Insights

##Insights - Nothing for Them, Without Them

There is a saying among disability rights advocates: “nothing for us, without us.” The sentiment helps government leaders be more inclusive as they design policies that attempt to shepherd in a more inclusive and accessible world. The same sentiment is true for analysts who shouldn’t forget to include subject-matter experts on the front lines when they conduct analysis and communicate insights designed to help those same employees work smarter.

####Why Are Insights Causing Inaction?

The analysis is irrelevant to the actual work. Just because an insight seems interesting to an analyst, doesn’t mean it’s relevant to the real work of those on the front lines of city services. Esoteric insights are unlikely to yield action and are more likely to alienate the analysts from the civil servants who understand the programs.

• Why? If analysts don’t include subject-matter experts and frontline civil servants in their work before it begins, then the insights they produce are likely to be tangential to anything useful or worth acting on.

  • What can you do about it? Analysts should take a note from a journalism playbook and embed themselves in the services they’re trying to improve and among the civil servants they’re trying to help improve them. According to Mike Flowers, former head of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, having empathy for those on the frontlines can help accurately determine the city’s capacity to develop solutions that actually work.

The insights are confusing. If it takes an analyst to understand the analysis, there’s a problem.

• Why? Analysts often try to pack too many facts and figures onto one chart or slide in an attempt to present the information accurately and demonstrate their own competence. Convoluted charts, unintuitive data visualizations, and technical language can create barriers to understanding the analysis and putting insights into action.

  • What can you do about it? Don’t dumb it down, just simplify it. Convey one, and only one, key message at a time. Don’t use a million footnotes or small font. Decimal places usually don’t matter to the average viewer, so round your numbers. Use colors consistently, and ask a layperson to look at it before you present it to anyone. For more help on effectively conveying insights, check out the GovEx guide to data visualizations.

The insights are wrong. If the analysis is built on flawed methodology or shoddy logic, no one is going to trust the information enough to act on it.

• Why? Analysts work under pressure, because programs don’t have time to experience paralysis by analysis. Often, when analytics take shortcuts or simply don’t have the adequate quantitative chops, mistakes get made and bias gets introduced into the analytical model. Once an analyst produces fundamentally flawed work, leaders and managers are less likely to trust future work.

  • What can you do about it? Aside from making sure every analyst is continuously trained and retrained, managers should install an internal integrity process, where every analysis gets scrutinized by capable peers. This approach often reveals new opportunities or gaps in logic that will help elevate the final product.