Why is….? What if….? So what…?

Laria — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 08:40:22 +0000

These are all questions that almost never get asked when analytical work is carried out. We tend to give an answer to the question asked and move on to the next thing. We are all busy doing our day to day jobs, but what if we paused and thought about why am I being asked this question.

Analysts have always been on the frontline, responsible for producing any and all statistics that are used within their organisations. The knowledge of data and what it means is embedded in these teams, if only we stopped and thought about what the data is meant to convey.

In a commercial environment – a salesman will tell you three things about their product:

Features – This is what it is
Benefits – This is what it means
Advantage – This is why you should buy it

This analogy is almost identical to how we should be innovating our analytical thoughts.

Features –Analysis will give you the facts. In local government, this may be anything from a population number to a service cost.
Benefits – The analysis, alongside other council owned data, will enable you to make inferences about the population or cost.
Advantage – After the facts have been gathered and the inferences understood, the “sell” is now to influence the delivery of services – asking “So what…?” of the data.

If there is a fact resulting from analysis of a cohort of the population, what is the implication of it? What will the effect be on services in the future? How can the analysis inform policy and delivery? What can we do, as analysts, to provide meaning, context and guidance to frontline practitioners?

At the end of the analysis….simply ask “So What?”.

To access an electronic copy of CACI’s ‘Innovation from the frontline’ presentation given at the LARIA conference alongside Worcestershire County Council, click the link. For further information about CACI’s geodemographic segmentation solutions please get in touch with Stewart Eldridge (seldridge@caci.co.uk / 020 7605 6164) or Patrick Tate (ptate@caci.co.uk).

The post Why is….? What if….? So what…? appeared first on LARIA - Local Area Research + Intelligence Association.

LGA Innovation Hub

Laria — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 17:06:24 +0000

For the second consecutive year, LGA ran a highly successful Innovation Zone at their annual conference – a hub to discover exciting projects councils are working on around the country. Building on the success of the Innovation Zone, a database has been created which provides more details of those projects featured. This resource has now expanded to include examples of notable practice from other areas of councils across the country

The winner of the LARIA Award for Best Use of Local Area Research (Lambeth) are also featured in the database and the case study highlighting their work can be viewed here.

Photo credit: Harrogate Valley Gardens by DncnH

The post LGA Innovation Hub appeared first on LARIA - Local Area Research + Intelligence Association.

innovation Archives - LARIA - Local Area Research + Intelligence Association

Why is….? What if….? So what…?

LGA Innovation Hub