The digital era has come with many challenges. As tech users, it is overwhelming to think about the amount of data that can be collected from us. All our clicks and taps end up populating a company’s data base, creating thousands of rows with our information. If we are lucky enough, we won’t be flagged as an outlier after all the clean ups and filters to refine the tables. Our information ends up being one of a million data points in a company’s month-end scatterplot report. Decisions are made afterwards, expecting to improve the firm’s performance indicators.
But how can businesses turn this data into meaningful actions?
As a data scientist, I know that this process is not a simple one. To begin with, we need a business question that will set the direction for where to look for answers. Understanding the business problem is more important than selecting a statistical model, because if you don’t know where you are going, it doesn’t matter the path you pick. It is like having a big box of colourful Lego blocks without an instruction manual to work from.
After understanding the business and the question, we ask: which individuals should we filter? What do we need to arrive at an answer? Here, we are sorting our Lego blocks, they can by grouped by colours, sizes, and shapes. The manual tells us how many of each block we have to start working on, and what we can expect to see at the end.
Modelling is finding the best answer to the business question. Understanding the business makes the metric selection simple: does it makes sense for what we are trying to answer? Our Lego blocks are coming together, taking shape in small buildings and structures, that are starting to look like the pictures in the instruction manual.
An answer is meaningless if the person asking can’t understand it. We need to create a story and the narrative should fit the knowledge of the public. If we are too technical, ambiguous, or vague, the key message can easily get lost. At Turner Drake and Partners Ltd., we use visualizations and business-friendly language to demonstrate that we understand the business context and the question being asked. An answer should be supported by the right visuals faithful to the data. Then, our data can be turned into informed decisions, from analysis to action.
Our Lego set is done, and our audience is be able to understand the story behind the blocks. Everything is possible, with the right data available.
Maria is a consultant in our Economic Intelligence Unit. For more information about how you can benefit from the unique expertise of our Planning & Economic Intelligence team, contact Maria at (902) 429-1811 or mlargo@turnerdrake.com.