Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, question and communicate with data. It matters for everyone, not just analysts.
Core Skills
- Reading charts: check axes, scales and what's being compared.
- Understanding averages and variation: a mean hides spread; medians resist outliers.
- Proportions and rates: compare like with like; beware small denominators.
- Correlation versus causation.
- Sampling: who's included, who's missing?
- Uncertainty: estimates have margins of error.
Questions to Ask of Any Number
- Where did the data come from?
- What exactly was measured?
- Compared with what?
- Could something else explain it?
- What's the sample size?
Common Traps
- Truncated axes exaggerating differences.
- Cherry-picked time periods.
- Percentages without absolute numbers.
- Survivorship bias.
Building Literacy in Organisations
Training, shared metric definitions, accessible dashboards and a culture where questioning data is welcomed.