No matter what role you play in your organization, there are enough data points surrounding your activities that you could drown. You also have three layers of people above and below you in the food chain as well as all your peers who depend on you to use this data to tell them what the heck is going on.
The world as we know it is spinning very quickly. The business wolf changes every day. So no matter what you think your job is, you are also a data collector, data interpreter and a business analyst.
Using the plethora of data
We have so much data, we don’t know how to use it — how to correlate it to other data, or even if the data set is correctly named to describe what it measures. The simple fact is this: You can’t trust anyone’s data enough to drink it.
At the same time, if you don’t present data and analysis for what you do, someone else will. The chances are that if someone else is presenting data that effects you, they will use the wrong data, use incorrect or unrelated data, and tell a story about the data that has nothing to do with reality. In the words of public relations, you have to own your story.
This also means that you can’t trust the data or the data interpretation others are showing you to report on their activities. This is especially risky if you depend on others for decisions that impact your projects.
Find yourself a life preserver. Build a bridge. Learn to row a boat. Go to higher ground. Bottle some safe water for when you need it. Whichever way you want to extend the metaphor of swimming in water you don’t dare drink, come up with a plan for how you will control the data story around your projects.
Dealing with data
Academia is aware of this problem. Journalism schools are starting to offer courses and degrees in data journalism. Before too long you’ll need a postgraduate degree to understand a report. It may be a while before you can have your personal data journalist, so you need a plan in the meantime.
Here are a few ways to become your own data journalist. Look at the reports you currently generate and try to explain them to someone in another department or a friend who does not know your business.
Could you tell a story that made sense from the numbers? Look at the reports your boss likes best. Find a story to tell about the inaccuracies and the benefits of these reports. See if your boss can tell the story of these numbers. If not, you will need to find the story in the numbers and be the storyteller.
Contact the support people at the company who currently manage the software that you use for reporting stats and see if they can find a better way for you to view your data, or a better way to report the data. Ask them to tell the story of the numbers to see if they can give you some hints.
Test your stories on friends and relatives to see if they are going to be good stories or not. Then get back into the data pool and swim for it!
