As an Analyst one of your key challenges is to act as a filter for your organisation. You are tasked with sifting through mountains of data and communicating insights in a way which supports better decision making. Computers cannot make sense of data, only people can. More precisely only people with the necessary data analysis skills can. Too much emphasis is put on the role of technology and not enough on the human brain. Organisations that are starved of knowledge need to focus on why Analysts are not filtering the data load effectively. Is it a skills or a resource challenge?
It is not information overload, it’s filter failure
Good Analysts – How Can They Help Me?
Progress in technologies that allow us to collect, store and access data have largely ignored the primary tool that makes information meaningful and useful: the human brain. Computers can’t make sense of data; only people can. More precisely, only people who have developed the necessary data analysis skills can. Analysts take something apart to understand it better. We do this to solve problems or generate insight . Our goal is to help businesses make better decisions and improve their sales and profit performance.
A common misconception about ‘Analysts’ is that all we do is ‘crunch numbers’. In truth, analytics is the ability to look at the data and then turn that into a story. Good Analysts are good storytellers. This is one of the reasons we like to work through problems visually. Because seeking and thinking work closely together, visualisation helps us understand the data better and allows the story unfold naturally.
Analysts are often not the subject specialist in the room. In fact their independence and their ability to take a holistic approach to a business challenge is the essence of what they bring to the team.
If you have a story to tell and you need the expertise of good Analysts to help tell it, contact Delphi Analytics.