Data interpretation: a guide to sound decision making
 

In day-to-day life it is normal to have to make decisions that mean putting ourselves in one position or another. In these decisions many times we tend to go to our instinct and it is not bad; however, there are some means that we can put on the table to know if our hunch is the right one or not; that is where data interpretation appears.
 

Interpretation is nothing more than implementing business analytics of information with the objective of extracting findings that ultimately provide different solutions and enable data-driven decision making.
 

Data Interpretation: 4 steps to perform it
 

1. What is your source for data interpretation?

The first thing to do is to find your data source through what is predictive analytics. Sometimes, depending on the industry, you may find different sources of data. In that case, it is very important that you integrate all these sources so that there is no loss of information.
 

2. Clean up and organize your data

Once you have the information, knowing how to organize it is essential to facilitate decision making and see a more complete picture, especially visually. At the same time, it is important to define which metrics you want to see and compare, an example could be:

• Gross profit margin.
• Return on investment (ROI).
• Number of customers.
   

3. Analyze your data

With the data organized, it is time to interpret what it is saying. At this point it is important to apply previous knowledge about the business. The data gives us a path to follow and the experience the way to follow it.

 

4. What conclusions can be drawn from the data interpretation?

As you analyze the data you will most likely begin to draw conclusions from what you see. However, leaving a section for conclusions will allow you to highlight the most important ones. To do this, you should ask yourself the following questions.

• What is in the data that I already expected?
• What new information is there?
• How can I use this information to achieve my business objectives?
   

5. Communicate and take action

Undoubtedly, sharing the findings with your team will allow everyone involved to know what the purpose is and where it came from; in conclusion, this will allow everyone to have a clear objective in mind and the actions to be executed will go towards that common goal.
 

In Outsourcing S.A.S. BIC we have a long experience in data analysis and, as we saw throughout this article, a correct interpretation of them allows us to reach great findings that are transformed into action plans to create and / or improve the experiences of our customers; which in turn allows us to achieve a greater appreciation of our brands and companies.