Lance Yeung February 19, 2017

134498
LS 125 Filart
Reflection Paper: Analytics Talk
With the rise of computers, mobile phone usage, and internet consumption by
consumers, the world is shifting away from traditional pen and paper recording of each
transaction to automated data gathering systems and servers. Because of this shift to
automated technology, billions of gigabytes of data are being collected from consumers with
each passing day. These data include everything from customer demographics, location,
preferences, and even consumption patterns. But the problem now is converting the raw data
gathered into something that will make sense, and this is what we, Management Engineering
students, are trained to do. Equipped with the necessary analytical skills needed to gather,
organize, and interpret data, we have become proficient in seeing trends and understanding
relationships between different visible and hidden factors. Without a doubt, this skill is
important to have in the corporate world as we will be reporting to our managers about our
research, calculations, and projections but how do we present such a complex amount of
information to managers who have to know only the important facts? This is the importance
of the talk we attended today where we were taught how to present data in such a way that
wouldnt be dragging and would highlight the key insights without going on to the nitty gritty
details. Simplicity and straightforwardness are the principles taught by the speaker. He taught
us how to use charts effectively without bolding unnecessary points, using colors with a
purpose, and using footnotes. These tips can make the process of understanding the data on
the readers side much easier to do. He also taught us to skip numbers and make the intervals
bigger in charts. According to him, this method will highlight only the important parts of the
numbers because only the essential data points are shown. Using this method, trends are also
easier to observe and unnecessary fluctuations and errors are smoothened. Aside from this, he
taught us to use bolding, italics, and underlines with a purpose as well as the optimal font
sizes to communicate specific messages. For example, a big-bold font size is used to
emphasize really essential points which need to stand out in order to support your
presentation. He taught us to use footnotes which are important for adding additional details
or tertiary information but cautioned us to place footnotes only if the font size can be less
then 10. Finally, he taught us not to use abbreviations and merge similar columns into the
same header. These skills are essential in these days of data abundance and I learned a ton of
things which can help me please the higher ups in my stay in the corporate world.