How to Use The Data Letter

Welcome to The Data Letter, your field manual for turning data chaos into reliable business impact. This is a carefully curated collection of proven frameworks and real-world case studies, showcasing a decade of fixing costly data errors.

Your Reading Strategy

🎯 For the Data Leader Under Pressure

Start here if you need to prove ROI quickly:

1. Read: Bad Data’s Hidden Toll: How to Calculate Your Data Debt → Build your business case

2. Then read: Your Data Catalog is a Ghost Town → Fix your most visible asset first

3. Result: you’ll have the tools to quantify the problem and a clear starting point for the solution

🤖 For the AI/ML Practitioner

Start here if you’re building or evaluating AI systems:

1. Read: My AI Gave Me Fake Data → Learn to detect hallucinations before they cost you

2. Then explore: The AI case studies below to see what went wrong and exactly how it was fixed

3. Result: You’ll spot reliability risks others miss and build more trustworthy AI systems

📚 The Deep Dive Approach

Systematically build your data reliability skills:

• Browse the library below by your current challenge

• Each case study includes implementation frameworks, not just theory

• Read in any order - each piece stands alone but connects to a larger system

The TDL Library

🔍 AI Reliability & Validation

Practical frameworks for building AI that doesn’t betray your trust

1. My AI Gave Me Fake Data: How to Build an AI Hallucination Detector

   The step-by-step hallucination detector I wish I had 5 years ago

2. AI Was Tasked WIth Growth: It Optimized Away Their Best Customers

   Why your optimization function might be destroying value, and how to fix it

3. Our AI Convinced Us We Had a Million New Users

   The due diligence checklist we now use for every AI-driven metric

💸 Data ROI & Cost Optimization

Frameworks that turn data spending from a cost center into a profit driver

1. What Happened When a SaaS Company Discovered $210K in Wasted Ad Spend: Causal AI for Ad Spend Optimization

   How causal AI uncovered optimization opportunities traditional methods missed

2. The $12M Snowblower Crisis: A Case Study in Why AI Rigor Outlasts AI Hype

   Why statistical rigor matters more than AI hype, with the audit framework we used

🏗️ Data Foundations & Governance

Building data systems that don’t collapse under pressure

1. Bad Data’s Hidden Toll: How to Calculate Your Data Debt

   The spreadsheet model and business case framework for securing your data budget

2. Your Data Catalog Is a Ghost Town: The Playbook I used to Fix This for Mars, Inc.

   The exact adoption strategy that revived a $2B company’s data catalog

How to Get the Most Value

For Free Subscribers

• Read the case studies that match your current challenges

• Implement the frameworks included in each article

For Paid Subscribers

You get the complete tool kit with every article:

• Production read templates and scripts

• Communication frameworks for getting stakeholder buy-in

• Immediate access to every toolkit we’ve ever published

• Join the discussion in the comments. I respond to every thoughtful response.

🚀 What’s Coming Next?

Each week, we publish new case studies and frameworks based on real data disasters and their solutions. Subscribe below to get practical guides delivered directly to your inbox every Wednesday and Sunday.

Ready to stop firefighting and start building reliable data systems? Subscribe to The Data Letter