6 Phases Of Data Analysis According To Google

These six phases will help you grow as a data analyst.

Akshay Gautam
CodeX
3 min readSep 6, 2021

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You must have read the conventional data analysis process definition, which is to clean, transform, process, visualize, and model data to get insights. But Google has to say something different. According to Google, if you can execute the following phases, you will make better decisions. In this post, I will explain the six data analysis phases by Google that you need to master to be a good data analyst.

Google originally published these phases in their Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate.

Here are the phases:

Ask

The first phase of the data analysis process is asking the right questions. You should clearly understand why you are doing this analysis and what kind of problem you are solving. You define the problem by understanding the stakeholder’s expectations. Keeping the line of communication with stakeholders will help you stay on track. When describing the problem, consider the whole picture to make sure you get the situation right.

Prepare

The second phase is to prepare the data. Preparing your data means collecting or using the data relevant to the problem you are trying to solve. In this phase, you need to understand the different metrics that you need for analysis. You will have to find out where this data is located, whether it is internal or external. Deciding the security measure is also very important.

Process

The third phase is to process the data. Data processing is to find various inaccuracies, errors, inconsistencies in the data and get rid of them so that our primary business problem is not affected. You have to clean the data so that the data is consistent and will not affect the credibility of the analysis.

Analyze

The fourth phase is to analyze the data. The primary goal in this phase is to find the relationships, trends, and patterns that will help you solve your business problem more accurately. In this phase, you will think analytically about the data. You will sort or format the data to understand it deeply. You will try to make sense of the data. You will try to find out what your data is telling you.

Share

The fifth phase is to share your data findings. You can do this with the help of visualization because putting information in the image can help people understand the analysis easily. You will think of the various graphs and plots to convey your findings more quickly.

Act

The sixth phase of the data is to act. In this phase, we will use everything we have learned from our analysis and act upon it. You will provide recommendations to the stakeholder on how to solve the business problem and help them make a good decision.

These are the phases that you need to follow when you are doing the analysis. People tend to go in different directions while analyzing, but these steps provide us with an optimal approach. Follow these steps every time you do analysis.

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Akshay Gautam
CodeX
Writer for

I write about Personal Growth, Productivity, Business, Technologies, and Life. I work as a data analyst and I often like to take risks creating new things.