Governed AI assurance
Built and deployed a multimodal decision-assurance application for a large international bank, including structured outputs, deterministic checks, evidence tracing, confidence-aware findings, and human verification.
Proof and track record
Evidence before claims.
YakData combines current production-system work with a career of first-system building, analytical product leadership, forecasting, data architecture, and executive decision support.
Selected systems
Repeated work on consequential operating problems.
Production systems
Delivered approximately 30 forecasting, analytics, data, and decision systems in 2.5 years across a national-scale television platform.
Acquisition model
Built board-level pharmaceutical acquisition forecasting and simulation supporting a product-line transaction exceeding $1 billion.
Market-scale forecasting
Architected predictive and data-platform capabilities supporting Canada's approximately $2.7 billion linear television advertising market.
Founder evidence
First-system building across data, analytics, forecasting, and AI.
Business data science
Built early subscriber lifetime-value, retention, and customer-economics frameworks used in marketing, operations, and finance decisions.
Product leadership
Served as Tableau's first Director of Analytics and led a SAS research and development organization of approximately 40 people.
Data architecture
Rebuilt and operated a multi-terabyte data warehouse supporting cyber-defense analysis and operational reporting.
Books and teaching
Published methods and institutional teaching.
SAS For Dummies
Two editions explaining applied analytics and statistical work to practitioners.
The Accidental Analyst
A practical framework for turning raw data into useful analysis and executive action.
Rapid Graphs with Tableau
An early dedicated book on building analytical graphics with Tableau.
Operations research faculty
Faculty for data exploration, visualization, forecasting, and analytical decision work.
Customer analytics faculty
Faculty work covering customer lifetime value, cohort analysis, segmentation, and marketing dashboards.
Enterprise instruction
Professional and university instruction connecting data, architecture, visualization, and business decisions.
Founder profile
The operator behind YakData.
Stephen McDaniel was Netflix's first data scientist, building subscriber lifetime-value and retention frameworks used in marketing, operations, and finance decisions.
Across three decades he has built first analytical and decision systems inside consequential organizations: a $1B+ pharmaceutical acquisition model, Navy Cyber, an international bank's governed AI applications, and national-scale television forecasting, with product leadership at Tableau, SAS, and Brio/Oracle.
He wrote three field texts, taught forecasting and analytics for INFORMS, TDWI, and the American Marketing Association, and has guest lectured at Princeton, Brown, Chicago Booth, and the University of Washington.
Next decision
Proof matters only when it reduces the risk of the next system.
Bring one stalled AI initiative, unreliable forecast, fragmented decision workflow, or high-value manual process.
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