People Analytics Jumpstart
This course focuses on the real-world day-to-day practice of analytics in modern, millennial-heavy workplaces. It is taught live so that you can engage in community discussion, get support, and walk away with a certified sense of how to get moving in the world of People Analytics, and how to stand out as a top analyst at your company.
Max Brawer
Director of People Analytics at Twitch (ex-BuzzFeed, Google)
Max has served as the Head of People Analytics at Twitch & BuzzFeed (plus similar stints at Google & Nielsen) for the last 6 years, essentially functioning as an in-house anthropologist making a study of millennial workplaces. To optimize his impact, he learned to code, became a Google Developer Expert, and blurred the boundaries of the function by hand-coding a number of tools that drive people ops and technology, too. He’s proud to have hammered the product managers of Qualtrics and Greenhouse with ideas so frequently that they invited him to keynote their conferences in the US and Australia.
In parallel, Max leads a life as a writer and musician, bolstered by a Scholastic National Gold Key Award for personal essay/memoir, and contributions to platforms like BuzzFeed (breaking the community record) or growing his Medium blog to thousands of monthly readers. Lately, he has been building a people analytics audience on LinkedIn, with posts surpassing 30,000 impressions, encouraging his vision for the future of work.
In the last 6 years of leading People Analytics teams, I've met many enthusiastic people who are eager to break into this nascent field. Many of these folks are having trouble getting their foot in the door without direct experience. And, the lucky few who find themselves with a People Analytics title, are often thrown into a company as a solo contributor, and told to “stand up the function” with little to no mentorship or support of peers.
I was once in those shoes, as a marketing analyst who aspired to focus on internal teams as a People teamer. At BuzzFeed, I had to say: "trust me, I know I've never been in HR but here's what I can do!” Thankfully, the hiring manager believed in me (and a sample project I put together) enough to give me a shot. I want to help others make that same leap--or smaller jump from within HR to People Analytics --by showing them how to nail their interviews, and how to create defining moments on the job.
There are some learning resources out there for People Analysts, but many use a lens from the suit-and-tie world of academia or the corporate webinar style of yesteryear. This course will be unique in its focus on the real-world, day-to-day practice of analytics in modern, millennial-heavy workplaces. It is taught live so that you can engage in community discussion, get support, and walk away with a certified sense of how to get moving in the world of People Analytics. You'll learn how to stand out as a top analyst at your company through a mix of domain expertise and killer spreadsheets, automation, and design skills. And you'll build a network of peers from companies around the world, who can be a resource to you even when the class is over.
- The People Analytics Role and function in an organization
- The journey from data collection to data quality, reporting, analysis, and consultation
- The foundational "Don't forget the People in People Analytics" motto
- How and why DEI touches all components of our work in People Analytics
- How to build an impactful turnover report
- The inputs to a turnover model
- The complexities behind turnover reporting
- The "start with 'why' mindset”
- When, and why to use surveys in People Analytics
- Survey 101 rules
- Strategies for working with data
- Factor analysis and inventories
- To build a basic pipeline of data to bring into our analysis
- Apps script for future uses / automation in Google Sheets
Max has a unique combination of deep understanding people analytics, the relationship data plays throughout an organization, how people data can drive business outcomes, and pragmatic approaches to instrumenting data capture, measurement, and reporting for organizations of all sizes. You will not find a better teacher not only in people analytics theory but on the real-world application of this theory that you can take and implement into your startup or Fortune 500 company. Max can help you refine your people analytics approach or provide you the full playbook to go from 0-1 in this space.
As the founding People Analytics person in two companies Max has a track record of helping leaders, people teams and entire organizations understand the value and impact of people analytics. His curiosity combined with a unique mix of tech, analytics and people skills have enabled him to be a true innovator in this space. It's not about creating a pretty dashboard (although we need those too), it's about gathering the right data, mining valuable insights, telling the story and being able to deliver it all in a timely and digestible manner. From end to end of the process Max has ideas and insights about delivering awesomeness in analytics and creating impact for his colleagues and the employees they serve. Anyone who gets a chance to learn from him should seize the opportunity!
I’ve had the privilege to collaborate with Max on special projects for over 15 years. In that time, he successfully created the People Analytics function from scratch at multiple billion-dollar companies including tech giants BuzzFeed and Twitch. His innovative work has defined for me what People Analytics looks like at scale and how a little JavaScript and Product Management skill can raise this science's potential impact. His prolific web presence and unique ability to present content in an engaging way seamlessly blend technical depth with pop-culture sensibility, which makes me comfortable calling him a "pioneer" in this space.
HR practitioners who want to gain new analytics skills and specialize in People Analytics (note: this is NOT an advanced analytics course, but provides quick ways you can level-up your skill sets of working with People analytics data sets).
People analysts who want to increase their skills, extend their network, and increase their understanding of the function’s potential for impact.
Analysts looking to learn about a new domain with strong impact potential and understand the nuances of working with HR data.
Familiarity with spreadsheets – we will use Google Workspace / Google Sheets in the course)
Openness to learning how to pull in and manipulate data into a survey, and to use scripts for future survey automation
Nice to have: first-hand experience with medium/larger organizations and People Teams
