Data analysts may be one of the most misunderstood collections of people in our business. Are you heaping the love on your data experts as much as they deserve?
After all, they delve into, distill and organize the chaos of your data so that it makes sense and in fact fuels your business strategies and decisions. This is no simple task:
- They discover stuff. They may be the first ones to see a trend or understand how things work before anyone else does.
- They’re translators. They translate numbers into English (or whatever language you speak) whether it’s sales figures, market research, logistics, or transportation costs.
- They care. They may not show it but they care deeply about the journey and the destination.
- They know how to query and retrieve data that helps drive strategies and decisions at the highest levels. If they’re good, they can get people excited as they uncover meaning of the underlying data.
- They help you predict the future. Like who will click or buy. Or what problems may arise under certain conditions. Or which market sector will respond best to your new product line.
- They apply machine learning and statistical techniques to concrete problems in order to create solutions that have a big impact.
- They’re artists. Data analysis is as much an art as a science. Those who are good at it have the depth of understanding to show nuance and detail, to highlight critical variables and to discover the data that tells the story.
Have you loved your data analyst today?
