Most of us could stand to be a little better and do a little more -- and what a better time to think about how to make that happen than the dawn of a new year?

Beth Schultz, Managing Editor, No Jitter.

December 31, 2013

2 Min Read

Needing a break from the taxing job of pulling together my personal New Year's resolutions, I started to think about ways in which analytics professionals could improve themselves for the year ahead. Here are a few quick ideas.

 

 

1. Do data for good. You have analytical smarts to share, so undertake one project in 2014 that will help make a difference to the world around you. Think small and personal -- volunteering to develop a spreadsheet program for your child's school, creating a database for the pet shelter you like, or helping a local club analyze its social media activity. Or, think more formalized and of broader scope, perhaps by checking out the project opportunities at organizations like DataKind or helping out with next year's Hour of Code. Perhaps you'll find inspiration in these posts: Needed for Social Good: Bright Data Minds, DataKind's Jake Porway: Inspired by Data Volunteers, and Data Scientists Do Good for Charitable Groups.

2. Liven up your data presentations. Static reports are out, dynamic data visualizations are in. As appropriate, do your best to present data visually. Better yet, give business users the opportunity to interact with the data visualizations you create. Being able to add in or take out variables, for example, will help them see, in an instant, what might happen in any what-if scenario they can imagine. You need to be an advocate for putting this type of power in decision makers' hands. Get guidance in these posts: Data Visualization Dos & Don'ts, 5 Tips to Help SMBs Get Visual With Data, and 4 Quick Tips for Data Visualization Newbies.

Read the rest of this story on All Analytics.

About the Author(s)

Beth Schultz

Managing Editor, No Jitter.

Beth Schultz is Managing Editor of No Jitter. Beth has more than two decades of experience as an IT writer and editor. Most recently, she was the founding editor in chief for UBM Tech's AllAnalytics.com, a three-year-old editorial site for analytics, IT, and business professionals that's developed into a go-to community for thought leadership and conversation on the analytics, business intelligence, and data management disciplines. Prior to that, she brought her expertise to bear writing thought-provoking editorial and marketing materials on a variety of technology topics for leading IT publications and industry players. Beth was also a longtime editor at Network World, where she oversaw multimedia content development, writing and editing for special feature packages. In particular, she focused on advanced IT technology and its impact on business users and in so doing became a thought leader on the revolutionary changes remaking the corporate datacenter and enterprise IT architecture.

Beth has a keen ability to identify business and technology trends, developing expertise through in-depth analysis and early-adopter case studies. Over the years, she has earned more than a dozen national and regional editorial excellence awards for special issues from American Business Media, American Society of Business Press Editors, Folio.net, and others.

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