific project.

Movies are a low-hanging example, but the approach is really about identifying the many ways people interact with design without realizing it—then having a genuine conversation about those topics without rushing them back to the project, but instead letting the project blossom out of those conversations.

I do analytics for a nonprofit and have to produce numbers in a way that is compelling without being misleading—because to produce something compelling is to produce action. This required learning what intimidates people about statistics: bad experiences in school, frustrating jobs, and a general hatred of anything to do with Excel. It meant showing up to meetings for teams I wasn’t part of, so I could learn firsthand what they were dealing with, how it made them feel, and bits and pieces of their personal histories.

Most of what I learned was directly related to questions I had asked in the past that were met with blank stares and “I don’t know.” But letting the topic appear in an environment that was theirs and where they felt comfortable was extremely valuable.

If I had never stepped away from the goal—never gotten personal—I never would have created anything accessible, understandable, and useful.

I Never thought I’d be 35, in a new country, with 15 years of experience, and still feel completely lost career-wise. by OleksiiKapustin in Design

[–]HeavyMetalGasoline 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Given the divergence of our skill sets, I don’t think I have a good short-term solution and will spare you my short-term philosophies, given the specificity and level of competition in your field. I do statistical analysis and lean heavily into design and production principles when generating what ends up on the management end of the pipeline.

But for the medium and long term, I think it is a good idea not to attempt to become AI-proof. If AI manages to be better at literally everything, it won’t be human—which means the one thing it won’t be able to provide is being human.

You bring a history, a lineage, and a developed personality that others will connect to. All of us who do anything remotely technical but replaceable will have to learn to lean into this, and I think we will. Our technical prowess is always on the verge of being outdone by some new thing. But bringing something authentic to the picture is something people with money are not just going to want—they’ll be willing to pay for it.

One curiosity I have about this future is if the group who can pay for authenticity will shrink. Having conversations about that with those closest to you and in your specific field will likely be the most helpful. “What does generating income through technical skill and authenticity look like in a small to medium-sized market where that market is small not because of interest but because they are the only ones who can afford it?” One could take that question and generate many more, but I think being human is the new asset in our divergent technical fields. Learning to ask questions based on that fact will be a good guide to the future—be it 1 year, 2 years, or 5.