Once you know, what will you do?

Once you know, what will you do?

I've yet to meet a client who didn't require, in some form or another, some way to analyze their data. Whether it was simple queries or reports, or more advanced dashboards or analytics, everyone wants to be able to analyze their data.

And that's a good thing.

But the first question that should be asked whenever we decide to analyze any data is "Once we've analyzed the data, what next action will we take as a result of that analysis?"

Or put more simply, "Once you know, what will you do?"

"That's interesting" or "It would be good to know" are not actions. "Let's try a different marketing message" or "Let's change the price on that" or "Let's stop doing that" are actions. Even "That's working, let's keep doing what we're doing" is an action!

So before you spend a lot of time and energy analyzing any data, ask yourself, "Once I know, what will I do?"

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

Documenting Process is Critical

February 22, 2019

When it comes to managing data successfully, process is critical. For example, a client of […]

Motion vs. Action

February 14, 2019

In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits (I recommend it!), he discusses the concept of motion vs. action. […]

Are You Answering Your Calls?

February 7, 2019

I’ve written about this before, but apparently I have to keep repeating it. If you’ve […]

Who do you trust?

January 31, 2019

Who Do You Trust I was reading an article recently about Warren Buffet’s “rules” for […]

Set benchmarks to measure progress

January 24, 2019

It’s impossible to measure progress if you don’t know your starting point. This sounds axiomatic, […]

You’ll make incorrect decisions. Acknowledge them and fix it.

January 17, 2019

A client of mine recently wrote the following to me: “It’s so hard to set […]

"Experience is unobservable to everyone except the person who it happens to."

January 10, 2019

In Dan Gilbert’s book Stumbling on Happiness, he writes: “Experience is unobservable to everyone except […]

Know Your Audience Before You Speak

December 20, 2018

This one may seem obvious, but when you’re speaking to anyone, whether it’s one person, […]

"Behavior is a function of the person in their environment."

December 13, 2018

Lewin’s equation says “behavior is a function of the person in their environment.” (He was […]

Signal-to-noise ratio

December 5, 2018

Signal-to-noise ratio Signal-to-noise ratio, formally used, applies to electricity and engineering, and refers to how […]

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