Data insights are the understandings we take away from analysing sets of information. Turning data to insights allows businesses to make the best decisions for their company as they move forward.
People often get confused when trying to understand the differences between data, analytics and insights. We're going to cover the definitions of each component, outline the differences between them and how they're related to each other.
Data is simply the information we collect from users. This can be in the form of activity, behaviour and demographics. As technology has advanced, more access to information has been made available. Read how data can be the lifeblood of your business.
Analytics is the process of examining data sets to identify relationships and patterns. This is done through the use of different analytics tools, and it allows companies to draw insights, leading them to make data-driven decisions.
Insights are new trends that have been discovered through data and analytics. They provide a deep understanding of a situation and are initially unknown to a company. Companies are looking to find actionable insights that are clear and easy to understand. Explore NashTech's articles around insights.
In order to turn data to insights, we need to collect relevant data and use suitable analytics tools. There is a step-by-step process that should be followed if you're wanting to find new insights for your business. The first step is to collect the data. You need to ensure that you're targeting the right data for what you're wanting to find out. This stage can take a while to get right, but creating a solid foundation to collect data is the best way to find those game changing insights. Secondly, we want to apply analytics to the data that we've collected. The difference between analytics and data is that analytics is how we make sense of the data, whereas data itself is the actual numerical information. Analytics make sense of what is actually happening in the data. What follows analytics are data insights. Turning data to insights is a rigorous process, but when implemented correctly, you can make some important decisions for your business based off of these data insights. If analytics tell us what is actually happening based on the data, insights tell us the trends found within that information.
When turning data to insights, we often get the insights from a single set of data. If this is the case, we need to consider whether those insights are relevant to the problem that we're trying to solve. In order to discover useful actionable insights, we want to be using data that is as relevant to the problem as possible.
Putting context behind the data you're using will keep you on track when discovering actionable insights. Comparing market baseline data against your own datasets is an important step to take when understanding context.
The best actionable insights are specific, as this means that they have been well thought through. When talking about specificity, we want to know what has happened and why it has occurred. Another benefit of specificity is that it can help when sharing data insights with upper level management. The specific nature of your insights can help provide management with clarity for what you're wanting to change. This leads us nicely onto the next point.
The fourth stage to finding actionable insight is clarity. The key to clarity, is to be able to communicate the information around your data insights to other key stakeholders in a simple way. This helps reduce any form of scepticism around the insights you're presenting.
When a data insight is well-aligned, it makes the process of getting everyone on board much easier.
Discover a range of leading data insights solutions from NashTech, including business intelligence, advanced analytics and more. Partner with us for end-to-end data insights solutions that improve user experience and drive business growth. Contact our expert team today.