Evaluate the Disassembled Pieces

 

Now that we have defined the problem and disassembled the same - it's time to take a close, focused look at the data pieces and form your own judgements about them (i.e. Evaluate).

Make your observations about the problem explicit. For e.g.:

•     This Business' primary customers are Teens. 
•     They’re basically the only customer group.
•     This business is trying to reallocate expenses from advertisements to Digital Marketing - with no established data on success rate with this move.
•     There is no limit to potential sales growth among Teens.

Similarly make your observations about the data explicit. For e.g.:

•     Sales are slightly up for the current month compared to September, but kind of flat.
•     Sales are way off their targets.
•     Cutting ad expenses may have hurt this business' ability to keep pace with sales targets.
•     Cutting the prices does not seem to have helped sales keep pace with targets.

As a Data Analyst, it's always a good practice to make your own assumptions about the problem and the data explicit and bet your credibility on your conclusions.

Whether you’re building complex models or making simple decisions, data analysis is all about your beliefs, judgement and credibility.

As you prepare your final report, be sure to refer to yourself, so that your client knows where your conclusions are coming from.

Your prospects for success as a Data Analyst are much better if you insert yourself and are an explicit part of your analysis rather than avoiding responsibility.