Tool #1 in the David Avery Starter Kit
Welcome to the David Avery Starter Kit, the one-stop shop for all your analytics needs!
Just kidding.
This isn’t an infomercial; I’m not selling you something (to be honest, I like my job too much to get into sales). And because I love analytics, oftentimes I meet with prospects and new customers to help show them the art of the possible by having a rich dialogue around best practices and the lessons from my time on the analytics team of a BI company. Here are some of the questions I often hear:
And so on and so forth.
Well, I have good news (cue the sales pitch this time) — you’re in luck! While the David Avery Starter Kit cannot guarantee millions of dollars in profit for your organization, it does help set you up for success in building an app-using, analytics-loving, insights-appreciating organization.
Since I can feel your excitement, let’s get started by talking about tool #1: how to build out your analytics team. Contrary to popular belief, the foundation of analytics at your organization is not data — it’s the people using it. And for that, you need an all-star analytics team. Here’s who to include:
Some organizations think that those who report on the data should be the same ones telling the story behind it. However, my best advice is to avoid doing so because this combined skill set is extremely rare. An ability to both get down into the weeds of the data and come all the way back up to appropriately translate it to key decision makers in a way that provokes them to action is not a common trait. Moreover, that person isn’t doing either of those activities to their fullest potential when they are responsible for both.
They can be disguised as business SMEs, marketers, salespeople, executives, and pretty much anyone in the company. Keep an eye out for them, make sure you’re helping them with their business needs and keep in mind you may need to train them on how to train others in the organization. If you need a quick overview of how to do that, check out my blog on training the trainer.
So now you have the team. But how do you set up your application suite?
That’s tool #2. More to come.
What other tools do you want to see in the David Avery Starter Kit? Let me know in the comments below!