

One of the analyst’s tasks is to push the limits of available data to answer questions for management and colleagues. So what should you do? Are you a bad analyst for doing that?Īlways remember that part of the data you possess might be wrong or corrupted, a much bigger volume of data is unavailable because you didn’t gather it, and there’s even more data that you can’t even imagine yet. Stay curious, creative, and fearless.Īnalysts build reports based on the data they possess at the moment, and sometimes these reports describe obvious facts tediously. Even if you’ve already made some mistakes, even if it was mentioned, and even if your ideas were questioned, don’t neglect your creative ideas while mechanically doing what was asked. Be bold about sharing numbers it’s a great skill. Analysts can be afraid to share any additional numbers. You should always check with other systems and conduct a plain reality check – can your results exist in reality? Can there actually be 89 pageviews on average within three minutes? When you doubt yourself and are strict on yourself, you’re much more than a specialist – you’re a reliable specialist.Īvoiding giving advice or answering additional questions to avoid the risk of looking stupid Without double-checking the numbers in their results, analysts can lose so much credibility. These are some of the biggest mistakes an analyst can make: Get your ideas to the desk and don’t be afraid to fail.
HIGHFIVE SOUND DIFFICULTIES HOW TO
Educate your coworkers on how to apply data analysis in their work. Make people understand how far data can take them. Translate the results of analysis into solutions for people.Always remember why you perform your analyses. Never fall into the data abyss without a hypothesis with which to pull themselves back out.Develop empathy for the people who will work with their numbers.Communicate what they know in understandable terms.But stressing data that will never be 100% perfect – combined with the uncertainty inherent in business decisions – won't make anything better.

Or sometimes an analyst just puts too much focus on numbers, not the insights or what-to-do advice. They don’t believe analytics is so hard, and they make conclusions based on the information they have at hand. Your coworkers aren’t mean or immune to analytics they’re just constantly needing to make the right decisions under the pressure of a market that’s no longer a friendly place.Īnd here’s another side of the coin: you’ll experience the Dunning-Kruger effect or Survivorship bias even at the most data-developed companies, because that’s people’s nature.
