30 Surprising Business Questions Data Can Answer Clearly | Tecknoworks (2024)

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  • Tecknoworks
  • March 1, 2024

Imagine a world where guesswork takes a backseat and data drives powerful decisions. A world where you can predict customer behavior, optimize operations, and identify hidden profit opportunities – all with the magic of information. This isn’t some futuristic fantasy – it’s the reality within your grasp today! Every business, big or small, sits on a treasure trove of data waiting to be unlocked.

This article will be your guide, revealing 30 surprising business questions data can answer, propelling you from the dark ages of decisions straight into the data-driven future!

Most organizations that start an analytics initiative have similar big-picture business questions that data can answer, including:

● Analysis of customer behavior and buying patterns

● Tracking and predicting sales

● Streamlining processes and operations

● Budgeting and forecasting

You’re probably interested in leveraging BI for these general purposes as well, and rightly so. The more you know about your customers, sales, operations, and finances, the more impactful your decisions will be. But you may be surprised by the long list of very specific business questions data can answer, with the right BI strategies. Some of these discoveries result in small business adjustments; some in huge shifts. They all add up to improved organizational insight and increased bottom line. Here are just a few examples of what you can uncover:

Sales and Marketing

● What is the ideal length of time between initial prospect contact and first follow-up?

● Which sales rep collateral has the greatest and least impact on conversion?

● Which customer segments are most likely to promote us on social media?

● What are the ideal cross-sell and up-sell opportunities per product? Per customer segment?

● How can we optimize retail display per location?

● What is the best path to conversion based on each funnel stage?

● Which marketing initiatives will actually maximize return?

● Which prices can we increase, and by how much, and still retain customers?

Outcomes: Deeper customer understanding, refined sales strategies, more conversions, higher ATV, smarter outreach, better social proof, optimized funnels, increased profits.

Human Resources

● What do our employees value most at work? (You could even segment this into top 10% of performers; by department; by role, and so on.)

● What do our longest-tenured/best-performing employees have in common?

● What do employees who leave within 1-2 years have in common?

● How effective are our onboarding programs? Training programs?

● How can we spot a valuable employee at risk of leaving?

● What percentage of employees are disengaged from the organization and from their work?

● What combination of compensation and bonuses will most motivate performance?

Outcomes: Attract and retain the best talent, maximize productivity and employee satisfaction, pinpoint recruitment efforts, reduce churn expenses.

Supply Chain

● Where are the biggest holdups in paperwork and procurement?

● What are the most significant causes of delay?

● Which inspection errors occur most frequently?

Here, Microsoft Azure Data Factory can be a valuable tool by helping automate data movement and transformation at scale across heterogeneous data sources. This will ensure a consistent view of your supply chain data, which is key to identifying these errors.

● How resilient is the chain to external forces? How can we prepare?

● What hidden inefficiencies can we find and correct?

● Can any steps be eliminated?

● What are the most significant opportunities for additional supply chain profits?

● How can we best protect the margin when demand falls?

Outcomes: Streamline logistics, optimize predictive planning, eliminate hidden costs, achieve big-picture profitability.

Business Strategy

● How can we reduce expenses by 10%?

● How can we leverage our analytics project to produce the most significant impact?

● How do we best combine innovation with performance sustainability?

● What are our biggest value-creation drivers?

● What are our five biggest areas for improvement?

● What are the biggest threats to growth and scalability?

● What should be our #1 focus right now? Next quarter? Next year?

Outcomes: Evidence-based strategy insights, easier stakeholder buy-in, clear business direction, confident decision-making, faster growth.

Business Questions Data Can Answer: Conclusion

These 30 questions should give you an idea of the vast possibilities available to you with data analytics.

And this just scratches the surface – you can ask questions about particular products, specific marketing initiatives, your competitors…you name it.In fact, we have yet to come across a client question that data can’t answer. So go ahead and get creative!What are the top 5 business questions data can answer for you? And how would that knowledge change your decision making? Get in touchto let us know. We’ll tell you exactly what kind of data you need, and how to use it to find the answers.

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30 Surprising Business Questions Data Can Answer Clearly | Tecknoworks (2024)

FAQs

What are questions that can be answered by data? ›

Questions such as, “What tasks are consuming too much time?” or “How can I better prioritize my responsibilities?” can be answered. Career Development: Data can help you evaluate your skills, job satisfaction, and potential opportunities to decide if a career change is necessary.

What questions can business analytics enable businesses to answer? ›

Business analytics can answer questions like why is this happening, what if these trends continue, what will happen next (predict), and what is the best outcome that can happen (optimize).

Which is the best example of a good question for data analysis? ›

What is the size of each dataset and how much data will I need to get from each one? How familiar am I with the underlying tables and schema in each database? Do I need all the data for more granular analysis, or do I need a subset to ensure faster performance?

What are some good statistical questions? ›

Identifying Statistical Questions
  • How many days are in March?
  • How old is your dog?
  • On average, how old are the dogs that live on this street?
  • What proportion of the students at your school like watermelons?
  • Do you like watermelons?
  • How many bricks are in this wall?
  • What was the temperature at noon today at City Hall?

What are good analysis questions? ›

A good analytical question:
  • Speaks to a genuine dilemma in the text. ...
  • Yields an answer that is not obvious. ...
  • Suggests an answer complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument. ...
  • Can be answered by the text, rather than by generalizations or by copious external research.

What are the 5 questions of business analysis? ›

These are translated as: who, what, when, where, why, in what way, by what means.

What are the three questions every business must answer? ›

What are my goals? Do I have the right strategy? Can I execute the strategy?

What are the three basic questions that all businesses must answer? ›

All economies must answer basic questions like what goods and services to produce, how to produce these goods and services, and how to distribute the goods and services – using their scarce resources. The answers to these questions depend on the economic system that is in place.

What are the 3 most common data analysis? ›

The four types of data analysis are: Descriptive Analysis. Diagnostic Analysis. Predictive Analysis.

What is the most important question in data analysis? ›

One of the crucial questions to ask when analyzing data is if and how to set up the ETL process. ETL stands for Extract-Transform-Load, a technology used to read data from a database, transform it into another form and load it into another database.

What are leading questions in data collection? ›

Leading question is a type of question that pushes respondents to answer in a specific manner, based on the way they are framed. More than often, these questions already contain information that survey creator wants to confirm rather than try to get a true and an unbiased answer to that question.

What are the 4 basic business questions? ›

Four Questions Every Effective Business Plan Should Answer
  • What does your business do? It's important to explain precisely what your business does, elevator pitch-style. ...
  • Who is your target customer? ...
  • How will you make money? ...
  • What niche are you filling?
Dec 7, 2021

What is a strategic question in business? ›

Strategic questions are a powerful technique to engage groups in innovative thinking, to develop strategy, to facilitate change, and build buy-in for new ideas.

What is the 7 keys in business? ›

Specialized knowledge in organization, finance, marketing, sales, public relations, leadership, personnel, and quality control are all needed to take a business from zero to sixty.

What is a data question answer? ›

Data is a collection of information gathered by observations, measurements, research or analysis. They may consist of facts, numbers, names, figures or even description of things. Data is organized in the form of graphs, charts or tables.

What is the data question? ›

A "data question" is something you ask for smart data and that it is expected to be answered by a table of data. In practice a data question is described by a plain English sentence and a set of expected answer fields: "Zip codes for all Italian administrative areas" (municipality, zip, areacode")

What are the questions for data collection? ›

Such questions will help guide your data collection efforts and inform the evaluation process.
  • 1) What data will you collect? ...
  • 2) What is your organization's capacity to collect quality data? ...
  • 3) Who will manage, collect, analyze, and interpret the data? ...
  • 4) How do you plan to use these findings?

What type of questions are asked in data interpretation? ›

Data interpretation questions are an essential part of the Quantitative Aptitude section. Data Interpretation questions require the ability to analyze and interpret different forms of data, including tables, graphs, charts, and more.

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