The best data analysts with whom I’ve worked have one thing in common. They ask great questions. This curiosity leads business leaders to think harder about what we are looking to understand in the data (ie. the complexion of revenue, shifting size of customers, trends in geography coverage, etc) besides simply tracking the business and noticing broad trends. These questions help challenge the assumptions we have, test hypotheses faster and understand the deeper value that our product delivers to our customers.
Meet with your founders / CEO periodically on your terms
Set up the meeting, put a simple agenda together that aims to deepen your understanding of the business, market trends, etc. This will give you the confidence that you have the updated big picture, will lead to better data visualizations, and importantly, will give your leadership the confidence that you are not in the weeds.
Chat with internal stakeholders early and often
Now go one step further and meet with your functional heads of sales, marketing, success frequently. What are their key priorities, concerns, and opportunities? How can you help them get there faster with your ability to query and visualize data in creative ways?
For example, here at Cledara, we help customers manage their software investments by providing a simple dashboard to discover, purchase and manage their company software subscriptions. We frequently look at shifting trends in software usage: Here’s a list of the top software used by our customers in Sept 2021:
Present trend data to go deeper
For us, the next step here is to look at the up-and-coming software that is growing in adoption faster than others. That query is being run this week because our data analyst asked the question, made us think about how we would use that data to help our customers discover new software that may be relevant to them, faster. Knowing the top software applications our customers use is one thing, noticing early signs of adoption of newer software that is gaining adoption, well that’s another.
Engaging with your business leads is always the right thing to do for your business, and for your career as well!