About

I'm Allen — I help companies figure out what their marketing is actually doing.

I spent four years as a data scientist at Macy's Technology, working across CRM, paid media, loyalty, and operations analytics. Most of that was causal inference and experimentation on marketing spend — designing tests, building measurement infrastructure, and answering the question every marketing team eventually asks: did that work, or would it have happened anyway?

After that I was a Lead Data Scientist, building production measurement systems and machine learning pipelines. I now run an independent practice out of Ithaca, New York.

How I think about this work

Most reported marketing performance is wrong, and usually wrong in the same direction. Conversion actions get double-counted. Pixels fire on the wrong events. Branded search takes credit for demand it didn't create. Every platform reports the same customer as its own. The result is a number that looks good, gets reported upward, and quietly misallocates real money.

The fix isn't a better dashboard. It's establishing what's actually true — which usually means a smaller number than the one you have now, and a clearer decision than the one you were about to make.

I'd rather tell you your reported return is half what you think than help you defend it. That's the job.

How I work

Engagements usually start with a measurement audit — a fixed-scope look at what your data can and can't support. That surfaces what's broken and what's answerable before anyone commits to a longer arrangement. From there, some clients move to ongoing advisory work, and some don't need to.

I work directly with founders and operators. Whoever you talk to on the first call is who does the work.

Get in touch

Email allen@aswanalytics.com, or book a 30-min fit call.