Where are you in your analytics journey?

The path from data to insights is rarely a straight line. Here are a few tips to help your organization from getting derailed on those first projects.

Business transformation is enabled when people can easily engage with your data, ask questions, find answers, and ultimately generate insights and recommendations that help you evolve. Deciding that you want your organization to be more data-driven is the easy part - getting there is hard work, and in my experience, never a straight line from start to finish.

Transforming data into strategic advantage is a non-linear and upending journey. Put another way, turning data into insight is a creative activity – driven by curiosity and a thirst to learn and understand. In nearly every case, what you end up with as the best solution is not where you thought you were going at the start.

Why does this happen? You have databases - you likely have technical talent on staff - you may even have tools like Tableau that help you visualize and explore your data. Isn't that all you need?

The answer is no, because humans are involved in both the generation and the consumption of your data. When you start g…