Data is only as valuable as the insight it provides. Data stakeholders know that. That’s why analysts, marketers and managers put so much time and effort into collecting, preparing and modeling data in order to extract insight.

Unfortunately, analysts don’t always mind the gap between extracting insights and communicating insights. The consequence of ineffective communication results in insights going unimplemented and data exceeding its shelf life.

As a result, data and the corresponding insights go to waste because decision-makers don’t understand data.

The ensuing cost can be significant. Consider the following research study:

In March of 2016, Blue Hill Research estimated that the average analyst spends about 28% of his or her time every year on data prep alone. Considering the average data analyst’s annual salary, businesses could spend approximately $22,000 per year per data analyst, solely on data preparation—without taking into account data collection, modeling and other key functions.

That’s a lot of money, and a lot of hard work gone to waste if the data is never put to good use.

But analysts have to face an important truth: even if the data and insights are good, stakeholders won’t understand and apply data if the data isn’t presented in an insightful, visually appealing and understandable manner.

The solution: Analysts need to become storytellers.

Lea Pica, Director of Data Visualization & Storytelling at Search Discovery, recognizes the problem of bad things (or nothing) happening to good data. She recently said, “Learning how to present analytical insights in a clear, compelling and impactful way is the difference between becoming indispensable or fading into the woodwork.”

Pica will discuss how data analysts can focus on presenting data in ways that inspire real action during her presentation “The PICA Protocol for Actionable Data Viz” at this year’s  Analytics Summit on November 9th.

Register for the 2017 Analytics Summit to hear Pica and 24 other noteworthy presenters’ insights on best practices, technology, techniques and trends to watch for in 2018.

About the Author

A former student and present enthusiast of the humanities, Jack Vawdrey uses his love of language to explore the role of marketing and analytics technology in business. Jack joined the ObservePoint marketing team in August 2016 and serves as Managing Editor. Adamant about automation, Jack writes to educate the analytics and marketing community about the role of tag auditing and data governance in the enterprise.

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