Why striving for technical excellence may compromise your impact on the business.

As data analysts, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that technical mastery is the ultimate goal. We hone our SQL queries, perfect Python scripts, build sophisticated machine learning models, and create dazzling dashboards in Tableau or Power BI. We become experts in cleaning, transforming, and modelling data with precision.

But in our pursuit of technical excellence, we often lose sight of the true purpose of our work: to drive business value.

Having spent over 30 years in the analytics space, both leading analytical teams and, more recently, delivering workshops, I’ve had the privilege of working with a wide range of analysts and leaders across various industries. I’ve seen extraordinary talent and commitment, but I’ve also seen a recurring theme: technical brilliance doesn’t always translate into business impact.

When I began my career as an analyst in the late ’80s, the landscape was vastly different. Today, data is everywhere, and the tools to analyse it are more powerful and accessible than ever. While these advances are exciting, they’ve also shifted the focus of many teams too far towards the technical and away from the business context.

Too often, I encounter analysts and teams that are highly capable technically but disconnected from the business. They operate at arm’s length, sometimes even physically and organisationally removed—labelled as a "centre of excellence." While the title may sound impressive, it can unintentionally isolate the team and hinder collaboration.

I once worked with a team of machine learning experts - bright, highly educated professionals with advanced degrees. Despite their capabilities, they failed to make a lasting impact. Their reports read like academic papers, and they rarely engaged stakeholders in ways that encouraged understanding or action.

Ultimately, the business disbanded the team, not because their models weren’t good, but because no one knew how to apply their work to real decisions.

This is not an uncommon story. Analysts with long academic journeys sometimes struggle to adjust to the fast-paced, outcome-driven nature of business environments. Stakeholders want clarity, not complexity. They care about what the data means for strategy, operations, or customer experience, not the statistical minutiae.

The DIAKA model below demonstrates why teams need to go beyond just producing analyses and focus on the transfer of knowledge to decision-makers.

It emphasises a home truth about the work analysts do:-

Value is realised through application, not creation.

No matter how sophisticated your analysis, if it doesn’t influence decision-making, its value to the organisation is essentially zero. You could spend days building the perfect model, but without a ready and engaged audience, your work won’t make a dent.

Avoiding the Pitfall of Over-Engineering

Picture this: you’ve spent a week building a multi-layered time-series model. When you present it to leadership, the room looks puzzled. You’ve brought a sledgehammer when all they needed was a scalpel.

This happens all too often. Analysts think showcasing every regression coefficient will prove their worth. But stakeholders care about what the data tells them about their part of the business, and what actions they should take.

The Business Case for Simplicity

The most effective analysts distil complexity into clarity. They communicate insights in the language of business, not statistics. They use visuals and narratives that resonate. They know:

• What this trend means for our sales strategy.

• Where to allocate resources based on performance.

• How to prepare if this pattern continues.

  
  

Final Thoughts: The Analyst as Decision Enabler

Today’s analysts are no longer just number crunchers. We are decision enablers, navigators of uncertainty, storytellers of insight, and translators of complexity into action.

So yes, continue sharpening your technical skills. But don’t let them become the goal. The real goal is impact, and that comes from clarity, connection, and communication.

Let’s move beyond the numbers and start telling the stories that drive change.

Steve Hulmes - Analyst Coach, Sophic

Sophic run development workshops for data analysts to arm them with the behaviours, practices and techniques to help them build trust and credibility with stakeholders and become the valued consultants they aspire to be and your organisation needs them to be. 

You can find out further details here