Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2005-11-10 18:04:07 - Graham Ellis
"You shouldn't take me as the typical trainee" says almost anyone I ask for their input / opinion when we look to improving the product we offer. "I'm unusual in that ...." they go on. But I'm going to differ with their view; the typical trainee IS an individual, and the very difference that implies is very usual. I'm not going to accept that person "x"s view is going to apply to everyone, but I want the whole gambit of views. And I don't want to discount out of the equation the views of all of our interest customers and just go with the views of the boring few who remain.
With statistics and surveys, the very irregularity must be recorded as a snapshot and hopefully enough data will be gathered to even out any ups and downs. Taking a piece of data and eliminating it because "but that was an exceptional circumstance" is not the correct action to take. This approach fails only if the very act or method of collecting the data skews it!
I admit it - we just love the variation in our friends and customers and contacts. And we love to improve what we offer - increasing wow factor up to megawow factor. We're gathering some interesting stats - watch this space!