Communicating business goals – the feedback loop
I must admit, business people and technical people can be better at communicating with each other. How business goals are communicated can run the gamut. It can be anything from a business partner stating, "Tell me how sales need to be increased" or "Tell me something I don't know."
So, it really starts with understanding what the specific business objectives are. During this step, you will also get involved in breaking down the babble and buzzwords into specifics so that communication can begin using data as a common language. As exchanges begin between the domain experts and data scientists, it will become clear that business people often do know what they are looking for in terms of outcomes, but do not understand the analytic modeling process well enough to verbalize their goals. This is often the case in reverse for technical people who do not understand the nuances of the business.
The understanding phase is characterized by people asking many questions, and establishing an analytic dialogue between all parties. So, even with a more precise question like, "Who are our best customers?", the dialog can go as follows:
- What do you mean by best?
- Do you mean best now or best compared to what it was a year ago?
- What metric are you using to define best? Do you mean best in terms of revenue or in terms of frequency of purchase?
- How will we measure success? What are the key metrics? What are the possible outcomes?
The process of business understanding also involves an understanding of where, how, and when you obtain your data.