To delve into knowing what a good data analyst team is, you should first get to know what a data analyst is. A data analyst normally handles data such as sales figures, logistics and market figures. Data analysts work their way through all the information and aid managers to make business decisions. Although managers are good at making decisions, they still need data to back up their decisions. This data is provided by the data analyst. They study the data and filter out the relevant stuff for the managers. They present all of this information in a simple format that’s easy to understand. Once they have presented the data, they provide various options and different direction that can be taken.
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Skills of a good data analyst team:
Data analysts need to have a variety of skills in order to properly do their jobs. In order to make a good team, all data analysts need to fulfil some skills requirements. These skills include data architecture, business analysis, data analysis, mathematics, statistics, visualization skills, data interpretation, and social analysis. There are also some core competency requirements that a good data analyst team needs to fulfil. These include data visualization, Machine Learning, Data Munging, programming and statistics. So, a full-fledged, complete team of data analysts need to have the aforementioned skills and competencies in their arsenal.
What builds up a good Data Analyst Team:
You may be familiar with the fact that structuring a good data analyst team is no easy task. This difficulty occurs due to the conducive environment required for data analysts. All business runners must keep this in their minds while building a data analyst team. Let’s have a look at five basic factors that impact the success of a data analyst team:
1. Culture
Culture of the organization impacts the data analyst team’s potential to make decisions originating from data. Furthermore, it impacts how the team implements behavioural and process changes throughout the organization.
2. Tools and skills
These tools are to be provided by the business organization. They are mandatory for a business to have in the form of technology infrastructure. Moreover, an employee base with suitable skillset is required to make full use of these tools.
3. Data
Another important thing an organization needs to provide the data analyst team is data. For this, there needs to be an infrastructure designed to collect data. For example, a method to collect and archive data in the correct format will make the analysis simpler.
4. Process
Furthermore, the organization needs to have at least the basics for processing and analysis of data. All of these elements, combined together in an organization, can make way for an incredible data analyst team.
What are some prominent skills of a good data analyst team:
1. Data Evangelist
The job of a data evangelist is to specialize in a particular department associated with the business. This can either be the marketing department, human resources, finance or sales etc.
2. Contextual Analyst
The job of a contextual analyst is to read, understand and interpret figures and data. Basically, he is supposed to make sense of the data at hand for further processing.
3. Data Custodian
As the name suggests, a data custodian’s job is to keep the data safe. Data is very sensitive and can be easily breached, corrupted, deleted or even stolen. So, it becomes essential that someone is out there looking after it and keeping it safe. This is where the Data Custodian comes in.
4. Data Visualizer
Data in its raw form cannot be understood by the common man or anyone who has not specialized in data analysis. It requires some visuals for others to make sense of it easily. The data Visualizer comes to play here and adds the design and relevant visuals, so it becomes easy for others to make sense of the data.
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5. Neuro Analyst
Once everyone has done their job, the Neuro Analyst combines everything together and gives it a simple and understandable look. He basically figures out ways to present the data at hand in ways that everyone can easily understand.
Now that you are familiar with all members of a good data analyst team, let’s have a look at some of the skills that it needs to have:
Individual skills for being a good data analyst:
1. Ambiguous:
Handling data is no easy task. There can be many issues with the data present, and it can lead to various situations that the data may not actually represent. Due to this, a good data analyst needs to understand that no data gives out perfect results. They have to stay motivated and ask themselves questions to come up with all possible solutions for a trend or issue.
2. Detail-Oriented
Detail is very important as the data is usually in huge amounts. There needs to be a key to differentiate, and the data analyst team needs to be detail-oriented in order to figure it out.
3. Embrace what you are not aware of
The world is very uncertain, and you will always find yourself struggling with unforeseeable circumstances that greatly impact the data. Therefore, a good data analyst team needs to be open to every possibility and not restrict themselves to any limits.
4. Passion for data exploration
Crunching through data can be a mundane task for most people if they are not passionate about what they are doing. Moreover, if you get bored through the process, it will become difficult for you to figure out the important details. So, it’s essential that a data analyst team has a passion for exploring data for it to be any good.
5. Curiosity
Another important trait of a good data analyst team is curiosity. If the team is not curious, they will not delve into much data exploration and might even miss out on some important details in data that may seem irrelevant to them. So, curiosity becomes an important factor for a data analyst team to have.
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