Asking questions is easy. It’s so easy that, as askers, we often don’t think about the quality of our questions. Poorly framed questions waste everyone’s time—yours included—because they require the answerer to make assumptions. When it comes to asking analysts to explore a problem you’re trying to solve, better questions will drive better analysis and, ultimately, more actionable answers.

Here’s an example:

Marketer: “How many people converted from paid ad…

People often talk about a startup’s evolution in terms of funding, sales, or product engagement milestones. But companies also change over time in the ways that they interact with data.

Increasingly, the companies that achieve massive growth are anticipating future data needs and progressing quickly through four distinct phases of data.

Whether…

Over the course of a startup’s lifetime, a company can face a range of data challenges. In the beginning, startup founders do most analysis themselves using tools like Google Analytics. As a company grows, business and product leaders often have analytical questions that these tools—and busy executives—can’t answer.

For many companies, reaching this point is a signal to start building an analytics team. But who do you hire? An analyst might be able to deliver value right away, but…

Building a successful analytics team requires investment in everything from people and tools to infrastructure and event tracking. But the biggest payoffs can often come from investing in credibility.

If you work with data regularly, chances are you trust it. You know how it's collected and stored. You know the caveats and the roadblocks you face…