MAA Video Assignment

UCSD MGTA 451-Marketing

Kenneth C. Wilbur

Learning Objectives

  1. Practice reading analytics papers

  2. Practice communicating analytics frameworks

  3. Survey analytics practices at leading companies

  4. Practice critiquing, questioning, understanding analytics frameworks

  5. Get to know each other better

WTF is a “paper”

  • For centuries scientists communicated using “papers”

        - The basic format has stubbornly survived digitization, with improvements
    - But they can be hard to read, and they are definitely hard to write

  • Scientists write papers to (i) communicate & archive results, (ii) get feedback, (iii) get credit, and/or (iv) improve the world in some small way

  • In analytics, some write papers to attract clients/users

What’s in a paper?

  1. Problem to solve and/or question(s) to answer

       - "Problem to solve" : Engineering
   - "Question(s) to answer" : Science

  2. Brief review of earlier relevant works

       - To contextualize the proposed solution // avoid reinventing wheels

  3. The “Contribution”

       - Usually, new methods, new knowledge, or both

  4. How we implemented the contribution & what we learned

  5. Discussion (read: opinions)

       - Contribution importance, implications, new questions/problems the contribution enables us to examine
   - If we're intellectually honest, caveats and limitations

Why do I need to read “papers”?

  • Analytics frontier is constantly moving

        - Prof. retools every 5 years or so

  • Valuable new tools often appear with papers to explain them

        - Paper is usually the clearest resource, if you know how to read papers
    - Paper is written by person with most expertise: Learn from the best

  • Paper writing correlates with high skill and commitment

  • Reading papers is a skill that improves with experience

  • You’ll read many papers in MSBA : Let’s get started

How to do this project well

  • Pick an interesting MAA, based on company, topic, solution

  • Sincere effort to understand your MAA

        - It's OK if you don't understand 100% of finer details
    - Do make an effort, but don't get too bogged down
    - Take the authors' word at face value and try to get the big picture
    - I expect this project to stretch you, discomfort can signal growth

  • Sincere effort to explain to classmates

        - MAA Video questions will be asked on quiz

  • Intellectual honesty & humility, but don’t be intimidated

  • Some original content that was directly inspired by the MAA

        - Any team that does great, I'll publish the video & retire the MAA

Next Steps

  1. Let’s finalize Team MAA assignments & project parameters

  2. Read MAA carefully & develop OC

  3. Prepare slides & record video

  4. Upload .mp4 uploaded to instructure/canvas

Does presentation quality matter?

Should I contact MAA author?

  • You are free to do so

        - Most papers author contact info, some indicate "corresponding author"
    - Most authors care about making their work accessible
    - Most authors are seldom contacted about their papers

  • Will author reply?

        - Probably depends on the inquiry quality
    - Some authors will never respond; some authors will respond exactly once, which implies no chance to follow up
    - You can add author on LinkedIn to predict if they will respond

FAQ & Resources

  • Why a video?

        - Constrains length, reduces nerves, enables asynchronous viewing & archiving

  • Project parameters: See syllabus

        - People/team, video duration, Q&A duration?

  • Deadline? Sep 6 7:30am

  • What if I don’t understand key elements of the paper?

        - Code, LLMs, internet forums, classmates, Piazza, me/TA, or make do with partial understanding

  • Does my video have to be perfect?

        - No way, that's unrealistic, every video will have limitations