The Limitations of Data Analytics?

Believe it or not, there are limitations within data analytics, despite the fact the media has convinced everyone otherwise. As a person who uses data analytics in his professional life, it may seem kind of odd for me to say this but data Analytics by itself – it’s only a tool of several tools that we use to gain\ insights.  Data analysis is not some magic potion to solve every problem we encounter – it cannot operate in an intellectual vacuum.

My point of view is that data must be augmented by knowledge, skill, experience, insight and intuition. That said, data analytics can enhance our ability to see trends, connections, correlations, and intersections between different sets of data.  It provides an opportunity to look at what we can learn from data over a period of time and then be able to dissect it to understand what the data is telling us. 

As a manager – you bring to the table your intellectual capital and can use that to augment what the data may or may not be telling you. Add to that the ability to ask key questions about the data analytics process and how the data is managed.  How do you know the data used was validated to be accurate enough to work with? What kind of analysis did the team use to develop their insights? What data was included or excluded from the analysis and why? 

Never accept data analysis without knowing if the data that was used was the right data to solve the right problem.  Data by itself is never the whole answer.