Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the bustling world of commerce and culinary delights to help you grow your business and win. Join us as we explore the fascinating stories, trends, and challenges that shape the retail and hospitality industry, from cozy corner cafes to sprawling shopping malls and everything in between. And now, here's your host, Kevin Spencer. 

Welcome again to Retail Checks and Balances. Today, I have an important guest, as any of my other guests, Jonathan Foster, data scientist and architect. Jonathan, welcome to the show. 

Thank you for having me, Kevin. It's a great podcast to be on, and I appreciate you taking the time to have a conversation with you. 

So for the listeners, tell me, what the hell is a data scientist architect? 

Data scientist architect is really somebody who designs systems centered around the gathering, collection, sorting, and the visualization of data. Also putting together complex formulas or algorithms to make the data make a whole lot more sense. So to provide actionable intelligence to customers. and tell effective data stories instead of putting a whole bunch of numbers and spreadsheets on the screen and drilling down line by line, which can be very boring and very tedious, but important. I structure the data in a visualization and in a way that allows for customers to easily tell what they need to do, why they need to do it, and the impact of those particular changes to their business, whether it be process flows or whether it be output to the customer at large. 

So when you say visualization, you mean some sort of dashboard that they can see and start seeing the data from a operation perspective, correct? 

Absolutely. So we utilize a lot of different tools, whether it be Tableau, Power BI, Oracle Business Intelligence, to put kind of interactive dashboards is my specialty. So we can have more fruitful conversations and business dynamics. So people can test different theories and answer questions, multiple questions, at a moment's notice, having the latest and greatest position available to them, as opposed to what traditionally happens in business, where somebody asks a question that nobody was prepared for, and then they have to go back and redo and reinvent the wheel and take up a lot of manual labor to be able to answer one question, we're able to assess the entire environment in one shot. and have a better use of our time. 

So, you know, this is blowing my mind at this minute because that's kind of the solution set that we have to try and provide to our customers and go into a platform is really where you want to be. Because as you said, you know, wasting time going line by line and you want to get those how to say it, those critical things right in your face as soon as you click a button. Dive deep into how do you extract that from a customer? 

Usually it's based off of their business metrics or what they consider the success metrics to be. We all have some suggestions in that because we'll, you know, we'll look at the market, we'll look at what data is available to us, what the market is suggesting around the environment of their industry. But also, it really comes down to utilizing some psychological components, things like piles that, you know, are placed within the dashboard to give that kind of quick information, that quick hit of whether or not we're going. We're going up, we're going down, and then being able to drill down a little deeper if you want to focus on those particular things. Also, structuring a dashboard to not be very busy, have basically the questions be able to be answered at a moment's notice, and now with the introduction of AI and machine learning and kind of those other tools, those kind of it buzzwords now introduced within the market. It's really being able to drive a customer to ask the right questions so they can get the right answer to provide the actions necessary that would cause a change as opposed to, you know, kind of, okay, where are we at right now? Are we up? Are we down? Are we down? Okay, why are we down? And, you know, kind of going down a rabbit hole to try to explain it. We curate a lot of different responses, removing a lot of noise and interruptive data, so that way the data that we're looking at or the visualizations that we're providing are clear-cut, exactly what the customer needs and also giving recommendations on actions. I think a lot of business owners lack that ability to be able to see not only what they do, but the recommended action based off of the intelligence and the evidence that's being provided. 

Oh, fantastic. I know you talked about AI, artificial intelligence, and that's been the buzzword of the day, every day. I even got a text yesterday, somebody, well, I guess it's a machine, telling me that you don't want to talk to me, but this is my AI platform. Respond and you can have a dialogue with a machine, right? Right. Terminator. 

All the Terminators. 

High net shit, right? But, you know, circling, you know, you talked about Power BI, Tableau, which are platforms I've worked with before. Tell me how AI connects to those platforms specifically, because that's a high interest for me. 

What happens is that within that AI platform or in that AI space, you have to put parameters together. Most people think that, you know, you type in something to AI and then it just automatically comes with the perfect answer to whatever question that you're asking. So really it's getting sophistication and driving into what specifically you want to know the answer to. Kind of like an iRobot situation where, you know, he had the artificial hologram saying you're not asking the right question and that's why you're not getting the answer that you want, right? So driving the customer to get to that point first, understanding what data they have available, whether it's proprietary or it's not proprietary, whether or not it's, you know, has, you know, confidentiality around it and stuff like that, creating the platform in which we're going to be pulling this data from. utilizing Power BI is really just putting parameters together, because it's not the void of analysis, right? It's putting those parameters in place with the intelligence, the human intelligence to say, OK, we want to try this metric against, you know, a one point interval, a two point interval, a three point interval, a four point interval. And then based off of what you've had historically captured, see whether or not it's likely to happen again or it's likely to, you know, be an outlier condition based off of the data that we have available. So one of the things that we try to pride ourselves on is really not removing the human component in it, knowing that the human component, the analyst, the, you know, the prognosticators and so on and so forth, do have intelligent insight that they do provide. But being able to be able to gravitate and get those pieces of insight at a moment's notice is what AI really brings to the picture, as opposed to, you know, having to ask, you know, a whole bunch of questions and wait for responses and stuff like that. 

The iRobot reference just blew my mind. I forgot about that. So, you know, basically in our industry, I mean, I work in the retail and hospitality industry distribution. You know, one of the things that customers would like to know, and I'm guessing we're just having a high level discussion, that definite answer from you, but If I was to say in a supermarket or restaurant, where we talk about a product and we talk about the menu item, so it's two different things. If, for example, a business owner wants to know, hey, how much of this product I need to buy for the next six months or how much of this menu item is going to sell for the six months and what revenue is that going to bring? Am I supposed to use AI to help me do that based on trends, based on supply chain, whatever the case is? 

Yeah, it's a combination of a couple of things. Two of them you mentioned, right? One of them is trends, right? The other one is the local dynamic, right? Because supply chain is a really good component of that because you may want to have the product available, but you may not be able to get the materials in order to produce the product. it's just as good as you not having it, right? So that is one of the contributing factors. And I always like to phrase it to customers as there is a litany of contributing factors that lead to your production or your solution, right? So supply chain being one of the contributing factors, trend in the area is another contributing factor. Whether it be, whether it's social media influence, or, you know, a general, let's say, for instance, it's a health food product, right? You know, we noticed that there's a lot of trends into health produce and organic foods and, you know, healthy kinds of ways of eating and so on and so forth. But the sustainability of those health food products generally tend to have a relatively short shelf life. because it requires some psychology into it, and that's a contributing factor as well, is that people eat healthy for a short period of time. They don't eat healthy consistently throughout the year. So if you say, okay, I want to put this health food product on the shelves, you have to understand that the lifespan of that particular product may only last three to six months, especially in the beginning of the year. People come up with New Year's resolutions, and then they're like, oh, I want to eat healthy, and it lasts for January until they get to February, and when they have Valentine's Day, and then they start to keel off come March. March, April, and May, depending upon your region, where you live, and so on and so forth. So there's a lot of contributing factors that will go into your six-month projection of whether or not this product would be viable in the market or, you know, reasonable for you in that window of time. Now, that's where we start having conversations with customers to say, okay, Do you want a quick win? It's almost like stocks, right? You can get a quick win by investing in something low, knowing that it's gonna spike up really, really high and then tail off again. That's the volatility of the market. But do you want something like that? Or do you want something that is foundationable with sustainable growth over time? So one of the things that I always try to compare with customers is like, yeah, you can have healthy foods, eggs, you know, certain types of proteins and stuff like that. But what's something that's constant, whether people cut it out or they don't completely? Bread, right? Everybody's going to eat bread at some particular point throughout six months, a year or something to that effect. So if you ever notice in this grocery store, that's the example that you gave, is like the bread aisle is huge, right? With all of these different assortments of bread, because it is a foundational piece to make multiple meals. right? As opposed to eggs, short of shelf, you know, one little section, dairy, even smaller section. And then like protein, you have all these different assortments of protein. So now it's like, now you ask yourself the question, the contributing factor, which protein do we carry? Do we carry all of them? Do we carry chicken? Do we carry steak? Do we carry pork? Do we carry, you know, Sausage, all those different things. So it's really coming up with the story centered around, okay, what's the psychology of the people that I'm trying to attract to or my target audience? And then how do I assess those contributing factors, give them a score, maybe a weight or something to that effect that's going to drive to the overall solution to say what product, what produce I need to put in what location and where. Because in all honesty, in your particular market especially, that's what the big competitors are doing. They're not just releasing the chicken sandwich from McDonald's, for instance. They're not just coming up with a new chicken sandwich just because they feel like it, right? They've used supply chain, they've used trends, they've used forecasting, they've used all of these psychological contributing factors to say, okay, we're gonna reintroduce the chicken wrap in 2025 and not 2024. for these reasons, and they're always supported by data, which backs it up. So we're just trying to allow for the other competitors, smaller market competitors, the small businesses, medium sized businesses, even some, you know, growing into large businesses, that same platform to be able to get that information and have those actionable intelligence decisions or conversations. So that way they can better their business growth. 

Wow. That's a lot of data. I mean, I love that about when people express exactly what it is to make people understand. And you hit some good points there, because I was in a restaurant the other day and I ordered a vodka soda with lime. The guy said, oh, we don't have any lime. So I said, dude, it's the height of the night. Most drinks, I mean, I heard people wanted to order a mojito. How can you make a mojito without lime, right? You're going to lose sales on that because people want to drink what they enjoy at this time of night, afternoon, rough day to relax. So now, as you perfectly said it, you know, taking all that data to make sure that you don't run out of something or you can have some sort of replacement product that people will push that regard. And I think one of the things that from my industry perspective is, you know, some people know what the fuck they want, right? And I think the computer is going to take over and do everything. But you know, there's, as you perfectly explained, there are certain things behind it. You know, have you ever run into people who don't know what they want and Tell me how you bridge that gap to get them from here of knowing nothing to where, okay, now I give you a solution. 

So first off, I'll start off by saying almost every customer starts off like that, right? Every customer starts off like that. Like, I just expect this thing to, to, To give me all the magical answers and I can be successful right so it's a little bit of an education conversation that starts off and the way that I do it is kind of what I've been doing in our conversation is I make it relatable to things that are not. IT or mathematical or scientific, right? So, movie references, like you said, oh, this could be the Terminator. I used iRobot, you know, as far as answering the right questions. It allows for somebody to draw a relation or a connection to provide context and clarity without having to say, okay, what we're going to do is we're going to do f of x plus five plus seven, eight, nine, and then two, and then we're going to divide that by 55% with a weighted score of 20. What? They lost me at F of X, right? So making it relatable and finding where their relatable point is makes the customer seem to, you know, as a high success record of the customer understanding. Utilizing other things that they use in their day-to-day life that they may not have been aware was substantiated by data. Baseball is a really good example. Somebody's really interested in baseball. Moneyball was a really big, you know, project that the Oakland Athletics used in order to get themselves to the World Series without having to overpay for players, right? You know, football is another example where you talk about, you know, strategically looking at, you know, passer ratings, whether or not you should, especially now, like, should you go for it on fourth down, depending upon down and distance. That didn't come from, Oh, some coach just sitting there and like, you know what? Hell with it. Let's just go for it. It's supported by data. It says that you have a higher success record of going for it on fourth down dependent on down and distance and where you are on the field. a higher success rate than punting it or going for two. Those same data analytics and perspectives and so on and so forth are influencing decisions that you're participating in that you may not even be aware of that are fueling those decisions. I've been in countless football games where you're like, oh my God, he's going for it, he's an idiot. and so on and so forth. But it's supported by data. 75% would say that you're supposed to go for that. And when it's successful, it's like, oh, he's a genius. Like, no, he's not a genius. He used the data that was available to him to make those decisions. So that's how I'm able to get a customer from just a wildly The word I'm looking for is a wildly unrealistic expectation of what this is supposed to do to bring them in and educate them so that way we can ask the right questions so we can start driving true solutions back to the business. 

And I think that to add to your point there, that relation transcends into building confidence and trust with the person that you're consulting with. And I think that's major important. I mean, you know, we were having a discussion the other night in terms of, you know, why do guys always go to movie references? That's what we know. We love action movies. We love movies that, you know. helps us relate with different people. And it's a big thing. Movies, sports, you know, we don't give a fuck about religion or fucking politics. We go streaming movies or sports, right? 

Movies, sports and TV shows. Right. I mean, I rewatched the entire series of Suits and throughout each one of the like hugely complex legal concepts and so on and so forth. And they're like, oh, you pulled the godfather technique. You pulled the, you know, the man behind the mirror, the Zoolander. Did you Zoolander? Like, you know, all these different references to other movies and TV shows that helped the concept make sense of what was happening. And that really is the true component of being able to have these kind of technical, complex conversations, being able to break it down in a relatable way. Everybody watches a TV show. I don't care who you are. Everybody reads books to a certain extent, but movies, TV shows, sports, and music, right? If you can relate, you can find a relational connection point to any of those four things, you can have a full conversation and have people emotionally and psychologically invested. 

I'm a huge fan of Suits, Mike Ross. I mean, 

Yeah, exactly. I would buy a t-shirt. I would give being you a t-shirt that says, I am Mike Ross. I saw it online. 

Oh, really? I have, um, you got lit up. 

Oh, I like that shirt. 

Yeah. So, uh, that's great, man. My brother loves that show too. So we know sometimes we talk about it. Yeah. So he said he, sometimes he says, you know, um, I'm the Javi Spector and he's the Mike Ross. 

Me and my sister have the same relationship. I'm Javi and she's Mike. 

It's good to be Javi, right? So it's also awesome to be Mike Ross. Absolutely. In great minds. Let's spin it to a different direction here. Tell me about your achievements from a business perspective, and we can go into as well your personal achievements. 

So from a business perspective, I worked for the Department of Defense for a number of years, as well as the Department of Homeland Security. The data analytics and the actual intelligence we used at the time was Oracle Business Intelligence. And we were able to get the Air Force, more specifically where I was working, 100% compliant in their DIPA rating. So without getting into sensitive information, Every system that is used either from the government or in the private sector has to be compliant with certain standards, right? And it's very difficult. The more programs and systems that you manage, the harder it is to make sure that you're compliant. So what we were able to do with the actionable intelligence, the Oracle BI reports and the dashboards that we were able to build, we were able to get all of the systems within the Air Force to be compliant. which was something that never happened in their history, at least to my knowledge, and it hasn't happened since I went to private industry. So that was a huge accomplishment for me and my team. Another huge accomplishment was that we got a honorable mention also by the DoD in terms of program startup and getting the customer started on business intelligence in a meaningful way. Some of my other professional accomplishments has been starting to yield high returns on, I used to work for Sinclair Broadcast Group, and I also worked for the University of St. Augustine for Health Science, and getting them to realize automation and reporting, getting people off of spreadsheets, which is a huge accomplishment for me. I tell people all the time, you got a litany of accountants and they'll be number crunching like crazy, but getting them into a more automated solution to reduce human capital labor is the ultimate goal. So we've enjoyed at all of my stops that I've been, a huge reduction in cost savings and manual labor of creating reports and different analytics and a huge increase in automation and self-service. letting the intelligent people get to the data so that way they can make better sense of it faster. So we've increased the ability to create workspaces. And then also in my professional space, I was able to get a security plus clearance, I mean, certifications, product owner certification, Scrum Master certification. The only one I haven't got around to is the PMP, but I'll get that one eventually. But those were huge accomplishments for me, getting those certifications because it puts you into the flexibility of data and system design without, recruiting yourself from understanding the business and what the needs are and what the goals, success metrics are, the business are. So being able to facilitate between, you know, IT space or what the system needs to do, how it needs to be architected, how it needs to be designed and what the business needs as far as success metrics and requests and stuff like that. Having those certifications were really, really helpful to me. And from a personal achievement standpoint, you know, I've been one of those individuals who is highly motivated, highly ambitious, and being able to work in the different platforms and understand the different industries the way that I have, whether it be public or whether it be private, being able to live in Miami and really refine my skill set, learning another language. I'm currently trying to learn Spanish. So if anybody sees this, want to help me, I will gladly take your solicitor help. But growing into a space where I'm facing new challenges, new opportunities has been an achievement for me. And I'll leave my my kind of accomplishments with this over the last three years, maybe four years, I came up with this methodology that I live by, which is the four E's, which is first E is exposure. Second one is experience. Fourth one is education. And the last one is execution. Right. I didn't know what I didn't know until I saw it. And then when I saw it, I experienced it. And then I wanted to make that experience more consistent. So I educated myself. And then after I educated myself, it's left for me to execute to make sure that I can reinvent the wheel or start the cycle again and expose and experience and educate and execute new things. So it's a constant evolution of those E's that I truly live by and has inspired me and motivated me. to be the person that I am today. 

Yeah. So it's funny that, and I'm going to share something with you. You know, in my recent times, you know, and we just met more or less, and I'm seeing how we are connected in this world in different ways. You know, we both like suits. We just, you just talked about the four E's and I just have this book right here on my fucking desk. It just brings so much energy to this conversation, you would not believe. And I'm hoping that you feel the same way. I do too. I do too. And so, you know, pulling away from that, you know, what are your hobbies? 

Hobbies is watching TV, sports, as well as listening to music. I love exploring and learning different cultures, different ways of, you know, thinking and whatnot. And me and my friends get together quite often and have really what I call Uh, exploratory conversations where we, it's exploratory with a, with a high level of intelligence, just trying to understand. you know, methodologies, perspectives and approaches. It's a really big hobby of mine. And I also like doing Legos with my daughter. My degree originally was electrical engineering. And I used to love building things, taking things apart. and all of that. So I had a fondness for Legos. And fortunately for me, it transitioned to my daughter. So, you know, we get together and we put these complex Lego sets together and really enjoy, you know, the different approaches, the steps and whatnot. So it's really been, you know, those are the things that I really, really, truly treasure spending time with. 

Oh, nice. I mean, family is actually number one in my lesson, right? I do presentations and family is number one and I hear that passion from you as well. So, let's hear about your family. 

Yeah. So, um, I have a little daughter, uh, she's 10 years old. Uh, I say she's 10, but, uh, her emotional maturity is probably one of a 30 year old. Um, I, uh, she, she's awesome. Uh, she lives in, uh, she lives in Baltimore and she does, um, quite well, um, for herself. That's where I'm originally from is Baltimore. So, uh, originally from Baltimore, uh, grew up on the, uh, West side of Baltimore. And no, I have not seen The Wire. I'm not familiar with the show. I've never seen it. 

Neither have I. Everybody jumps to that, right? Yeah. 

How is it like it? I was like, yeah, I know where the streets are, but I haven't seen the show. So eventually I will, but I have not up until this point. I grew up there. I survived of my My parents, unfortunately, they passed away recently through. No, I appreciate that. So that really was kind of part of the impetus of my growth and self discovery, which was the loss of them because that is. a life-changing, life-altering set of circumstances. So being able to really appreciate the life and the time that we have to not only spend with family, but our own personal dreams and desires has been a really, really big proponent to me. One of the things that I've heard recently, and it was from a Dave Chappelle stand up so I always quote different things from different places. He said that, you know, be. be wise enough to know when you're living your dream and be humble enough to know that you're in somebody else's. And that dream alignment has really been a focus of mine by putting my family forward and having them be able to articulate the parts of their dream that I'm in and me articulate the parts of my dream that they're in. So that way, we can truly get to a harmonious place together. I also have four siblings. I have another two, my father's step-siblings as well, and they're much older. My father was a very older and when he met my mom, my youngest brother is 27 and my father had him when he was in his late 40s, early 50s. Uh, so, uh, but yeah, I have my siblings. I have an older sister who is, uh, uh, a minister, uh, and a pastor, uh, my younger sister. Go ahead, sir. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. She helps me with my psychological faith components and stuff like that. Believing in people. having a positive attitude. My younger sister is in the same industry as us. She works for an IT. She's now veered into the data analytics space. She works for Microsoft. And my younger brother works for the Cleveland Cavaliers as an operations manager. He was really into sports as a child. Um, so, uh, he's, uh, he's currently working, uh, with that group. So, uh, we kinda, you know, covered all of the, uh, the basis, like, you know, the sports, the IT and the psychology, uh, within, um, within the four of us. And, um, Part of my story is that I graduated from HBCU. My mother didn't give me a choice for the audience that may not know. HBCU is a historically black college. And my mother and father were huge, huge components or advocates for education and learning and exposing yourself to new experiences and whatnot. So, you know, we kind of carried all of that within us. All four of us graduated from HBCU. I like to say that we didn't have a choice. But, you know, from those experiences, we were able to foster some very fruitful careers, as well as being able to understand and navigate different walks of life, different perspectives appropriately, because my mom was really, really, really big on, you know, treating people the way that you want to be treated. and, you know, always being, you know, respectful, showing a level of dignity and trust and elegance in what you do. So that's rolled to me and, you know, trying to be the best version of myself so that way I can, you know, instill those same principles into my daughter through our conversations and our relationship, which has really, really driven me and given me a lot of purpose in my life has been her. 

Perfect. I think you've put the cover on the cookie jar there. Thank you so much for sharing. And this has been very enlightening, I must say. And I appreciate everything you've brought to the table here today, Jonathan. And I wish you well. Thank you so much for being a guest. 

Thank you so much, Kevin. Thanks for having me. And I appreciate the time that we were able to talk. And I'm very, very grateful and happy to be a part of this platform and have this conversation and you making the time for me to be able to do so. Perfect. 

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