The Basics of Statistics

Clear and concise business questions need to be formulated prior to developing a hypothesis and conducting statistics for an online promotion or investigation of some sort. The variables that are collected should be organized in such a way as to answer those questions, and the statistical techniques that will be used should be known beforehand so that the data to answer the business questions are at hand. Data is just a bunch of numbers until the data is cleaned, organized, and arranged. This part is so essential and much overlooked. Without understanding the basic descriptive statistics and how the middle of the data should look, as well as knowing where the endpoints or tails of your data are and how large the error rate is in the data, a “true” analysis cannot be done accurately. Once the data is rigorously scoured and reviewed, it can, at least, start to tell a clear and consistent message to a targeted audience. That story’s journey starts to develop with a clear and understandable business question. With the use of the appropriate statistical analysis and its significant results, and with charts to emphasize the main takeaway to get the points across simply and clearly, the essential and pertinent findings that need to be described will come to life. These findings, which are found from a business question, are the essence of the journey that will help a company realize their direction, purpose, and potential.