Analysis Lesson
From a 5 year Old
Late night ramblings from Chuck Hooper
I was taking care of my 5 year old
granddaughter for the day. She wanted to paint some pictures. I
pulled out her water colors and set them up on the kitchen table. She
took a brush, dipped it in water, then into a few different color paints. She proceeded to put ten blobs of color on ten different places on
the paper.
She held up the final product and asked “Papa, do you like
this?”.
I smiled and nodded a big YES! She then
asked “Do you know what they are?”. I said they looked like pretty
birdies. She frowned and tossed the paper aside: “NO! They’re kitty cats!“
We repeat the process – ten more blobs of new
colors, in new shapes, all over the paper.
Same questions asked.
THIS time, I am going to be smarter!
The last ones were kitty cats. She’s 5. These MUST be puppy dogs!
She says “No! They’re horsies!“.
Another work of art
tossed to the side.
One more time….
I am an analyst. I am a bright guy.
No 5 year old will stump me a third time!
This time, about a dozen colorful blotches on
the paper. Same questions asked. I ask if I am allowed multiple
guesses. She says “Yes.”, so, I start: ”Are they aardvarks? Abacuses?
Accountants? Adams apples? Affidavits?
Aggravated grandpas?…”
I go through the alphabet. I go back through the alphabet. And again.
30 minutes later, I am
sweating.
She is bored with saying “No!” so many times.
Finally, I am done. I say: “Papa gives up. What are they?”
She shakes her in disgust, rolls her eyes
(more disgust), and says:
“Papa! Sometimes they’re
just dots!“.
How
often, as analysts, do we look for insights, and not find them, only to keep
trying until we pass out?
How
many times is the data we are looking at just dots in a scatter plot?
How
do we know when to look elsewhere? And, where is that elsewhere?
What
other data do we need to add to the mix, to make the data we already have, useful?
The so-called BI "tools" can’t answer these questions. These
are the questions that need human brain power to answer. The
tool you use to analyze the data should let you “play with your data”. My
friends at Tableau Software like to say “Party with your data!”. It’s the same idea. It’s
the easiest way to find those gold nuggets hiding in the numbers. It’s
also the fastest way to find out if you’re just playing with dots!
Chuck Hooper is a business intelligence and data
visualization consultant, He
brings 49 years of business and IT experience with him. In addition to the
current consulting offerings, he does speaking
engagements, and, conducts training sessions on the use of Tableau Software
products, visual analytics, data
warehouse design, and other business intelligence topics, at both the technical
and the executive levels.
Material presented Copyright © 2012,2013,2014 by
Chuck Hooper. You may quote / use any of
the material by giving the author credit.
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