The Analytics Advocate Guide

Build a cross-functional team of analytics advocates

Establish a multidisciplinary core team to scale the initiative. These analytics advocates will amplify the need for analytic maturity by promoting data as a strategic asset, educating and empowering the workforce to be more analytically savvy, and fostering collaboration and alignment in all aspects of the business.  

Include producers and consumers of data from different areas of the organization. You'll need a subject matter expert to ensure the data is gathered and analyzed appropriately, executives to support the vision, IT for ease of data access, and training or HR to address upskilling. 

Resources and support:

• Your JMP account team has helped hundreds of organizations build stronger analytic cultures. They can help you customize your program to meet specific business objectives .

• Attend  Discovery Summit to  connect with other analytics advocates who have wisdom to share from overcoming similar challenges.

• Use our library of customer stories and the  Analytics Advocate blog series to paint a vision of success – both for your team and for stakeholders. 

Identify challenges and define success

Establish a baseline for measuring improvement. Then, focus on a core list of critical tasks that can be executed regularly. Prioritize them according to business metrics and goals. 

Think of an ongoing challenge that, if solved with analytics, will be a quick win that benefits many people and the overall business. Be vocal and transparent about how this project aligns with your organization's mission. This is one of the best ways to demonstrate the power of strategic analytics and elevate the credibility of your team.   

Resources and support:

• Look for inspiration in our extensive list of customer stories or our Analytics Advocate blog series.

• Hear from thought leaders who believe in the importance of driving a culture of analytic excellence. 

• Review your annual report to understand stakeholder concerns.

Develop a data infrastructure and efficient analytic workflow

Until your teams have access to the right data at the right time and the skills to analyze that data, your investment is falling far short of its potential. 

Develop an efficient analytic workflow — from accessing data to publishing and sharing results — to ensure analytic adoption. Streamlined workflows entice and empower others to make analytics central to their work.  

Resources and support:

• Extend JMP software's functionality with the JMP Scripting Language (JSL) to automate routine procedures, extend or create new procedures and customize reports.

• Personalize your toolbar and easily create custom scripts for frequently used actions and repeat analyses. 

• With the Enhanced Log and Action Recorder in JMP you spend less time performing data cleanup and interactively build a repeatable data prep workflow.

• Optimize your analytic workflow all in one platform with the extensive suite of analytic capabilities in JMP. 

Supplement or develop key training programs 

Training is crucial for organizations that set their sights on enterprisewide, data-centric collaboration to solve problems. Educated end users will be more engaged with analytics projects and more likely to turn to data throughout their workflows.

Some organizations rely on a centralized statistics group that serves all departments. However, the most successful organizations tend to use centralized stat groups to distribute statistical knowledge across the business to scale your ability to solve problems and to promote transparent, objective decision making.

Resources and support:

• Make courses such as Statistical Thinking for Industrial Problem Solving part of career growth planning. 

• Host lunch-and-learns or develop a mentoring program for cross-training. 

• Take advantage of our Statistics Knowledge Portal, an online resource for understanding common statistical terms and analyses, combining concise explanations with examples and graphics.
  

• Need custom training sessions? JMP offers in-depth and specialized training and certification to ensure you are getting the most from your JMP investment and driving career development.

• Our extremely active JMP User Community is a place where anyone can ask questions and receive verified answers quickly.

Socialize analytic successes throughout the organization

Overcome skepticism with proofs of concept that demonstrate how statistical methods have saved your organization time and money. 

Document and share your work across your organization and with leadership. You'll become an effective advocate for the expansion of proven approaches and, as a bonus,  gain recognition as a change agent. 

Resources and support:

• The JMP Customer Reference Program is designed to help you document the value statistical methods have brought to your organization through:
  • Success stories
  • Speaking opportunities
    
  • Thought leadership interviews
  • Guest blogs

• Show off your work and share your analytic achievements with the rest of the JMP User Community by submitting an abstract for one of our Discovery Summit events. 

Democratize data and the analytic process 

Give more people access to  data and provide them with the competencies to analyze it.  Bottlenecks will disappear and data siloes will crumble.  Teams will start to uphold decisions based on facts, not opinions.  Ultimately, the culture will shift toward collaborative analytics – and that becomes a competitive advantage. 

Empowered colleagues performing self-service analyses – independently and accurately – will broaden the impact of data, guide new lines of questioning and problem solving, and leave you with more time for strategic initiatives. 

Resources and support:

• Maintain a focus on consistent measurement, continuous improvement, and constant communication around best practices. 
  

• Connect with others in our extensive JMP User Community or in one of our many JMP Users Groups to learn best practices for driving analytic growth in an organization. 

• Empower users to easily share their findings with others throughout the organization by providing them with the right tools, such as JMP Live.