3. Data-based decision making
Data Based Decision Making
“Computers are useless.
They can only give you answers.”
Asking the aright questions
A leading brand of nappies asked, “What’s the most important feature in a nappy?
The answer: absorbency.
So the company promoted their nappies with a message of absorbency. But, their market share went down.
Why?
Ask the right questions
Drilling down to a specific purpose will help you determine what data you collect, how you analyze it and how you make the results meaningful in supporting your decision-making.
- Define your purpose
- Be as specific as possible
- Decide if you need to adjust or augment data collection
I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.
For once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.
Albert Einstein
Ask the right questions. What would Einstein do?
To better define the question, you can do the following:
- Rephrase the question.
- Consider a broader or narrower version of the question.
- Rewrite your question statement from the perspective of different stakeholders
- Assume there’s more than one possible solution
- Use language to frame the question in a more exciting way
- Reverse the question and think about what you would do to generate an opposite intended results