When it comes to solving business problems, data scientists understand how crucial it is to formulate the right business question. While it’s easy to get sidetracked by intriguing data trails, the most effective questions are those that align closely with organizational priorities, provide actionable insights, and guide strategic decisions. Here are the key principles for crafting high-impact business questions when planning your next research initiative or analytics project.
Crafting a Great Business Question
A great business question drives impactful and actionable insights by homing in on the right priorities. To achieve this, the question must be clearly linked to the company’s overarching objectives, ensuring that the initiative aligns with strategic goals and adds value.
The question should be actionable, meaning that once an answer is obtained, it should lead to a defined and implementable course of action. Finally, feasibility is crucial; the question should be grounded in available data, technology, and resources, ensuring that the initiative is ambitious yet achievable.
Match Questions to the Right Data
Once you have a well-defined question, the next step is to identify the data required to answer it. This involves understanding what data is available, where it is located, and how it can be accessed. For instance, if your question relates to customer retention, you may need data from customer surveys, purchase history, and engagement metrics. Ensure that the data you choose is relevant, high-quality, and up-to-date.
Apply the Right Analytical Methods
Applying the right analytical methods is also essential for deriving meaningful insights from your data. Different questions require different analytical approaches. For example, if you are looking to understand trends over time, a time series analysis might be appropriate. If you want to quantify the impact of some action that was taken, such as a change to your product, your options may range from ANCOVA to causal impact and beyond. Ensure that the methods you choose are suitable for the type of data you have and the question you are trying to answer.
A Question That Leads to More Questions
Your initial business question could uncover additional questions that delve deeper into underlying issues. After identifying the core problem, such as why are we losing households, dissect it further: Are specific customer groups contributing to this loss? Is this trend unique to certain regions or stores and does the issue lie in losing existing households or in acquiring new ones at a slower rate than anticipated?
Conduct a thorough customer journey analysis to understand the broader impact. Once insights are gathered, take actionable steps, measure the impact of these actions and iterate the process to ensure continuous improvement.
Concluding Thoughts
Asking questions that lead to impactful and actionable insights is critical for driving growth and long-term success. By focusing on priority, actionability and feasibility, organizations can uncover valuable insights and implement actions, achieving strategic business objectives.