As a data analyst,
you'll be required to focus on a lot of different things,
And your stakeholders' expectations are
one of the most important.
We're going to talk about why
stakeholder expectations are so important to
your work and look at
some examples of stakeholder needs on a project.
By now you've heard me use the term stakeholder a lot.
So let's refresh ourselves on what a stakeholder is.
Stakeholders are people that
have invested time, interest,
and resources into the projects that
you'll be working on as a data analyst.
In other words, they hold stakes in what you're doing.
There's a good chance they'll need
the work you do to perform their own needs.
That's why it's so important to make
sure your work lines up with their needs
and why you need to communicate
effectively with all of
the stakeholders across your team.
Your stakeholders will want to
discuss things like the project objective,
what you need to reach that goal,
and any challenges or concerns you have.
This is a good thing.
These conversations help build
trust and confidence in your work.
Here's an example of
a project with multiple team members.
Let's explore what they might need from
you at different levels to reach the project's goal.
Imagine you're a data analyst working with
a company's human resources department.
The company has experienced
an increase in its turnover rate,
which is the rate at which employees leave a company.
The company's HR department wants to know why that
is and they want you to help them
figure out potential solutions.
The Vice President of HR at this company is
interested in identifying any shared patterns
across employees who quit and seeing if there's
a connection to employee productivity and engagement.
As a data analyst,
it's your job to focus on
the HR department's question and
help find them an answer.
But the VP might be too busy to manage
day-to-day tasks or might not be your direct contact.
For this task, you'll be updating
the project manager more regularly.
Project managers are in charge of
planning and executing a project.
Part of the project manager's job is keeping the project
on track and overseeing the progress of the entire team.
In most cases, you'll need to give them regular updates,
let them know what you need to succeed and
tell them if you have any problems along the way.
You might also be working with other team members.
For example, HR administrators
will need to know the metrics you're
using so that they can design ways
to effectively gather employee data.
You might even be working with
other data analysts who are
covering different aspects of the data.
It's so important that you know who
the stakeholders and other team members are in
a project so that you can
communicate with them effectively and
give them what they need to move
forward in their own roles on the project.
You're all working together to give
the company vital insights into this problem.
Back to our example.
By analyzing company data,
you see a decrease in employee engagement and
performance after their first 13 months at the company,
which could mean that employees
started feeling demotivated or
disconnected from their work
and then often quit a few months later.
Another analyst who focuses on
hiring data also shares that
the company had a large increase
in hiring around 18 months ago.
You communicate this information
with all your team members and
stakeholders and they provide
feedback on how to share this information with your VP.
In the end, your VP decides to implement an in-depth
manager check-in with employees who are
about to hit their 12 month mark at the firm
to identify career growth opportunities, which
reduces the employee turnover
starting at the 13 month mark.
This is just one example of how you might
balance needs and expectations across your team.
You'll find that in pretty much every project
you work on as a data analyst,
different people on your team,
from the VP of HR to your fellow data analysts,
will need all your focus and
communication to carry the project to success.
Focusing on stakeholder expectations
will help you understand the goal of a project,
communicate more effectively across your team,
and build trust in your work.
Coming up, we'll discuss how to
figure out where you fit on your team
and how you can help move a project
forward with focus and determination.