As Mr. Jim Morrison, the most prescient of forecasters, put it: "The future's uncertain and the end is always near."
I admire how deftly he avoided specifying his time horizon and hooked listening clients by promising an inevitable end that never comes—absolutely churnless. Fortunately for me, my time horizon has stretched out longer than that of Mr. Morrison. Unfortunately for me, I earn less alive than he earns after over five decades in the grave.
I'm not bitter. Compared to Mr. Morrison, my looks are average. My reasonably good shower voice doesn't rise to the level of sold-out coliseums. And then there's the brutal issue of supply and demand. Relatively speaking, economic analysts are a dime a dozen. Rock gods are few and far between.
I am stubborn: instead of spending the last year taking voice lessons and writing brilliant song lyrics, I've decided to double down on my economics gig. I've invested more than a thousand hours building a next-generation DataSkinny model. I've got several new projects in various stages of undress.
Here's the peep show for the next four quarters.
The Peep Show
The fruits of my labor begin to pay off in November with the opening of my new Substack: Will There Be Data in Hell?. The ripening process continues into 2027 with three additional sites—each centered around supporting operations-related strategies and tactical decision-making.
The following charts DataSkinny's intended quarter-by-quarter course. Given much of the groundwork for these projects has been completed, it all boils down to less predictable variables like government shutdowns, the sometimes cruel jokes of Mother Nature and—my personal favorite—asteroid collisions.
Note: As each of these projects comes into closer view (roughly 45 to 60 days before becoming public), a more complete description will be released. If you want to stay apprised of project updates, you can subscribe to my monthly update newsletter. It's free. Otherwise come back and visit this site.
Coming in 2027:Q1
In late February or early March, I'll be launching a new website devoted to B2B market dynamics. This project centers around new capabilities added to the DataSkinny model this past year. A whole new set of constructed variables has been designed to capture the impact of macro-to-micro shifts on buyer-supplier dynamics across nearly 50,000 line-of-business combinations.
I built this specifically for sales and marketing professionals, supply chain directors, and negotiation teams engaged in U.S. B2B interactions. My goal is twofold: (1) to provide an objective, data-driven resource to help you reach 'fair-price' solutions, and (2) to power your market monitoring systems so you can spot hidden revenue and margin-enhancing opportunities.
Coming in 2027:Q2
In addition to the market dynamics product coming in 2027:Q1, sales and marketing professionals will soon have another powerful tool in their analytics arsenal.
Coming this June, my next release focuses squarely on B2B segmentation. It is built around two major revenue optimization levers: identifying high-growth end-markets and understanding exactly where you can assert pricing leverage.
To get you there, I’ve upgraded the demand growth metrics from my original BasicIQ project and built brand-new 'saturation' metrics. These new variables measure how a buyer in your target market views your current pricing in terms of their budget burden. They also map out what I call 'whack-a-mole vision'—the exact moment a buyer looks at cost escalations across their supply chain and decides which supplier's price is going to get hit with the cost-control hammer. With this tool, you'll see that hammer coming before it drops.
Coming in 2027:Q3
July will bring the long-overdue follow-up to my old supply chain management flagship projects: ICE-Alert and the AlertData Blueprints. If you’re a long-time data compadre, you’ll appreciate the greater emphasis on active margin expansion and the new monthly price/cost forecasting reports.
Additionally, this project introduces built-in metrics that dissect incoming cost increases into two key components: the amount likely to be passed downstream to customers, and the amount destined to slice into margins. Finally, a specialized set of predictive variables will help you foresee Tier 2 supply chain cost escalation issues (your suppliers’ suppliers).
The objective of these enhancements is to turn my legacy supply chain projects into a tool that expands a supply chain manager’s risk-avoidance time envelope, provides a clearer understanding of the nature of a cost escalation problem, and delivers not just a solid monitoring system, but a direct pathway to a healthier bottom line.
A Bonus Project
Alongside the scheduled 2027 releases, I’m building a companion site to Will There Be Data in Hell?. It will also live on Substack, but with a much lighter, less data-intensive focus designed for a broader finance audience and industry spectators. Because it’s a side project, it doesn't have an official launch date yet—but just like the main projects, you can check back here for updates or sign up to get them emailed straight to you.
One more thing: If you want to read more about the lines-of-business covered in the DataSkinny model, click here: Sector / Line-of-Business Coverage and Data Sources
If you want more details about the DataSkinny model methodology, click here: Model Documentation, or How a Wily Economist Expenses a Snowshoeing Trip
The Want vs. Need Dilemma
Mick Jagger is another member of my Economist's Hall of Fame. Although he didn't finish his degree at the London School of Economics, his famous theory of desire-versus-survival will outlive us all:
But if you try sometimes, well, you might find
You get what you need"
Notice the real-life vulnerability embedded his theory. No assumptions about "rational consumers" with complete information. Simply the most beautiful avoidance of a conclusion any economist could ever hope to achieve.
Just as I am no Jim Morrison, I am no Mick Jagger. I actually did get my degree, but here I sit in my double-wide in the boonies (Backstory: We All Know Bears Shit in the Woods).
My "want" is for you to subscribe to the top tier of any and all of my projects. It would give me real bragging rights when I run into someone I know at my P.O. Box. Also, my loyal Subaru, Frieda, turns 26 in March. She's getting skittish on the Forest Service roads. Although a Porsche would add to my bragging rights, another Subaru is what I actually need. Lastly, at the risk of sounding greedy, there's that nasty raccoon problem that needs fixing underneath my deck.
