Data Analysts ask the right questions to make sure everyone is on the same page about the plan and the goals of the project. Be sure that you and your team understand what the problem really is. The more questions you ask, the more you’ll learn about your data and the more powerful your insights will be at the end of the day. “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said. clearly defining the actual problem at the beginning saves time, money and resources.

Some questions are not effective and introduce a bias or don’t produce valuable information.

• Leading questions – “These are the best, aren’t they”
• Closed-ended questions – “Did you like it?”
• Too vague and lacks context – “Do you prefer yellow or green?”

Effective questions follow the SMART methodology. That means they’re specific, measurable, action-oriented, relevant, and time-bound.

Gathering Qualitative and Quantitative Data

There are several ways to gather data. Qualitative data can be obtained by focus groups, social media text analysis, and in-person interviews. Quantitative research includes structured interviews, surveys and polls.

When gathering data you’ll want to be aware of those types of events or conditions that can affect your results. Things like long weekends affect your sales volumes. A price increase or decrese will affect your sales volumes. How sensitive are customers to price? Economists use the phrase “price elasticity of demand”. You could ask people some open-ended questions such as why did you decide to purchase tonight?

Data analysts use structured thinking to recognize the current situation, organize information, and identify opportunities.