Data Analysts Need to Harvest Their Crops

A good farmer remembers to not only plant and grow their crops but also harvest and sell them.

Data Analysts like to plant and grow their crops, but we’re terrible at harvesting and bringing them to market. Instead, we like to leave our crops out in the field to rot, with the hopes that a passerby will grab an ear of corn to munch on their journey. We think they’ll magically stumble upon our wonderful work.

We spend so much time pulling our data, cleaning it, organizing it, and analyzing it. Yet when we have impactful results, we fall short. We put little effort into writing and summarizing our results and even less time into selling those results to the business, to our mutual detriment.

“The results speak for themselves”

The equivalent of expecting people to walk past your farm, pick the corn, and walk up to your door and knock so they can pay you for the opportunity. It’s absurd and it’s why many early career data analysts struggle to get traction in their careers.

I did this myself. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t. And I don’t think it's our fault - no one is teaching us WHAT to do with our analyses. Just HOW to do them. Let’s change that.

Here’s what you do.

Learn how to communicate. 

At the start, this just means being succinct with your communication. When you write up your results (you are writing up your results, aren’t you???) keep them as short as possible. Write the first draft, give yourself some space from it and then go back and edit it.

Then do that again.

And once more.

It should be getter shorter. You should get your point across better with each edit, using fewer words and absolutely ZERO confusing language or acronyms. If your grandma can’t understand the language you’re using, make it so she can. People don’t ask about definitions or acronyms, they stay silent when confused. No one likes to look stupid - don’t even give them the chance to feel that way.

Include visuals, but only as NEEDED. If it doesn’t contribute directly to the insight you’re trying to convey, leave it out. That applies to your entire presentation. Think about things from a stakeholder perspective:

They don’t care what technique you used. 

They don’t care how you cleaned the data and how long it took. 

They don’t care how many visuals you tried before you found what you showed them. 

If you do this right, they should be wondering why they even need you. Because it’s so simple. 

Your presentation of insights should not reflect how hard they were to get to. It’s possible for an analysis to look like magic to a stakeholder and THAT is your goal. 

Then get it in front of the right people. In the format THEY love, not the one you love.

They like emails with explanations and bullet points? Get to writing.

They prefer an open discussion? Find a chunk of free time to chat with them. Even better if it’s in person.

Structured presentation? Get your slideshow on.

I know you want to use the format YOU prefer. But that’s like trying to get a kid to eat celery instead of ice cream. Why give yourself a fight when you can delight instead.

And what if you need to present to different groups of stakeholders? 

Tailor it for each group. The format and language you use for a VP are not the same as you’d use to share with your team. This is extra work but without it, you’re wasting your analysis. You’d be better off just not bothering to do it.

Harvest your crops.

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I launched a course that uses this approach for resumes. It works incredibly well and has gotten excellent results.

If you want to check it out, here’s some more info: https://learn.vandatacareers.com/data-analyst-launchpad/