In business do you want insight?
To be able to predict customer trends? How to increase business productivity? Drive effective decision-making? To effectively do these fundamental parts of business successfully you need Data Analysis. Data Analysis is the most important function of business. It is more than just seeing numbers on a spreadsheet. It is an in depth look into dissecting the data to reach effective solutions to operating a business of any form. To achieve success in data analysis presentation of the findings in an easily digestable format for your audience is key. To allow them to easily reach conclusions of the findings any execture change.
Let’s Take a Look at Effective Data Analysis and Visualizations.
Lets take a look at a company that has launched a new product. Their profit goal was 25% of the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). After disecting a years worth of data we have formated the table below to show the Cost of goods sold, Sales and profit since the launch of the product.
In this data visualization we are using a bar graph which is best used when representing data over a length of time. We can see that the trends of the cost of goods sold has decreased over the year and the profits have increased. While the profit margins were in the negative for the first five months have they risen in the last sevon months to reach the goal of a 25% profit margin of the cost of goods sold?
With this data visualization of the data analysis it shows a clear picture that the company has not reached their goal of 25%. I have used a pie chart for this visualization because it’s best used when organizing data components relative to a whole, it’s especially useful in representing percentage data. When presenting a graphic like the one above shows the audience in this case the managment of the company that clearly they are no where near their goal. This allows them to effectively make a decision in whether to continue manufacturing this new product or look into other factors i.e. marketing, sales representation (qualitative data) that could shine more light on why this product is not succeeding at the rate in which they anticipated.
When presenting a data analysis it is imprortant when creating the data visualizations to remember who your audience is. What are their values, experience and background knowledge? You must consider thses factors in order to shape your story to be most accomadating to your audience. Also consider your audiences motives. You want your presentation of the data to meet your audience’s needs, so they don’t feel as though you have wasted their time.
Always remember to be creative, creativity in data visualizations leaves a last impression with your target audience.
Soomo. (2020). Critical Business Skills for Success. Retrivied From: https://www.webtexts.com/courses/42229-perle/traditional_book/chapters/4805712-using-data-to-inform-decisions/pages/4204284-crafting-your-story