Mental Models

 

As a Data Analyst, you have defined the problem, disassembled the problem, evaluated the disassembled pieces and made recommendations. Decision making authorities have acted on your recommendation with the hope it will increase the likelihoods of their sales. 

But then an article comes out stating the teen market has already been saturated for the product your company is offering - with your company holding the dominant market share. Meaning more marketing towards teens is not necessarily going to increase your sales. But you came up with this recommendation because of the company's beliefs that their only market audience is Teens.

In light of the news article, you might want to reassess these beliefs passed on to you by your company. Your assumptions and beliefs about your business are your mental model. Mental models can have a big impact on how you interpret data. Your statistical model depends on your mental model. Hence always make your mental models as explicit as possible.

For example, supply and demand is a mental model that helps you understand how the economy works. They are the thinking tools that you use to understand life, make decisions, and solve problems.

You can’t possibly know and see everything that is buried in the data, so your brain has to be selective in what it chooses to focus your attention on. So your mental model largely determines what you see. If you’re aware of your mental model, you’re more likely to see what’s important and develop the most relevant and useful statistical models.

If you use the wrong mental model, your analysis fails before it even begins.