The Little Things

The littlest things make me happy. With the help of a colleague of mine, I have been able to answer a pressing question for our project. Here's an email I sent out to my group about a project we're working on. I hope I am not making them sick with my emails. I think the ratio right now is 5:1. With me being the 5, I have just been sending them emails on the daily. I am loving this class (but hating my grade so far – the mid-term was hard). Hopefully, the project will take me over the edge!

"Hey guys,

Hope all is well? Looks like Saturday at 10:00 am works for everyone. Let's be prepared to show and tell on Saturday with our individual survey questions. We'll come together as a group to discuss. This could be done by phone since that's convenient for all. On an exciting note, (It's sad that I think this is exciting), a colleague of mine in our Market Research Dept helped me come up with a formula for sample sizes! I will put that in a spreadsheet and have that with my survey questions on Saturday.

Here's what he says about sample sizes:

"Typically, if we're dealing with a large universe (e.g. a database with over 10,000 customers to be surveyed), basic statistical theory that would tell us that the ending sample size is 400 - or 370 to be precise - if we want to be within a +/- 5 margin of error with 95% reliability (this means that if we were to pull the sample 100 times, in 95 of them, the true margin of error would be with 5% of the mean). This is why you so often see a sample size of 400 recommended. For a sample size of 200, the margin of error changes to about +/-7%. However, if the respondents are more alike in terms of how they'll respond to the questions, you can make do with a smaller sample with the same margin of error and reliability."

So guys, the bottom line is that our target ending sample size is 400 since our client has a large universe with 50,000 people for our survey. This means that after considering all margins of error, we want to end up with 400 people that take our survey. To end up with 400, we have to send the survey to a lot more people and there is a formula for this which we can go over on Saturday.

So, Jemma you'll call me and I'll conference Mike in? Talk to you both on Saturday!"

In totally unrelated news, my crazy-looking head of hair is getting a perm. Yes, ma'am, I said perm. I have ordered my Phyto and will be picking it up on my way home. The girl on the phone wasn't feeling my excitement. First of all, they usually carry just one or two boxes so I had to call in advance to make sure they had it. I have decided that if I must get a perm, I will go as safe as possible with this product that contains no-lye, a lower pH than most, eggs, and soy. That means that I will buy my product and take it to the salon to get my do done. What can I say, this girl's given up the fight. Tomorrow my favorite Aunty (our Naija hair stylist) will be giving me a touch up. She's too nice to us (my sisters and me). Ever ready to take our last minute appointments. I said to her in Yoruba, "Aunty, mo n bo wa ri yin". That means I am coming to see you. Sho' nuff, she says yes, when? So, I've got an early mo mo (morning) post-bootcamp but pre work appointment tomorrow. E go better (It will be well). All na beauty. (It's all for beauty)