Makers of men’s shirts have finally figured out a model for providing custom orders tailored to individual dimensions. Prompted by the ads prevalent across social media and professional blog spaces, I recently ordered custom shirts from two different providers. One maker promised a great fit based on a predictive algorithm; the other provided a how-to guide for measuring my own exact dimensions. The shirt based on measurement is now the best fitting shirt in my closet, while the shirt based on prediction actually fits worse than many department store brands.
Predictive analytics is as much as ever the exciting frontier in our field. Yet we too often undervalue the importance of better measurement as a source of innovation. My now favorite clothier figured out how to achieve sufficiently precise self-service tailoring in the convenience of home. In fitness and health, sensors can track actual behavior that only a few years ago required expensive laboratory studies. Across many voice and text applications, the occurrence of specific words and overall sentiment have migrated from the qualitative to the quantitative. Today, innovation in business intelligence is as much about making measurement more precise and user friendly as it is about finding the right reporting engine and defining KPIs. The power of predictive analytics will certainly continue to expand. I expect the predicted shirt will someday be my favorite fit, though how it fits and how it looks will still be the ultimate measure.
JP Snow 