Our office Wheel of Destiny is the most actionable of data. The results tell you where to go to lunch. No questions asked.
Actionable. Is there an adjective that is more fun to put in front of the word data? Perhaps big.
I’m as guilty as anyone. After all, the third step in our data storytelling framework is Action. But what types of actions are we talking about?
One way to think about actionable data is in terms of the direct or indirect actions that can be taken.
Direct Actions
Direct actions are the things we can do immediately with the insights or data. For example:
An alert can notify someone that they need to react to a change.
Data can feed into an operational workflow and result in the system reacting, like a loan approval or an automated customer discount.
A list of customers to be contacted via email with a survey.
An analysis of marketing data could kick off a targeted digital campaign.
Operationalizing direct actions from your data requires confidence and experience to know what’s important in the data and how you should react.
Indirect Actions
Indirect actions happen when the data moves people toward better decisions -- without necessarily making the decision on the spot. Indirect actions often involve communication and collaboration between people. A few examples include:
Sharing an insight with executive leadership.
Capturing an insight that will ultimately act as input to a strategic plan.
Creating an action item for your team based on the results of an analysis.
Sending a snapshot of a visualization to a colleague to initiate a discussion.
These types of indirect actions may not be viewed as progress. But they are the essential work require to make an organization smarter. Think of a sales team gathering to discuss a pipeline analysis to see what is working or not. This is an essential step forward and contributing to the decision-making process.
For certain operational activities, the goal should be to drive direct action based on data with scoring or optimization models. On the other hand, your data can also impact decisions that involve more human-involvement and careful consideration — indirect actions.
Consider what kind of action you want to facilitate as the starting point for your analysis or data presentation. At Juice, we design data stories beginning with the question: What actions can our audience take on this data? We want to imagine them getting to an ‘ah-ha’ moment...and then doing something about it.