CHAPTER 9Results Activation

Numbers have an important story to tell. They rely on you to give them a clear and convincing voice.

Stephen Few, Author & Visualization Guru

PROCESS OVERVIEW

The concept of results activation sounds far less exciting than storytelling or analytics evangelism but it is important to encapsulate the notion that results, no matter how interesting, do not solve problems by their mere existence. The Analytics Lifecycle is wrought with barriers to successful adoption, but none worse, perhaps, than an interesting result without a purpose or a plan of action.

Later, I will address some of the barriers that organizations find during the transition from prototype to production. But for now, the discussion of this results activation best practice area will outline the processes that support moving a finding from “prototype” to testing and to operationalization.

Relating the Analytics Lifecycle to design thinking, results activation can be viewed as the “testing and implementation” phase (Figure 9.1).

Illustration of Results activation in the context of design thinking.

Figure 9.1 Results activation in the context of design thinking

We begin by testing analytics findings first by socializing them with the people who matter. The stakeholders of ...

Get The Analytics Lifecycle Toolkit now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.