01 · ASSESS
See the team through the Seven C's.
Identify patterns in question framing, evidence quality, AI verification, visualization, interpretation, communication, and decision follow-through.
FOR FINANCE, FP&A, MARKETING & REVOPS TEAMS
Help the team make stronger calls with AI without handing over the judgment.
Use the Seven C's Team Benchmark when you need to find the shared gaps first. If the problem is already obvious, go directly to public Working Lab seats or a private program. The goal is practical: better forecasts, stronger revenue and marketing analysis, fewer avoidable wrong turns, and recommendations people can defend.
AI output×Team judgment
STEP 1 · TEAM BENCHMARK
Turn “we need better analytics with AI” into a short, prioritized capability plan.
The Benchmark looks at how the team frames questions, checks evidence, uses AI, verifies assumptions, visualizes patterns, and communicates decisions. For Finance/FP&A that may surface in forecasts, variance, scenarios, and margin work. For Marketing/RevOps it may surface in pipeline, attribution, segmentation, and campaign ROI. The readout prioritizes the 1 to 3 gaps worth fixing first.
02 · PRIORITIZE
Focus on the 1 to 3 gaps that matter most.
Avoid a generic skills inventory. Concentrate on the 1 to 3 gaps most likely to create rework, weak forecasts, questionable marketing conclusions, or recommendations leadership cannot confidently act on.
03 · RECOMMEND
Leave with a concrete next step.
The recommendation may be public Lab seats, department tools, a private program, or an annual capability plan. When further work is justified, you will know what I recommend, what it costs, and when it can start.
STEP 2 · APPLICATION
Use only the level of support the problem requires.
PUBLIC WORKING LAB SEATS
$2,450 per person
Put three or more people into the existing Tuesday/Thursday Working Lab when they need repeated review on real forecasts, dashboards, revenue analyses, recommendations, or AI-assisted work and the material can be safely sanitized.
Ask about team seats →PROJECT KIT DEPARTMENT LICENSE
$4,900
Give the department one shared analytical working system without creating a program to schedule or another course to complete.
Ask about the department license →PRIVATE CORPORATE PROGRAM
$25K–$100K+
Use a closed room when confidential finance or customer data, internal planning questions, shared metrics, scheduling, or company context needs to stay inside the team.
Ask about a private program →STEP 3 · SUSTAINED CAPABILITY
When the need is ongoing, use one annual capability plan.
The Annual Learning Partnership fits organizations with recurring demand for analytical capability, continued Lab access, team checks, and limited scheduled reviews. You can arrive here after a Benchmark or program, or start here when the need is already clear.
$60K to $75K per year
- Annual Working Lab seat allocation
- Department Project Kit license
- Periodic Team Benchmark or capability check
- Limited scheduled executive or team reviews
- Updated reference materials and new analytical content as released
You can start here. If the organization already has recurring demand and the scope is clear, discuss the Annual Learning Partnership directly.
The opposite is the goal. Your people should become more capable of challenging the work, defending the answer, and making the next decision themselves.
Use sanitized data in public sessions. Use private delivery when the work cannot leave the team or environment.
FOR L&D, FINANCE, AND PROCUREMENT
A clear way to choose.
Who should take the Team Benchmark?
Teams whose people already own or influence analytical decisions, especially FP&A and finance planning, marketing and RevOps, operations, BI, analytics, data, and adjacent business teams.
Can we skip the Benchmark?
Yes, when the need is already clear. A company may go directly to public Lab seats or a private program. The Benchmark is the preferred starting point when the capability gap still needs diagnosis.
Can we start with a few seats?
Yes. Public Working Lab team purchases start at three seats at $2,450 per person. Use private delivery when the work, internal data, or calendar needs a closed room.
What does private pricing depend on?
Team size, confidentiality, scheduling, number of sessions, and the amount of team-specific tailoring required. Private programs begin at $25K.
When does the Annual Learning Partnership make sense?
When repeated learning demand has become visible and one annual capability plan is more useful than continuing to make separate purchases.
WHO YOU ARE WORKING WITH
Stephen McDaniel
Analytics, forecasting, and decision work at Netflix, Tableau, SAS, Oracle, and Yahoo. Practitioner teaching for INFORMS, TDWI, and the American Marketing Association. Author of The Accidental Analyst, which Pat Hanrahan used in his Tableau Conference keynote and discussed as an influence on how he taught analytics at Stanford.
Stephen starts with the business need, identifies the critical actionable insight, and works backward to the technology.
CFO, Nordstrom Card Services
Stephen is a true data and analytics subject-matter expert. He teaches complex material effortlessly.
General Manager, Deloitte AI Practice
Stephen had an immediate and substantial impact. He created metrics and visualizations we had not envisioned.
Head of Strategic Partnerships, GoFundMe
PUBLIC LAB SCHEDULE
One schedule. No extra corporate calendar.
Public Working Lab seats join the existing Tuesday + Thursday sessions at 1:00 PM Central.
WHAT YOU ARE BUYING
A team that can use AI faster without becoming less accountable for the answer.
Faster
Less time lost to analytical dead ends, repeated rework, and chasing an AI-generated answer that looked finished before it was trustworthy.
More confident
People know what to challenge, what to verify, and what they can defend when a CFO, CMO, VP, or client asks why.
More capable
Finance, marketing, and revenue owners can handle more of the analytical reasoning themselves instead of waiting for a specialist to interpret every business question.
WHAT SENIOR BUYERS AND CLIENTS HAVE SAID
“He helped increase our team productivity... Stephen looks at what the business needs and works back to the technology.”
John Lodmell, Nordstrom / financial-services leadership
“Stephen is a true Data and Analytics subject matter expert.”
Diego Saenz, Deloitte AI leadership
“Stephen had an immediate and substantial impact on our team.”
Jeff Katz, GoFundMe
TEAM INQUIRY
Tell me where the team needs stronger analytical judgment.
Start with the business problem, not a training catalog. I will reply with the lightest useful next step, whether that is the Team Benchmark, public Lab seats, or a private program.
DIAGNOSE. APPLY. BUILD CAPABILITY.
Start with the team's real analytical gaps.
The goal is not more training. It is a team that can use AI to move faster, challenge the work, defend the answer, and make stronger finance, marketing, and revenue decisions with less dependence on outside analysis.