Make It Better and Talk Simple
As a data nerd for an advertising company in the medical space, I spend a lot of time talking to internal team members and clients about the data of their digital and non-digital tactics. This means I spend a lot of time looking at numbers, finding trends, and building dashboards and/or slides to let teams know what it all means.
What I have noticed about this process is the use of specific language which, while it sounds good at first blush is actually just language designed make the speaker sound smart. Another way of saying this: it is bullshit language.
The largest offender of bullshit language in data analysis and presentation is the word optimize.
Why Optimize is Nonsense
We use the word optimize because we think it sounds good, because we think it makes us sound smart. But when it comes to digital efforts, the word optimize inherently does a crummy job in giving voice to what needs to come next and how next will actualize.
I write this because the job of a data analyst isn't to "make the best or most effective use of a situation". The job of a data analyst is to understand what is happening and convey the "what comes next" to the client in the most basic-to-understand language.
More than anything, the job of an analyst is to understand and convey "best" isn't a real thing. "Better" or "slight improvements" is the goal, and always has been for the specific reason that your users are always moving and thus, will always move the goal posts of success. This means "best" can never happen.
Rather, making your website, campaign, conversions, etc. better, e.g. an improvement on previous performance, is the goal. Shoot to use the data to perform better than before because that is achievable. Optimize or best will never happen.
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Keep It Simple
If I have learned anything working in the data space it is this: how you communicate numbers and what those numbers mean for your client, is as important/if not more important than being able to analyze the numbers.
The goal of a data analyst should be clear concise communication, at a third grade level, to advise what the numbers mean and what is the next step. Numbers can be complicated. Large data sets can be complicated and off putting.
How you communicate what those numbers mean should be simple.
Telling a client we are going to "optimize your web conversion performance because we noticed a trend line of users only hitting a submit button after pathing through three pages and engaging with two specific videos" is an objective failure of communication. It might sound good but it also can/will come off to the client as gibberish.
You are much better off telling your client, "we can make your conversions better by getting users to the form in one click instead of three and by making the form more prominent on your website", because that type of language is directive and does not hide the details of what comes next.
So please, next time you are presenting some data to your internal teams or a client, be direct, be simple, and aim to make whatever you are working on better.
Great insights Brad!