1. Careers in Statistical Software
Cheryl Pammer
Minitab Inc.

2. About Me Education Minitab Experience (21 Years) Other Experience
BSE Mathematics, Truman State University
MS Statistics, Penn State
PhD Coursework, Penn State
Minitab Experience (21 Years)
Currently User Experience Designer and Technical Training Specialist
Previously Technical Support, Information Development, and Quality Assurance
Other Experience
Biometrics Research at Merck Research Labs
Statistics Instructor at Penn State
Statistical consultant for Vespa Labs and Penn State Department of Food Science

3. Benefits of Working in Statistical Software
The reach of your work extends far beyond your organization
Great variety in projects
Software companies generally allow great flexibility and nice benefits
You will obtain skills transferable to other industries and jobs

4. Statisticians at Minitab

5. Example Problem Problem
Customer needs to design an experiment for a process improvement project, but doesn’t know where to start.
Customer
Has a quality improvement role in financial, manufacturing, or healthcare industry
May be math-phobic. Greek letters and symbols like < can be intimidating.
Has to do a little data analysis; but will never be a data analyst.

6. Technical Project Manager
Define problem
Understand customer
Develop solution ideas
Prototype
Obtain feedback
Repeat

7. User Experience Design
Create the user experience
Design inputs and outputs
Fill in all details
Deliver detailed design document

8. Statistical R&D Maintain statistical credibility
Determine statistical details
Should we offer Plackett-Burman designs, classical 2K designs, or definitive screening designs?
Do these designs have enough power? How many replicates should we require?
Which assumptions in the analysis are critical?
What method should we use to fit the model?

9. Software Engineering, R&D, QA
Implement design
Software R&D:
Optimize the algorithm
Quality Assurance: Verify results are correct and error conditions are handled

10. Information Development
Take highly technical information and make it consumable by a non-technical audience

11. Product Marketing Promote products online and print
Provide webinars to get users started with new products

12. Technical Support Provide phone and email support:
Why is Fit Quadratic unavailable?
Why does this not match my text book?
Why is alpha set at 0.1?

13. Training and Mentoring
Create relevant examples
Teach concepts
Analyze customer’s data

14. Business Development and Market Research
Develop new business
Find existing customers that are likely to be interested in new products
Create new product opportunities

15. Skills Needed Solid foundation in statistics and data analysis
An interest in developing software solutions
Exceptional communication skills
Creative problem-solving ability
Strong computer skills, understanding of data sources is very helpful