What Is Data Analytics? - An Introduction (Full Guide) - YouTube

Data Analytics everyone's talking about it but  what exactly is it perhaps you've heard that Data  

Analytics is the next big thing for business  and want to find more about what the field  

involves by the end of this video you should have  a better understanding of what data analytics is  

and you'll have a better understanding  of what you'll be doing in the role

in this video we're going to cover five key points  to give you a better understanding of what it is  

to be a Data Analyst and how do you start working  in this field as you're watching the video if  

you've got any questions about the topics that we  cover just drop them in the comments below before  

we dive in if you're enjoying the video content  please give us a like and subscribe to get more  

weekly videos like this so let's dive into step  number one perhaps you're thinking about becoming  

a data analyst and want to know exactly what a  career in the field involves most companies are  

collecting loads of data all the time but in its  raw form this data doesn't actually mean anything  

this is where data analytics comes in data  analytics is the process of analyzing raw data  

so that we can pull out insights which are useful  to companies these insights are super important to  

drive smart business decisions what a data analyst  does is they take all this complex jigsaw of data  

they take it out and they make it into  something which you can really use  

having interpreted the data the data analyst can  then pass these insights on so that the company  

can then make the most informed decisions  so you can think of data analytics as a  

kind of business intelligence used to solve  problems and challenges that every company has  

it's all about finding patterns in the data which  can tell you something useful or relevant about  

the business operations so for instance how  customers engage with a particular product or  

employees engage with a particular tool armed with  the insights of data companies are then able to  

make better decisions about their audience company  as a whole and the industry in which they work in

Step one we looked at what Data Analytics  actually is in step two we're going to look  

at how data analytics is used so what does data  analytics actually look like in action and how is  

it used in the real world so the fact is data is  everywhere so it actually has an infinite amount  

of uses across all kinds of businesses and  organizations globally broadly speaking data  

analytics is used to make faster and better  business decisions to reduce overall business  

costs and to develop new and innovative products  and services in more specific terms data analytics  

might be used to do the following to predict  future sales or purchasing behaviors for security  

purposes to help and protect against fraud to  analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns  

to boost customer acquisition and retention or  to increase supply chain efficiency so that gives  

you a little bit of an overview of what data  analytics can be used for in the real world

Step three let's dive into what a data  analyst actually does on a day-to-day basis  

if you're thinking about becoming a data analyst  you're probably interested in the roles and  

responsibilities that you'll have in the field  based on some real job ads here are some typical  

roles and responsibilities that you'll have to  undertake as a data analyst manage the delivery  

of user satisfaction surveys and report on  results using data visualization software  

work with business line owners to develop  requirements define success metrics  

manage and execute analytical projects and  evaluate results monitor practices processes  

and systems to identify opportunities for  improvement translate important questions  

into concrete analytical tasks gather new  data to answer client questions collating  

and organizing data from multiple sources  design build test and maintain back-end code  

establish data processes define data quality  criteria and implement data quality processes  

work as part of a team to evaluate and analyze key  data that will be used to shape future business  

strategies so those are just some examples of what  a data analyst would be doing in any given role  

to learn more about the kinds of things that  you'll be undertaking as a data analyst why  

not search on job boards like linkedin indeed  and icrunchdata.com so that was step three  

it was just a broad overview of what you  can expect to be doing as a data analyst

So now we've looked at data analytics as a role  we're now going to go into the process of data  

analysis so now we're going to outline  the five main steps a data analyst would  

take when approaching a new project step one  define the questions that you want to answer  

you need to answer why you're conducting this  analysis and what questions and answers you  

need to find at this stage you'll take a clearly  defined problem and then you'll make a hypothesis  

or research question that you can go on and  answer you'll then need to identify what types  

of data you'll need but importantly where it  will come from for instance a business problem  

might be that customers aren't subscribing to  a paid membership once that free trial ends  

your key question can then be what kind  of strategies can the business implement  

to retain their customer base step two would be  to collect this data with a clear question in mind  

you're ready to start collecting that data data  analysts will usually gather data from primary  

sources or internal data that the company already  has such as CRM software or email marketing tools  

they may tend to secondary or external sources  such as open data sources so this can include  

data from government portals tools like  google trends but also data from international  

organizations like the world health organization  so step three you need to clean scrub that data  

once you've got that data you need to prepare  it and ready it for analysis your original data  

might include duplicates anomalies or missing data  which could distort how the data is interpreted  

these all need to be removed data cleaning can be  a manual task and it can take some time but it's  

crucial if you want to get the right business  insights step four is to analyze the data now  

for the actual analysis how you analyze the data  will depend on the question that you're asking  

and the kind of data that you're working  with but some common techniques include  

regression analysis cluster analysis and time  series analysis to name just a few we're going to  

go into these analysis terms much deeper in future  videos but if you have any specific questions now  

drop us a comment in the comments below moving  on to step 5 we need to interpret and share the  

results the final step in this process is where  data is turned into valuable business insights  

depending on the type of analysis conducted you'll  present your findings in a way that others can  

understand in the form of a chart or a graph for  example at this stage you'll be able to say what  

the data analysis actually shows you in regards  to your initial question or business challenge  

and you'll collaborate with key stakeholders  on how to move forward this is a great moment  

to reflect and look at the limitations of your  data and what further analysis might be conducted  

rounding off step four we're going to move  on to the next step what skills you need  

to actually become a data analyst in addition to  the role description and the processes that we've  

described so far data analysts are also expected  to demonstrate certain skills and abilities  

here are some of the most important hard and soft  skills that you'll need to become a data analyst  

you'll need to have some mathematical and  statistical ability data analysts spend a lot  

of their time crunching numbers so you'll need to  have a mathematical brain you'll have to have some  

working knowledge of programming languages such  as python oracle and sql data analysts rely on  

a number of programming languages to carry out  their work this may seem daunting at first but  

it's nothing that can't be learned over time with  practice you'll also need an analytical mindset  

it's not just about crunching the numbers and  sharing your data sometimes you'll need to dig  

deeper to understand really what's going on  it's all in the name an analytical mindset is  

a must remember data analytics is about answering  questions and solving business challenges and that  

requires some keen problem-solving skills data  analysts have a wide variety of tools at their  

disposal and you'll need to know which one to use  and when you'll also need excellent communication  

skills once you've harvested your data for  valuable insights it's important to share your  

findings so that it benefits the business data  analysts work in close collaboration with key  

business stakeholders and they may be responsible  for sharing their insights to those stakeholders  

but also the entire company so if you're thinking  about becoming a data analyst you need to be  

comfortable with this aspect of the job so that  summarises some of the key hard and soft skills  

you'll require as a data analyst i hope this  has been a value obviously this isn't a broad  

overview of the field at hand if you've enjoyed  this video we've got an in-depth article covering  

the points which i've mentioned in the video  and we go into much greater depth the link for  

that is in the description below career foundry  also have a fantastic five-day data analytics  

short course so if you're interested just sign  up in the description below if you've got any  

questions about the field or the topics that we've  covered in this video please just drop them in the  

comments below thank you so much for watching and  we'll see you again soon okay cuts or anonymous

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