Filed in Reporting

Techniques and philosophies for getting the most from your data—so you can move ahead with your business.

Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists: by Joel Best

While a fascinating read for all of us, this is most applicable if you're combining secondary research with your surveys. You'll never look at "facts" the same way again.

Amazon; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Books | Management | Reporting; TAGS: Biased research | Market research | Public opinion polls | Secondary research | Statistics
Dealing with data cleaning: "What do you mean I have to clean the data? I used the Web so I wouldn't have to do any data entry." While Web and scannable surveys will minimize data entry costs, some degree of data cleaning is required...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on July 4, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Data Handling | Reporting; TAGS: Data cleaning | Data validation | Import & export | Open-ended questions | Postcoding
How to Lie With Statistics: by Darrell Huff

There’s a reason this is still in print after 50 years, and that’s because we still fall for the same creative charting tricks.

Amazon; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Books | Reporting; TAGS: Biased research | Charts | Statistics
Playing with pie charts: I was on GameSpot recently and under the user reviews found these three pie charts:...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on June 2, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Reporting; TAGS: Charts | Layout & styles
Real world sampling: If you pick up a classic market research text you'll come away with the impression that sampling is an integral part of every survey. It's not. The reasons sampling has historically been such a big deal are: High per-respondent cost...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on June 26, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 3; CATEGORIES: Reporting | Respondents; TAGS: Response rates | Risk | Sampling
Six questions to ask any statistic: Numbers have an apparent precision, one often given far more credibility than they deserve. Here are six questions to ask any statistic, whether it's one you're generating or using. 1. Who does this represent?If the statistic is about the opinions...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on February 24, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Management | Reporting; TAGS: Market research | Risk | Secondary research | Statistics
Understanding Chi Square: Chi Square lets you know whether two groups have significantly different opinions, which makes it a very useful statistic for survey research. It's applied to cross-tabulations (AKA pivot tables) which are simply breakdowns like this: Yes No Total Female...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on August 22, 2006 | Last updated May 19, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Reporting; TAGS: Risk | Statistics
What's your executive dashboard hiding?: In our sound byte culture we love condensed statistics, magic values which will let us know how many customers will buy again or whether employees are engaged in their work—all at an easily compared glance. While summary information such as...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on May 27, 2006 | Last updated May 18, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Management | Reporting; TAGS: Benchmarks & trending | Index metrics | Statistics
Whole numbers or ranges?: When we write surveys, we often have to make a choice for dollar or frequency questions. We can ask for a precise number such as: How many times have you visited any of our stores in the past twelve months...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on August 24, 2006 | Last updated May 19, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Questionnaires | Reporting; TAGS: Scales