Data & Analytics Flashcards
What should be considered at the beginning of creating an analytically enabled function?
Early project selection for analytics
Success factors for an initial TD analytics projects
- A business problem with a clear outcome
- Access to required data
- Good probability of success, isn’t too complicated, and avoids anything politically charged
- Important to the C-suite (e.g., reducing costs, increasing sales)
2 qualities for ideal TD project
- a quick win, such as something that improves an existing process (something that demonstrates success now)
- uncover an insight or have a business impact that will create interest by senior-level leaders
Steps to gather and organize data
- Define the question that needs to be answered
- Set clear measurement priorities (what to measure and how to measure it)
- Collect the data - what info already exists; how is data stored and filed; how to collect the data
- Analyze the data - a number of analysis tools and software can be used
- Interpret the results - circle back to original question to determine if it’s been answered; data ensures a productive conclusion has been found by defending against objections
During which step in gathering and analyzing data would a TD professional organize the data findings around the original data question?
Interpret the Results
During which step would a TD professional create pivot tables, plot data, or find correlations?
Analyze the Data
During which step are cost, bias, and confidentiality concerns/factors?
Cllecting the Data
During which step would a TD professional visually present their conclusions from the data?
Interpret the Results
What is the value in a TD professional meeting with senior leaders/stakeholders about analytics projects?
shows how these projects deliver short-term and long-term value for the org
What should a TD professional base their recommendations on for future analytics projects?
level of impact
ease of implementation
What 3 things should a TD professional remember in developing analytics projects?
- Ensure the talent strategy aligns with org success
- Engage multiple stakeholders
- Determine the support needed
Analytics projects: Engage multiple stakeholders
The TD professional’s key stakeholders are org leaders and business dept leaders; other may be added, which is why it’s good to consistently define the problem, measures, assumptions
Analytics projects: Determine support needed
Will require buy-in from others; building these relationships will be valuable later
e.g., critical data may be located in depts or functions outside TD, or SMEs may be needed to help gather data
Analytics projects: Talent strategy is aligned with org success
Business goals, strategy, and outcomes all have corresponding plans for how employees help support them; direct connection between TD and the org; ensures leaders will be interested in results and can demonstrate TD is a valuable resource
e.g., understand how business makes its money
What forms the framework for the data analysis plan?
The stakeholder’s purpose - their goal, need, or requirement
Examples of valuable info TD holds for other depts (can be aligned to the stakeholder’s purpose) - these may be aligned with the goal of an analytics project
- skills needed to improve business performance
- how to predict turnover
- data to measure impact of LD program
- how to determine the effectiveness of an onboarding program
Why should a TD professional be good at needs assessment for data analytics?
The stakeholder analysis may be broader and deeper than typical
What is the first step in a stakeholder analysis for a data analysis project?
- Identifying the stakeholders
- Determining their power and influence
What are three ways to segment the stakeholder group?
hierarchy - team leads, dept heads, directors
function or department - e.g., Sales, Marketing, Operations
decision-making authority - differs from hierarchy; may be that one stakeholder group has responsibility/authority across depts
What are some early ways a TD professional might do a deep data analysis?
- Manipulating the data by plotting it out to find correlations
- Create a pivot table that allows data to be sorted and filtered using different variables
- Calculate mean, maximum, minimum, standard deviation
What is the value of identifying correlations, trends, and outliers early?
The knowledge learned helps focus the analysis and draw more accurate conclusions
What is one challenge/roadblock a TD professional may discover after they do early data manipulation?
That they don’t have the necessary data; they may need to collect more or ask different questions
What are common pitfalls / data analysis traps that can lead to poor data analysis? (5)
- jumping to conclusions—or worse, starting with the conclusion
- unconscious bias
- overusing the mean and avoiding the mode and median
- incorrectly defining the sample size
- hypothesis testing without accounting for the Hawthorne effect or placebo effect