It took me awhile in my career to realize there’s a big difference between report building and analysis. I figured if you build it, people will use it, understand it, and come to their own conclusions. I thought that the main value I brought to the table as an analyst was the know-how to assemble the right data in the right place.
The reality, though, is that people actually want more from you than a report. They want your assessment of it. Your analysis. That step is harder to offer – it requires not just a technical understanding of the data, but an opinion for what it all means.
And too often, analysis work is treated as an afterthought, rather than being the focus of any data work. Always ask “What’s this for” when you’re tasked with a new data project. The answer probably isn’t simple a report, but rather, the insights gleaned from it.