How to Train Someone to Translate Business Problems into Analytics Questions

Analytics translators perform some of the most essential functions for integrating analytics capabilities in a company. They define business problems that analytics can help solve, guide technical teams in the creation of analytics-driven solutions to these problems, and embed solutions into business operations. It’s specialized work, calling for strong business acumen, some technical knowledge, and project management and delivery chops. While translators can acquire some of the requisite knowledge for the job through coursework, they make the most impact once they have developed practical skills through on-the-job experience. Translator training is one of the most important analytics investments a company can make, because companies seldom capture the full value of analytics without capable translators. The key to training a translation workforce is a multi-tiered progression, in which employees study concepts in a classroom before mastering new skills through apprenticeships. Translators connect the theory and the practice of analytics; their training courses must do the same.