What makes an analyst an analyst?

Set small goals, reflect, revisit and appreciate each milestone achieved

How many times have you followed a recipe to the ‘T’ and still did not get it right? You double-check every measure, every ingredient, and every condition around it but still, you get a burnt cookie or a cake raw in the middle. Well, analytics is pretty much the same. You might have a clear objective in mind, all the data you need (pretty rare but not impossible), a team of the best, and a manageable goal but still not get what you thought you would.

That makes me wonder whose fault is it that the recipe does not work? It is neither chef’s fault nor my reading skills’ but motivation maybe. Because had I been this motivated about having a perfect slice of cake, I would have tried again & again until I get it right. We often confuse our discipline in doing something with our motivation. Same goes for analysts too, you might know all the perfect algorithms, business domain, and what not but if you don’t have the motivation to go till the end, you might just leave it as it is. Analytics, in my opinion, is the truest version of the road not taken.

Staying motivated throughout a project is a challenge I have witnessed in both ad-hoc and long term project settings. It is not restricted to consultancy nor product-based companies. And I am sure it is not restricted to analytics either. But the lack of it has the largest impact on the workings of an analytics team or a division. Motivation is the key to navigate through the failures in your analysis which a team will face in abundance.

But what exactly lack of motivation means in the context of analytics. It can be as trivial as losing interest in the new technology you are learning to implement a project to as dangerous as compromising with the quality of the model just to get over with it sooner. Most of the analytics role be it analyst or data scientist is very collaborative. And yes my friend, it is contagious. Lack of motivation instantly translates into not giving your best. We tackled this challenge as a team with the following realizations and acting on them.

To feel involved, be involved

One of my team member one day confided in me that she used to get excited about our weekly brainstorming meeting but now she doesn’t anymore. I asked her why. She said, ‘I don’t think anyone takes it seriously the way I do.’ I am glad she did that. We discussed it in our next meeting. Everyone realized how in our current project which involves extensive use of Tableau, we have lost the enthusiasm we initially had while learning it. Once it was out into the open, everyone started afresh with a fresher perspective.

Stay relevant to the long goal

When putting in hours of work into a single problem, we often get short-sighted about our goal. It is not uncommon to get blinded by data and delve deeper into it just to get all the more drifted from the real problem. E.g. in the case mentioned above, everyone forgot the actual problem we were solving i.e. improving Engage3’s primary product rather focussed on learning Tableau singularly. Once that objective was achieved no one saw the point in progressing with the same motivation. Please note motivation is not infinite, if you allot a lot in one task, you are probably going to run out of it for the next task. Not losing sight of the long goal keeps you grounded and self-aware. Ask yourself, ‘Now that it’s done, where to go next?’

Make a roadmap

In most of the analytics projects, you steer as you find out in each step. Although this flexibility makes it a great learning experience, it also triggers a lack of belief in reaching the long goal if a team faces failures in succession mostly due to the recency effect. We also faced this as a team of 7 graduate students. But how can you do quality if you are disinterested in it? You cannot afford that. We tried a simple thing. We always created a roadmap as a team, ‘what if this works? where should we go next? And if it doesn’t what should we do next?’. Adding a level of certainty to our steering gave us more control and confidence in our project

Retrospect and appreciate

We broke down our work into small feasible goals. We subdivided our work such that everyone is involved in it i.e. discouraging working in silos. We did not restrict decision making to one individual rather gave everyone a voice. we worked on 3 major projects broken down into 2 sub-projects each making a total of 6 sub-projects. We made sure we are appreciative of our achievements and skillset learned. This small change made us revisit the outcomes of our work and realize its values.

This practicum collaboration has been an absolute eye-opener, I have realized the relevance of soft skills. When people talk about analytics or data science, everyone is too focused on the latest tools and packages available. The chemical X in the recipe of an analyst is perseverance and motivation. We tried our best and we managed to streamline E3’s analytics pipeline at various touchpoints. I felt the need to share the steps taken by us because the lack of motivation is something which can happen at both personal and team level. Often we don’t have much control at a team level but we surely can make a change at a personal level.

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