There’s a nice blog post by statistician Jeff Leek on how more and more non-statisticians are finding themselves in roles that involve data analysis and visualization. Data are becoming more and more available, and less and less expensive to collect, and the tools for analyzing that data, from Excel to SAS to Spotfire, are becoming ubiquitous. It is essential that these non-statisticians have more than just data and tools however: they also need training to correctly interpret results and communicate them in a clear, compelling way to executives.
At Enrich, we couldn’t agree more with Jeff. Giving our clients the tools they need to communicate complex forecasts and outcomes in a clear, effective way is a critical first step. For twelve years, we’ve been building custom forecasting and portfolio systems that are tailored to the specific questions our clients’ executives seek to answer. Rather than providing an open-ended workbench, we create interactive dashboards that drive conversations to decisions.
The second step involves training users around building plausible, concrete scenarios, managing uncertainty, and communicating both upside opportunity and downside risks to management. You don’t need to be a Ph.D. statistician to estimate a market share range for your next product launch, but understanding forecasting shortcomings in human behavior and how to incorporate historical information will make you a better forecaster, and lead to better product and portfolio decisions.
So, while not everyone is a statistician, more and more people have access to powerful tools and insight-laden datasets. When our clients use the Enrich Analytics Platform to make complex, high-stakes business decisions under uncertainty, we know we’ve built a critical bridge between the data and the difficult decisions facing management.
See also:
Bringing Insights, not Just Charts, into Your Sales Meetings
Product Forecasting and the Planning Fallacy
