In briefing for delivery of data, analytics and insight I’ve asked the following questions:

• Who is it for?
• What is their objective/what are they trying to achieve?
• What is the issue/pain point/business problem they are dealing with?
• What decisions are they looking to make?
• What kind of action and change do they hope will result from those decisions?

Once you know these answers you can start to ask:

• What do they want to know?
• What questions do they have?
• What data are available to investigate?

The question that I most want to find out about from the decision-maker I’m working with is: How will you be making your decisions on this matter?

For data to truly inform or drive decisions, for data to truly help improve the quality of decisions, discussing how decisions are made is vital.
Knowing what decisions, made by whom, when and how are key pieces of information that help data, analytics and insight delivery provide the support needed for good decisions to be made.

It’s hard to ask about the how of decision-making, and it takes self-awareness to start to answer it.
Better decisions result when you do though.

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