Comments on: Habits of Highly Effective Data Professionals: “Beginning with the End in Mind”

By: Analysts: “Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood” | Living in Analytical Ambiguity

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:28:38 +0000

[...] lot has been made of improving analytics by applying Covey’s principle of “beginning with the end in mind.” By beginning with the end in mind, a good analyst can determine what the gap is between the [...]

By: Leo Kluger

Leo Kluger — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:19:08 +0000

“Begin with the end in mind…” I like to make this real when speaking with Clients by posing the following question:

“Let’s pretend it’s three weeks from now; the analysis is done, here’s the report on your desk! What should we do now…”

I’ve found that helping the Client get past the minutia of doing the analytics refocuses the discussion on what really matters — _implementing_ the results once they’re available.

Once we’ve agreed on a productive course of action with the forthcoming results, only then do we turn back to the critical discussion of _how_ to get there.

By: What if Stephen R. Covey were a Data Scientist? « NateBlogg

What if Stephen R. Covey were a Data Scientist? « NateBlogg — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:14:58 +0000

[...] Habits of Highly Effective Data Professionals | DATAVERSITY. [...]

By: Nicola Askham

Nicola Askham — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:16:06 +0000

Great article and so true

By: Gwen Thomas

Gwen Thomas — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:23:32 +0000

Bravo, Jaime!
Yes, “Begin with the end in mind” should inform everything we data folks do! And it’s important to remember that what might be clear and obvious causality to us might look murky to others. So part of our effort is in translating the path clearly: If we do A, we’ll get B, and therefore C. Do you want some C? Let’s go!

By: Nikhil Mahen

Nikhil Mahen — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:36:59 +0000

I may be off base here, but I think there is an exception to the second point of avoiding low value activity. In the case of technology, insurance might be a necessary low value investment. Insurance in the form of intellectual property, disaster recovery (especially with the Mayan predictions looming over our heads..) and insurance in terms of recoverable cost of implementing technology. These bring low value in the direct sense but in my humble opinion are of high importance. I guess it comes to the relative definition of a low and high value and security might be defined as a high value asset.