In order to become skilled at using data, there’s one attribute we all need to develop, no matter what industry we’re working in, and no matter what data tool we’re working with:
We need to learn how to ask worthwhile questions of our data.
This skill is a critical thinking skill, not an Excel skill, an SQL skill, or a Tableau skill. The good news is that if you learn this skill, you can use it no matter what data-working tool you use. Sound data thinking isn’t just tool-agnostic, it’s tool-transcending.
Start with a worthwhile question about the real world
In order to ask worthwhile questions of data, we need to be able to first ask worthwhile questions about the real world. How do you know whether a question about the real world is “worthwhile” though? Worth and value are highly subjective, aren’t they? What’s worthwhile for one person to do might be a total waste of time to someone else. An object of extreme value to me might be worthless to you.
So you have to define this yourself, and you have to get good at sniffing it out in different contexts: at work, at home, in your community, in the broader world. What matters most, in each of these contexts, at any given time?
For questions related to your place of work, this is where business acumen comes in, and this is where you can put your people skills and your listening skills to good use.
- What major problems are leaders within your organization trying to solve?
- What fears do you notice surfacing in conversations? Is there an urgent issue or “burning platform?”
- What possibilities seem to be getting people excited? Are there big opportunities to grasp?
- What’s currently changing in the environment? What changes might happen next?
Maybe there’s a concern about an emerging competitor in the marketplace. Maybe the company has become very cost conscious all of a sudden due to rising prices. Maybe layoffs or a product recall are looming large.
Pay attention to the “prevailing winds” blowing within the organization. The worthwhile questions will often be found swirling around in the wake of these winds.