Data analytics

Promise a decision the numbers will support, not a warehouse.

Analytics consultants inherit exports, a login nobody opens, and a monthly meeting that argues about whose spreadsheet is right. The proposal should name the decision and the single figure both sides will use.

One figure both sides will use

Find the argument. Finance says margin is one number, the operators say it is another, and the meeting ends without a decision. Your proposal should name the figure, the grain (by job, by clinic, by week), and who is allowed to change the definition. A warehouse that stores every table is a later project, and it is how the last analyst disappeared into plumbing.

Say where the figure will live so a human can open it. A page in the tool they already pay for beats a new platform. If a new tool is required, it is a line in the out-of-scope section with a reason, not a surprise in week five.

Leave the warehouse for later

Cap the sources. Two systems is an engagement. 'All the data' is a career. Write the systems by name, the fields you need, and what you will do when the field is dirty. Dirty data is the normal case. A proposal that assumes clean exports will slip, and the client will think you slipped.

The outcome is a decision they can point to, made with the figure, during the timeline. Training the whole company to be data-driven is a slogan. A Tuesday meeting that stops re-litigating the number is a result.