Episode notes
In this episode of Standard Deviation, Juliana and Simo finally sit down with Dave Cain, Head of Digital Marketing at Euro Car Parts, after months of scheduling chaos and flu-induced delays. What starts with parental war stories and Gen Alpha slang quickly shifts into the deep end: Google’s communication failures, the agency/in-house tension, AI’s limitations in emotional resonance, and the underrated power of musical precision. This is the first time the pod features an in-house leader, and Dave delivers — mixing empathy, strategic rigor, and no-BS takes on vendor relationships and team…
Podcast
Standard Deviation Podcast
Juliana Jackson, Simo Ahava · Learning · English
Standard Deviation Podcast is your go-to resource for navigating a career in digital analytics or technical marketing.
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S5 · E1 · 29 Jan 2026 · 46 min
2026 - we are back and it aint sayf
It’s 2026. We’re back. This week, we trauma-bond with Sayf Sharif (Three Bears Data / OptiMeasure) about the current state of the industry. We try to make our way through the "AI slop" to find the actual predictive math that matters, rant about why marketers are still obsessed with linear funnels in a non-linear world, and explain why feeding bad data into an AI model is just a really fast way to generate polished garbage. Essentially: Stop buying F1 analytics vehicles if you don’t have a licensed driver on your team.
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S4 · E7 · 10 Dec 2025 · 44 min
Protect your critical thinking - Live at Analytics Summit
Welcome back. Today we are looking at two massive shifts in the tech landscape that might be doing more harm than good... and we are doing it live from Analytics Summit, Hamburg! Are LLMs actually making us smarter, or are they just 'glazing' us? We’re arguing that relying on AI for everything is eroding the foundational knowledge of SQL, Python, and even basic math that you actually need to survive in this industry. How to protect your critical thinking before it evaporates? Then, we have to talk about Google. After years of delays that felt like Groundhog Day, their decision to drop most…
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S4 · E6 · 27 Sep 2025 · 44 min
Another Tuesday, Another Identifier Panic
Well, you asked for it. After a brief, life-induced hiatus (it’s your fault for wanting Simo’s course so badly), we’re back. And we’re a little bit sick and a lot cynical. 🤷 Juliana kicks things off with a life update: she’s switched allegiances, joined Jellyfish, and has been thrown head-first into the deep end of Server-Side GTM, Pantheon, and Google's cloud ecosystem. This sends us down a rabbit hole of Google Tag Gateway, the future of one-click vendor integrations (terrifying), and why Juliana finally has to take Simo’s course. Speaking of courses, Simo spills the beans on the brand new…
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S4 · E5 · 7 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 7 min
Definitely...not a lot of numbers!
We’re back from summer break with a suitcase full of rants: from Google’s AI Overviews and the absurd death-of-SEO/CRO discourse to the Shopify + ChatGPT overreactions and the ongoing collapse of attention spans. We call out the engagement-bait apocalypse on LinkedIn, the myth of LLM “reasoning,” and why boring truths never make headlines. Then we shift gears to Apple’s vague Safari privacy update and how a single line in a press release sent everyone into chaos. Plus, special guest Tim Ceuppens, joins us to unpack data storytelling, analyst-stakeholder dysfunction, and what Pixar can teach…
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S4 · E4 · 29 May 2025 · 1 hr
Attribution, MMM, MTA and all the other Ms
In the latest episode of Standard Deviation Podcast, we are joined by attribution expert, Barbara Galiza, for a deep dive into measurement done right. We discuss how to navigate server-side tagging, the best use cases for MTA versus MMM, and why incrementality testing often cuts through the noise better than flashy dashboards or AI-driven hype. In the intro, we will also chat about Google's surprise changes to Analytics cookies and explore the ups and downs of managing product releases, especially when plugins update faster than users can keep up.
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S4 · E2 · 7 Mar 2025 · 1 hr 6 min
33 days of Javascript
We’re back with Season 4, Episode 2, kicking things off with AI agents, code, and whether Simo should build a SIMO-bot to replace himself. Then, we switch gears for a real convo with Nicola Strand about imposter syndrom and why she doesn’t call it that anymore. We dig into self-doubt, the pressure to “know everything,” and why learning more can actually make imposter syndrome worse. Nicola shares how she flipped imposter tendencies into an advantage and how she once spent 33 days learning JavaScript before deciding, yeah, this isn’t for me. If you’ve ever second-guessed yourself (so, all of…
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S4 · E1 · 2 Feb 2025 · 25 min
Stop The Pigeon
We're back! Season 4 of Standard Deviation Podcast kicks off with an unhinged, completely off-the-rails episode where Simo and Juliana attempt to say hello but end up deep in Romanian childhood chaos, bartering pigeons, and the questionable economics of happy hour poker. Somewhere in between, Simo reveals he's getting a puppy (which gets completely overshadowed by Juliana’s dad's animal trade escapades). We promise, the season will have more structure—real guests, real discussions on data, AI, and analytics—but for now, let’s just embrace the madness. Welcome back.
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S3 · E11 · 25 Nov 2024 · 1 hr 3 min
Critical thinking, stats and deviations
In this episode of Standard Deviation Podcast, Juliana Jackson and Simo Ahava host Bhavik Patel from LeanConvert to explore the power of critical thinking in analytics and experimentation. Bhav shares his practical insights on using data to make smarter decisions, why statistics are a must-have skill for CRO professionals, and how product analytics differs from traditional web analytics. The discussion dives into the challenges of measuring user experience, building stakeholder trust, and fostering a culture of curiosity in data-driven teams. Bhav also speaks about his passion project, Crap…
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S3 · E10 · 4 Nov 2024 · 1 hr
Sleeping with Servers
In this episode of Standard Deviation, Juliana and Simo chat with Denis, co-founder of Stape, about server-side tagging. They cover why it’s gaining traction, debunk myths like “it bypasses consent,” and show how better tagging can boost data quality. Dennis explains how even small teams can implement server-side tracking without a deep tech background and shares Stape’s recent analytics and education projects. They also touch on Nordic weather, Denis’ journey in scaling a company, and simplifying backend processes with a “one-button” approach. Expect insights on GTM, some Scandinavian life…
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S3 · E9 · 5 Oct 2024 · 59 min
Scrolls, Clicks, and Data Tricks
In this episode, we had Dana DiTomaso over, and we will cover a broad range of topics, from GA4 and SEO to the complexities of data and digital marketing. We will discuss the challenges of working with GA4, particularly in integrating SEO metrics and analytics. Dana shares insights on combining SEO with behavioral analytics and CRO, stressing the need for SEOs to engage more deeply with data to improve effectiveness. Aaaand she will share some really good tricks for how to get more out of tracking and analysing how users consume content on a website.
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