It's important to know certain fundamental things about data to be a good manager or researcher. Here's a brief list. These are the basic ideas that make up a survival toolkit for data collection and interpretation, be it in business, marketing, psychology or anthropology. Become an expert at these concepts and you will be better placed to interpret reports, work with data or design a study, than most people on the planet.
Research Methods and Data Collection
Treatment and control groups.
Variables - numerical (continuous, discrete, ratio, interval) and categorical (nominal, ordinal, binary).
Independent and dependent variables.
Correlation does not imply causation.
Anecdotal evidence.
Populations and samples.
Observational (correlational) and experimental methods.
Sampling strategies.
Controlling, randomisation, replication, blocking.
Double-blind.
Placebos.
Measurement error.
Reliability and validity.
Confounding variables.
Between and within groups.
Variation.
Data Analysis
Data matrices
Frequency distribution
Graphs and plots
Scatterplots
histograms
Mean, median, mode
Skew
Standard deviation
Box plots
Quartiles
Outliers
Row and column properties
Bar plots
Pie charts
Hypothesis testing
Confidence intervals
Standard error
Probability
Inference
Effect sizes
Power
Correlation
Regression
Analysis of variance
And how do you become good at these concepts? Pick up a good book, join a course, and practice what you learn. Or call me, I do workshops :-)
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