"I was just trying to do my best. Trying to get from A to
B, and do a little shopping..."
from
the BBC series
Absolutely Fabulous
WHO
My
name is
John Dee Fair. I
live in downtown San Francisco with my wonderful partner,
Brian. We have a great condo that is dangerously close to
the Apple Store, the Virgin Megastore, Bloomingdales and
Whole Foods. Retail therapy in moderation can be
effective. I go for the geek stuff and music, while Brian
buys more tools for his cooking hobby and our continuous
home redecorating.
WHERE
I’ve
lived in San Francisco for 10 years after a big research
company recruited me to move out here and head up their
analytics department. Was hard to say no to that. Before
that, I lived in Chicago for about 10 years. Absolutely
loved the city, but I am not a fan of snow and cold. Grew
up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where the rest of my family
has stayed.
(A)
KALAMAZOO
I
worked as a Marketing Research phone interviewer while
putting myself through college and have specialized in
the field my entire career. I graduated Summa Cume Laude
from Western Michigan University while studying Marketing
and Communication. Concentrating in Marketing
Research/Statistics and Public Speaking seemed like an
odd combination at the time, but ended up preparing me
for a lot of presenting and public speaking. I am very
comfortable giving a talk in a conference room, board
room or convention hall. No, I am not shy.
I worked for a small “boutique” research firm in
Kalamazoo, Michigan for seven years where I got to learn
all the basics as an interviewer, data analyst, cross-tab
programmer and then in client service/sales. Our clients
were mostly hospitals and banks in Michigan.
(B)
CHICAGO
I
moved to Chicago in the late 80’s and worked for two
research firms there. One specialized in customer
satisfaction predictive modeling in healthcare. It’s
ironic that the bald guy did some groundbreaking work to
help convince the FDA to let Rogaine be sold over the
counter without a prescription. The other Chicago job
focused on discrete choice modeling and scientific food
testing. Both jobs really pumped up my modeling skills.
(Mathematical predictive modeling -- no cat walk for me.)
(C)
SAN FRANCISCO
I
made a big career change when I was recruited to San
Francisco. I had been there for vacation a year earlier
and fell in love with the Bay area. I took a job doing
analytics and modeling on CPG (grocery/drug store)
products using point of sale scanner data. I hadn’t done
syndicated database research before. It was a great
stretch to learn and master the “other side of the
business." Did some cool projects for companies like Jose
Cuervo, Dreyer’s/Edy’s Ice Cream and Gallo. My team came
up with a way to rearrange the wine aisle to
significantly increase sales in the same shelf space and
make it a little less overwhelming for shoppers that was
rolled out in most grocery stores in the country. And it
still gives me an excuse to shop the wine aisle and pick
up an extra bottle.
Living in SF, I had to experience working at an Internet
related start up. Probably the coolest job I ever had. I
ran consumer research about wireless phones and did some
of the first work in the industry on wireless
data/Internet on mobile devices. The company grew very
rapidly and within a few years I was managing a large
team doing over 250,000 interviews a year with mobile
phone users. I was a company spokesperson and traveled
constantly to visit the wireless carriers and speak at
conferences. Had the good fortune to be interviewed in
the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times,
on NPR Morning Edition and lots of trade magazines. I was
supposed to have pithy quotes on latest text messaging
craze, new line of phones or consumer frustration with
dropped calls. Working with a bunch of ex-McKinsey folks
really polished my consulting skills. And being the
computer and gadget enthusiast I am, the industry was
geek heaven for me.
Eventually, the non-stop travel and very, very long hours
stopped being fun and I wanted my personal life back. I
got recruited to run customer insights for
Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn and focused on
understanding the expanding Internet channel and how it
complimented the catalogs and retail stores. Was very
proud of the work we did to understand and map out how
the customer base was moving from catalogs to the
Internet and do our part to help navigate a potentially
difficult change in the business model very successfully.
Have to admit the great corporate employee discount also
let us totally refurnish the house. Picture Brian
smiling...
I
am currently heading up “Business Intelligence” for Wells
Fargo doing a wide variety of work on everything from
customer satisfaction to new product development.
Guess you can tell I really like what I do. If I can’t be
a songwriter, then research/analytics is definitely the
very next best thing for me. Amazing mix of left brain
(mathematical logical puzzles) and right brain
(understanding of customer needs and psychology). Best of
both worlds.
PLAY
I am passionate about technology and read about it
constantly. It turned out to be very helpful in my line
of work dealing with large databases. I know it is a
stereotype, but I read mostly sci-fi, business books and
“positive-attitude” motivational books. I have learned
life is so much better when you have a consistent
positive attitude and when you lead with hope and humor.
I am an unmitigated Apple fanatic.
My other very passionate hobby is songwriting and
recording. It is a wonderful mental balance to my
research job. I have a small recording studio set up at
home. You can sample some of my songs on the Music Page
in the navigation bar at the top, but please remember I
am a self-taught musician with no formal music or voice
training. The music aspires to be George Michael meets
Sade with a dash of Erasure. I know what you are going to
say, “Don’t quit your day job.”
Don’t worry, I enjoy that too.
John
Dee