Are you an Accidental Analyst?

There’s a lot of buzz these days about Data Scientists – analytical thinkers with deep statistical and data mining expertise. But they’re not the only ones bringing data to the decision table. If you’ve ever done a little work to use data to get valuable insight, you’re an Accidental Analyst. And we’re excited to introduce you to a resource that can help you hone your Accidental Analyst skills.

There’s a lot of buzz these days about Data Scientists – analytical thinkers with deep statistical and data mining expertise. But they’re not the only ones bringing data to the decision table. If you’ve ever done a little work to use data to get valuable insight, you’re an Accidental Analyst. And we’re excited to introduce you to a resource that can help you hone your Accidental Analyst skills.

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Eileen McDaniel, PhD and Stephen McDaniel’s book, “The Accidental Analyst: Show Your Data Who’s Boss” provides a helpful, step-by-step framework to more effectively analyze your data.

Stephen Few, best-selling author of "Show Me the Numbers" and "Now You See It", has weighed in on the book’s value: “This is a wonderful book, filled with practical advice. Business people who are struggling to make sense of their data will find it accessible and directly applicable to their work – a great resource for building analytical prowess.”

As more professionals – regardless of title or education background – look to data as a way to excel in their roles, analyzing data will become an increasingly important skill. Using illustrated examples, The Accidental Analyst walks you through a straightforward, step-by-step framework called The Seven C’s of Data Analysis. The seven steps focus on:

  1. Choose questions
  2. Collecting data
  3. Checking data
  4. Cleaning data
  5. Chart analysis
  6. Custom analysis
  7. Communicating results

Eileen McDaniel will be speaking about the book and more tips about being an effective analyst at an upcoming event in Bellevue, Washington on August 24, 2012. You can register for the event here.

“This book is an amazing resource for regular business people who want to make sense of their data and take charge of their business! It provides simple yet comprehensive coverage of business analytics,” explained Diego Saenz, President of Petplace and former CIO of Pepsi Latin America.

If you're a Tableau user, check out another one of Eileen McDaniel and Stephen McDaniel's books, Rapid Graphs with Tableau Software 7: Create Intuitive, Actionable Insights in Just 15 Days.