Data's just numbers, right?

I’ve written about most of the types of research that I’ve done before. In, what some people have described as, exhaustive detail. If you look that up in a dictionary, it’s a compliment. But I’m not 100% sure that they’re using it in that sense…

I’ve talked about enjoying the challenge of qualitative research. Bringing together multiple, divergent, abstract and often contradictory ideas. I like piecing that together into the story that best makes sense of it; that connects most of the ideas, most often. And within that there’s some perception, some inference, some creative license.

Data is different. Data is hard. Data is absolute. And that – tragically – excites me too. You’ve got all the pieces of the jigsaw, and they’re only ever going to fit together one way. You can’t obfuscate, you can’t flim-flam, and you can’t use your intuition. (And sometimes it’s nice to turn off and just chunk through data. Especially, say, if there’s a test match on.)

BUT, there’s still a story to be told. It’s rarely any use just taking data and pumping out some graphs. (Quite apart from anything else, your choice and layout of graphs will determine how easily people can make much sense of them. But that’s another blog….) You need to start to link themes together. What might the low-rating here mean next to the high rating there? What could cause that apparent contradiction? Why are these people scoring higher than these?

Sometimes the outcome is that you need to do further, research to understand fully. But it’ll be precise and targeted – and hence a lot cheaper than it might have been. Other times, you’ll get the answers, and context, that you needed. Data tells a story. And it’s a story I love finding.