uFunctional at Next Testing: Software Strategy, Math & Statistics, Management Consulting

“Robert is one of those guys who really strikes you as someone who actually gets it.
And what he doesn’t get, he figures out.”—Brian Louther, VP-Operations

Next Testing was founded in Madison in 2006. The company specializes in scientifically grounded evaluation of hockey players of all levels, from elementary school athletes to major leaguers. In November 2007, Next Testing hired Robert Merrill to help restart a stalled project to report players’ data online.

A Quick Study

“Robert had worked for me for a number of years while we were both at Berbee Information Networks,” says Kari Myrland, chief operating officer at Next Testing from November 2007 until January 2009. “Next Testing hired him based on my recommendation, but in very short order, after he took a look at what they were trying to accomplish and got the lay of the land, he was able to provide value. He was very credible in his introduction to our CEO and staff; they felt they could trust him.”

Next Testing CEO Chris Hornung recalls: “Kari tapped Robert for the project because of his high integrity, but also because he had experience looking at large data sets. And really the bottom line, and one of the things I’ll always remember, is that after he spent a couple hours looking at what we were trying to do, he looked up and said, ‘Why aren’t other people trying to do this? This really makes sense.’ So that was very reassuring.”

The company needed custom web software so players and coaches could go online and view summaries and detailed results, Myrland says. Prior efforts to get that software developed by third parties had stalled, leaving the company with an assortment of programs that didn’t quite work together, and without a solid idea of what to do to make them work and how much more that would cost.

Software Strategist

Merrill believes software projects are set up to succeed (or fail) before a line of code is written, through developing realistic expectations and choosing the right approach, and he set Next Testing’s web reporting up to succeed.

“Robert is unique in his ability to help people understand the nature of software and the work it involves,” Myrland says. Merrill recognized that Next’s situation was especially amenable to Agile development—essentially Lean Manufacturing for software—and the Ruby on Rails framework.

So he introduced them to Stephen Anderson, a former colleague and present owner of Bendyworks LLC. Says Anderson, “I’ve never met anybody who’s as good at estimating software projects as Robert is. I’ve got practices for tracking a project’s velocity once it’s under way; that’s really easy to do once you’ve already started. But most customers want an estimate before you begin, and that’s where Robert really shines. It’s still a range, but it is so much more accurate than any gut estimate.”

After taking stock of the existing software and needs, Merrill recast the software requirements into User Stories amenable to Agile development in an all-staff workshop, and handed development over to Anderson and the Next team, with periodic check-ins. “I think the core thing Robert accomplished is that he set things up for a successful new version of the software the company used,” Anderson says.

“Chris had kind of pulled the log out from under software that he paid to develop twice already, and this was the third go-round. And that third go-round is still in play. I’m not sure exactly why the third time clicked, but I do believe that Robert was instrumental.”

Merrill then turned his attention to the data already collected and how it was analyzed and presented.

Mathematical Magician

“Robert has an extremely strong statistical-analysis background,” says Brian Louther, vice president of operations at the company. “He took what we were doing and gave us better insights. It was a bit of a challenge to take our reporting and consolidate it into a more easy-to-understand single-number score.”

Merrill significantly simplified the complex methods used to compute the Next Testing Index, a single number representing a hockey player’s overall ability. “I was able to replace a lot of code with a little bit of math, eliminating a lot of software and making the rest much easier to validate for correctness,” Merrill says. “Anytime I get to put some of my mathematical and statistical training and experience to work, I enjoy that.”

Trusted Business Advisor

According to Myrland and others, he really hit it off with CEO Chris Hornung. Though Merrill reported directly to Myrland, he also took the initiative to check in regularly with Hornung—who sincerely appreciated it.

“He wanted to see if I had questions and to make sure I thought he was headed in the right direction, because I was the one who was approving his payments,” Hornung says. “As a general rule, I don’t like consultants and I don’t think they deliver much value.” But Merrill stood out because he quickly demonstrated that he both understood how Next Testing operated and based his advice on measurable data.

One example was Merrill’s analysis of a proposal to franchise Next Testing’s technology. “What Robert did was a business analysis of the proposal, working on what our throughput would be, the maximum amount of players we could test, what our costs were—breaking things down and then scaling it up to see how the profitability would be if we did go on to that type of venture,” Louther says. “And he was extremely good about identifying, well, hey, this is never going to be profitable. Those are things you really need to hear.”

And Merrill’s ability to say things you really need to hear, in a way you can receive them—even if you don’t want to hear them—is one of his assets.

“With Robert, what you see is what you get. There’s no hidden agendas; there’s no politics,” says Scott Little, an engineer Merrill introduced to Next Testing. “There’s no selling going on. There’s no sugarcoating or camouflaging the facts. He is very honest, direct—not mean-spirited, but he doesn’t hold back his opinion even if he thinks it’s unpopular.”

Not everybody loves that. “But the people at Next Testing did, and Chris Hornung especially did,” Little says. “Chris is pretty famous in certain circles. He started Pacific Cycle and built that into a pretty big business; he has a lot of connections in the Madison area. He’s one of those guys who can’t get people to say anything negative to them. Everybody wants to be his friend, so everybody just tells him what they think he wants to hear all day long. And Robert didn’t do that.”

Graceful Exit

“I think I left well,” Merrill says of his departure from Next Testing in June 2009. “I think I did a good job of recognizing when I’d reached the point of diminishing returns, and then I helped them find Scott Little, who was more of a hardware engineer. I thought I exited gracefully—I felt like I’d done my piece of the project and helped them find someone for the next step, as opposed to just leaving.”

And Hornung, Louther, and others at the company are unequivocal about their satisfaction with his work.

“I was buoyed by his findings and felt they gave me scientific and statistical confidence,” Hornung says, “so that when I went to a customer, I could genuinely deliver some value to them.”

“Robert is one of those guys who really strikes you as someone who actually gets it,” Louther says. “And what he doesn’t get, he figures out. If I were to enter into another venture, he would be someone I would love to have give an opinion on it.”

“I don’t hesitate to recommend Robert to anyone who has a need I think he’s a good match for,” says Steve Anderson. “The thing I tell them every time is that Robert is one of the smartest and most effective, but also most ethical and honest people I know. He cares deeply.”