Data Ecosystem

Data ecosystems are made up of various elements that interact with one another in order to produce, manage, store, organize, analyze, and share data.

Definition

Data science

Data science is defined as creating new ways of modeling and understanding the unknown by using raw data.

Data scientist vs Data analysts

• Data scientists create new questions using data.
• Data analysts find answers to existing questions by creating insights from data sources.

Data analysis vs Data analytics

• Data analysis:

  Data analysis is the collection, transformation, and organization of data in order to draw conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision-making.

• Data analytics: the science of data

  It's a very broad concept that encompasses everything from the job of managing and using data to the tools and methods that data workers use each and every day.

Data-driven decision-making

A data analyst:

1. gathers relevant data, analyzes it, and uses it to draw conclusions.
2. shares their analysis with subject-matter experts, who validate the findings.
3. make a plan to put it into action.

Data and gut instinct

Gut instinct is an intuitive understanding of something with little or no explanation.

Why gut instinct can be a problem

If you ignore data by preferring to make decisions based on your own experience, your decisions may be biased. But even worse, decisions based on gut instinct without any data to back them up can cause mistakes.

Data + business knowledge = mystery solved

Blending data with business knowledge, plus maybe a touch of gut instinct, will be a common part of your process as a junior data analyst.