Get Close, Think Big and Deliver Mind-blowing Analytical Value for Your Partner

A more helpful approach for analysts is to ask, “What business problem are you trying to solve?” A careful listener will be able to ask questions that help her or him better understand the business. In a truly collaborative partnership, both business leaders and analysts learn more about problems besetting a business and refine problems in a way that analysis can help solve.

An analyst should be able to think critically and steer a business leader who is not well-versed in what analytics can do, down more fruitful paths than originally envisioned by the business leader. He or she should be able to provide solid reasons for whatever recommendation is made and be nimble-minded enough to change course if initial data suggests a better way.

Think Big

Not only must analysts be able to solve problems, but they should also strive to form close relationships with their business partners, think strategically about their partner’s work, and find ways other analysts can help. Often, more than one analyst will work on solving a partner’s problems, and each analyst will serve multiple business partners, so the work of an analytics team should be organized not around team members but around the needs of each business partner.

In order to think strategically, good analysts must take the time to learn about the business and its priorities. They must immerse themselves in the day-to-day operations, staff meetings, and strategy sessions. They must be core members of teams that are responsible for implementing initiatives. They must ask questions and meet their business partners as equals at the table, and they have to be willing to go with their partners to senior leadership not only for the good news but also for the bad. Success or failure is as much their responsibility as their partners, and they win or lose together. A tight business relationship with your partner will potentially produce better results and a greater appreciation for your analytical work.

Loop in Senior Leaders

A good analytics team leader must also recognize that business partners can focus too narrowly on their part of the business and lose sight of the company’s larger goals. That’s why it’s important to give regular reports to your partner’s boss and possibly other senior-level managers. Not only does that give senior leaders an awareness of the value you are providing, more importantly, it gives them a chance to ask questions and steer the discussion back to the company’s larger goals. That keeps your work more focused and will keep both you and your business partner from spending too much time working on data that isn’t a high priority for senior management.

Those reports shouldn’t focus just on what your team did but on how it’s furthering business goals and identifying opportunities. The business partner can then talk about any plans for realizing those opportunities. Even if the analytics team doesn’t work directly for a senior leader, it is working on behalf of that leader’s goals and objectives, and he or she needs to see and hear the value the team is adding in order to appreciate it.

Extracting value from an analytics team often requires a break from traditional thinking by team members and business partners. Business partners must be willing to share and discuss their business with the analytics team, and team members must be willing to think strategically and solve problems. If that happens, partners are more likely to get more relevant analysis and make good use of it. That should be the ultimate goal of every analytics team. Because even the most beautifully crafted analysis is useless unless it is implemented and improves the bottom line.