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Data analytics is one of the critical tasks a business has to undertake to survive in today’s business environment.
Why?
Data is the new oil. Besides, it holds all the answers to the problems businesses are facing in the current landscape. Currently, there’s a surge in demand for analysts as businesses scramble to be data-driven.
As a data analyst, your critical task is to bridge decision-makers and raw data. That’s not all. There’s a set of unique skills and tools you need to succeed in the data analyst profession.
Don’t worry because we’ll be answering the following question in this blog: what does a data analyst do? We will also provide you with valuable tips on the must-have skills and tools needed to get you started in the data analysis profession.
Before we answer the question “What Does a Data Analyst Do?”, let’s define the term “data analysts” first.
Definition: Data analysts collect and organize data to solve problems or answer questions.
As a data analyst professional, your task is to find meaningful patterns and trends hidden in raw data. Besides, you act as the bridge between analysis, technology, and business objectives. In other words, you’re the go-to guy when the stakeholders want to solve a particular problem.
For example, as a data analyst in the healthcare sector, you can leverage your expertise to uncover hidden insights into patients’ patterns and trends.
Your data stories can be used to optimize service delivery in the organization.
Keep reading because, in the next section, we’ll be answering the following question: what does a data analyst do?
As a data analyst, your primary task is to collect, clean, and analyze data using various tools and methodologies, such as data visualization.
Other tasks include:
The demand for skilled data analysts is always ever-green.
Yes, you read that right.
Data is the new gold that every business, irrespective of the sector, is fighting to leverage 100% fully. Mega-successful companies, such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, prove that data is priceless if leveraged entirely using the right tools and expertise.
There’re three critical skills you need in your arsenal as a data analyst.
Let’s check them out:
Critical thinking is a requirement in almost all professions. Essentially, to succeed as a data analyst professional, you need to be creative.
Yes, you need to think beyond the surface of the data. Just like the proverbial iceberg, what’s hidden carries more weight than what you can readily see.
Critical thinking skills can help you explore data using different perspectives. This skill can also help you gauge the best data sample to use for analysis.
What does a data analyst do? Well, they’re problem solvers. Essentially, they use data to provide solutions to the problems facing organizations.
You need to develop a knack for solving problems to succeed in the data analyst carrier.
Data visualization is a must-have skill to succeed as a data analyst. You need solid expertise in using graphs, charts, and maps to display insights.
Data visualization designs can help you save time and effort by distilling signals from noise in data. Besides, you can deploy them in data stories to make them compelling.
Remember, our brains interpret visual content 60,000 times faster than numbers and texts. To create compelling data stories, use charts and graphs to display critical takeaways.
In more advanced analytics, professionals use machine learning algorithms to compile raw data into visualizations that are easier to understand and interpret.
Using a combination of skills, experience, and data visualization tools, you can help businesses patch up problematic areas, such as declining sales and revenue. You can also help top management make reliable and data-backed decisions using data stories.
Essentially, as a data analyst, you can leverage charts and graphs to extract insights into relationships, patterns, trends, frequency, and outliers in data.
What does a data analyst do? As we said, one of the critical tasks you’ll be expected to undertake is visualizing data using graphs, charts, and maps.
Take a look at the visualization design below.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
Note how it’s easy to extract insights from the screenshot above. In this scenario, Alan was the best performing salesperson in March and April before taking a nosedive to the floor.
Interestingly, Alan switched places with Lewis, the worst-performing sales staff in March and April.
What does a Data analyst do? Part of their job description entails creating data stories using charts.
Color is an effective medium for communicating meaning or appealing to emotions.
For instance, the red color is often associated with power, love, and anger. Conversely, the blue color conveys coldness, calm, or logic, depending on the context. Essentially, different colors give vastly different meanings and emotions.
In data visualization, color sets the tone and enforces the critical insights in a data story. Besides, it has the potential to turn charts into an emotion-filled data story.
Of all the design elements, color is arguably among the essential tools you can leverage to pique the target audience’s interest.
Take a look at the chart below.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
Note how color has been used strategically to bring out comparison insights. For instance, the blue color and grey colors represent current and previous periods, respectively.
On the other hand, red color denotes decline, while green shows growth.
What does a data analyst do? They work with colors to appeal to the emotions of their target audiences (and readers).
The tools you choose to work with can decide whether you succeed or not in the analytics profession.
Google Sheets is one of the most-trusted data visualization tools within analytics circles. You can use the spreadsheet tool’s graphs and charts to visualize your data.
But Google Sheets has elementary graphs that require a lot of tweaks and edits to align with your needs. And this means spending extra time and energy.
To create a compelling data story, you need charts that are easy to interpret. And this means you need to think beyond Google Sheets.
Here’s the twist: we’re not advising you to ditch Google Sheets for other tools in the market. No, keep enjoying the freemium tool, courtesy of Google. We recommend you to supercharge your Google Sheets with third-party applications (add-ons).
There’re thousands of add-ons for Google Sheets. You don’t need to test all to find the hidden gem. We’ve done the dirty work for you. The add-in we’ve tested and has provided remarkable results is ChartExpo.
Keep reading to know how you can make your life easier using ChartExpo.
ChartExpo is an add-on you can install in your Google Sheets and in Microsoft Excel to access insightful, ready-made, and visually-appealing charts.
Unlike other data visualization-based add-ons, ChartExpo does not require coding or programming skills.
Also, the tool has a super-friendly user interface for everyone to use irrespective of their computer skills. Secondly, it has over 50 advanced charts you’ll never find in your Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.
ChartExpo produces charts that are incredibly easy to read and understand. Another thing we’ve noted with this tool is that it does not slow your browser down.
There are two methods of installing the ChartExpo add-on into Google Sheets.
The second method entails downloading the ChartExpo directly from the Google Sheets App.
Congratulations if you’ve managed to install ChartExpo into your Google Sheets without any hitch.
Now click the Create New Chart button to access all the charts in ChartExpo.
All the list of charts available in ChartExpo will be available in the right window.
Once clicked on the category button as shown in the image, 6 unique categories will be displayed.
What does a data analyst do? Well, they use tools, such as ChartExpo, to extract actionable insights from raw data.
In the next section, we’ll use a Slope Chart to show you how to get started with ChartExpo as a data analyst.
Let’s visualize the data below using ChartExpo’s Slope Chart.
| Period | Months | Measure |
| Current | January | 69 |
| Current | February | 34 |
| Current | March | 16 |
| Current | April | 28 |
| Current | May | 43 |
| Current | June | 56 |
| Current | July | 74 |
| Current | August | 29 |
| Current | September | 60 |
| Current | October | 75 |
| Current | November | 67 |
| Current | December | 45 |
| Previous | January | 78 |
| Previous | February | 43 |
| Previous | March | 20 |
| Previous | April | 35 |
| Previous | May | 39 |
| Previous | June | 67 |
| Previous | July | 65 |
| Previous | August | 35 |
| Previous | September | 70 |
| Previous | October | 65 |
| Previous | November | 87 |
| Previous | December | 50 |
Data analytics is one of the ever-green careers in today’s world. And this is because businesses are scrambling to be data-driven.
To succeed in this profession, you need four skills, namely:
For data analysts to succeed in their respective industries: they need a combination of soft and hard skills, namely:
With businesses scrambling to be fully-data driven, the demand for data analysts will only reach sky-high.
Data is increasingly becoming the determiner between the winner and loser in the current economic landscape. More so, data analytics professionals are in almost all the industries in the global economy.
So what does a data analyst do?
As a data analyst, your primary job is to create a compelling story from raw data using an array of tools and methodologies, such as visualization.
Besides, you need the following skills in your arsenal:
Well-constructed graphs can help you communicate key findings with ease. Also, you can uncover hidden patterns, trends, and outliers in your data faster.
Freemium tools, such as Google Sheets, come with pretty basic data visualization designs, which require a lot of editing. And this means you stand to spend a lot of time visualizing your data using this spreadsheet tool.
We recommend you use the ChartExpo add-on to supercharge your Google Sheets.
Why?
The ChartExpo has over 50 graphs that are easy to read and interpret. Besides, it has an ultra-friendly user interface (UI), which means you don’t need coding or programming skills to visualize your data.
Your journey into a well-compensated data analytics professional should not be rocky.
Sign up for ChartExpo today to enjoy a successful and stress-free data analytics career.
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