Every business decision from launching a new product to hiring more staff is a bet on the future. But the smartest bets aren’t based on gut feeling alone; they’re based on data. That’s where data analytics comes in.

Data analytics is the process of examining raw data to uncover patterns, trends, and insights, and then using those insights to make informed decisions. It’s used everywhere — from predicting customer behavior in retail to optimizing hospital resources in healthcare.

There are six steps in data analytics:

1. Ask – Form clear, focused questions with leaders and
managers to understand the project and define what a
successful result looks like.
2. Prepare – Plan the next steps and decide how to communicate progress to stakeholders. Identify

the required data and the sources for collecting

it.
3. Process – Clean, store, and organize the collected data so
it’s ready for analysis.
4. Analyze – Use the prepared data to answer the questions
posed by stakeholders.
5. Share – Present the results of your analysis in a way that
is clear and actionable.
6. Act – Stakeholders use the analysis to make informed, data
driven decisions.

Mastering these steps is the foundation of becoming a great data analyst. In my next post, I’ll dive deeper into the first step — asking the right questions because the quality of your answers depends on the quality of your questions.