Week 2: All about analytical thinking

1. A junior data analyst is seeking out new experiences in order to gain knowledge. They watch videos and read articles about data analytics. They ask experts questions. Which analytical skill are they using?

  • Data strategy
  • Having a technical mindset
  • Curiosity
  • Understanding context

2. Identifying the motivation behind data collection and gathering additional information are examples of which analytical skill?

  • Data design
  • A technical mindset
  • Understanding context
  • Data strategy

3. Having a technical mindset is an analytical skill involving what?

  • Managing people, processes, and tools
  • Understanding the condition in which something exists or happens
  • Breaking things down into smaller steps or pieces
  • Balancing roles and responsibilities

4. Fill in the blank: Data strategy involves _____ the people, processes, and tools used in data analysis.

  • supervising
  • managing
  • choosing
  • visualizing

5. Correlation is the aspect of analytical thinking that involves figuring out the specifics that help you execute a plan.

  • True
  • False

6. What method involves asking numerous questions in order to get to the root cause of a problem?

  • Strategizing
  • The five whys
  • Curiosity
  • Inquiry

7. Gap analysis is a method for examining and evaluating how a process works currently in order to get where you want to be in the future.

  • True
  • False

8. Data-driven decision-making involves the five analytical skills: curiosity, understanding context, having a technical mindset, data design, and data strategy. Each plays a role in data-driven decision-making.

  • True
  • False

9. Fill in the blank: The analytical skill of ______ involves seeking out new experiences in order to gain knowledge.

  • understanding context
  • having a technical mindset
  • data strategy
  • curiosity

10. Breaking things down into smaller steps or pieces and working with them in an orderly and logical way describes which analytical skill?

  • Data strategy
  • Context
  • Curiosity
  • A technical mindset

11. In data analysis, data strategy is the analytical skill that involves managing which of the following? Select all that apply.

  • People
  • Consent
  • Tools
  • Processes

12. A grocery store owner notices that they sell more orange juice during the winter season, when people are more likely to get sick. After observing this for a couple of years, they decide to stock more orange juice during the winter. The store owner is using which quality of analytical thinking?

  • detail-oriented thinking
  • correlation
  • problem-orientation
  • visualization

13. The five whys is a technique that involves asking, “Why?” five times in order to achieve what goal?

  • Identify the root cause of a problem
  • Visualize how a process should look in the future
  • Put a plan into action
  • Use facts to guide business strategy

14. In data analysis, one often examines and evaluates how a process currently works in order to get it to where they want it to be in the future. This is known as what?

  • Building a data visualization
  • Gap analysis
  • Determining the stakeholders
  • Asking the five whys

15. A company is seeing a decline in organizational efficiency. They decide to hire an outside organization to help increase overall performance. The data analyst, working for the newly contracted company, utilizes five analytical skills: curiosity, understanding context, having a technical mindset, data design, and data strategy to deliver the project goals. Once the project goals are met, the analyst informs the decision makers of their findings and the project is completed. What strategy did the data analyst use to complete this project?

  • Gut instinct
  • Gap analysis
  • Data-driven decision-making
  • The five whys

16. Identifying the motivation behind the collection of a dataset is an example of the analytical skill of understanding context.

  • True
  • False

17. A technical mindset involves the ability to break things down into smaller steps or pieces and work with them in an orderly and logical way.

  • True
  • False

18. Data design is how you organize information; data strategy is the management of the people, processes, and tools used in data analysis.

  • True
  • False

19. What method involves examining and evaluating how a process works currently in order to get where you want to be in the future?

  • The five whys
  • Strategy
  • Gap analysis
  • Data visualization

20. Seeking out new challenges and experiences in order to learn is an example of which analytical skill?

  • Curiosity
  • Data strategy
  • Understanding context
  • Having a technical mindset

21. Which of the following examples best describe the analytical skill of understanding context? Select all that apply.

  • Adding descriptive headers to columns of data in a spreadsheet
  • Working with facts in an orderly manner
  • Gathering additional information about data to understand the broader picture
  • Identifying the motivation behind the collection of a dataset

22. Fill in the blank: In data analysis, data strategy involves managing the people, processes, and _____ .

  • projects
  • procedures
  • consent
  • tools

23. Identifying a relationship between two or more pieces of data is known as what?

  • visualization
  • correlation
  • problem-orientation
  • detail-oriented thinking

24. As a new data analyst, your boss asks you to perform a gap analysis on one of their current processes. What does this entail?

  • Building a data visualization
  • Asking the five whys
  • Examining and evaluating how a process works currently in order to get where you want to be in the future
  • Determining the stakeholders

25. Fill in the blank: In data-driven decision making, data analysts use five analytical skills of curiosity, understanding context, having a technical mindset, data design, and _______ .

  • data strategy
  • forward-looking
  • intuition
  • efficiency

26. The analytical skill of understanding context entails which of the following?

  • Breaking things down into smaller steps or pieces
  • Managing people, processes, and tools
  • Balancing roles and responsibilities
  • Understanding the condition in which something exists or happens

27. Fill in the blank: _____ involves the ability to break things down into smaller steps or pieces and work with them in an orderly and logical way.

  • Data strategy
  • Curiosity
  • Context
  • A technical mindset

28. Which analytical skill involves managing the people, processes, and tools used in data analysis?

  • Understanding context
  • Data design
  • Data strategy
  • Curiosity

29. The manager at a music shop notices that more trombones are repaired on the days when Alex and Jasmine work the same shift. After some investigation, the manager discovers that Alex is excellent at fixing slides, and Jasmine is great at shaping mouthpieces. Working together, Alex and Jasmine repair trombones faster. The manager is happy to have discovered this relationship and decides to always schedule Alex and Jasmine for the same shifts. In this scenario, the manager used which quality of analytical thinking?

  • Visualization
  • Problem-orientation
  • Correlation
  • Big-picture thinking

30. Fill in the blank: In order to get to the root cause of a problem, a data analyst should ask “Why?” ________ times.

  • five
  • three
  • seven
  • four

31. A company is receiving negative comments on social media about their products. To solve this problem, a data analyst uses each of their five analytical skills: curiosity, understanding context, having a technical mindset, data design, and data strategy. This makes it possible for the analyst to use facts to guide business strategy and figure out how to improve customer satisfaction. What is this an example of?

  • Data science
  • Gap analysis
  • Data-driven decision-making
  • Data visualization

32. Data analysts following data-driven decision-making use the analytical skills of curiosity, having a technical mindset, and data design. What other two analytical skills would they employ? Select all that apply.

  • knowledge
  • data strategy
  • efficiency
  • understanding context

33. Curiosity is the analytical skill of using your instinct to solve problems.

  • True
  • False

34. Adding descriptive headers to columns of data in a spreadsheet is an example of which analytical skill?

  • Having a technical mindset
  • Understanding context
  • Data strategy
  • Curiosity

35. A company has recently tasked their data science team with figuring out what is causing the decline in production at one of their plants. The data analysts ask a number of questions trying to get to the root cause of the problem. This technique is known as what?

  • Inquiry
  • The five whys
  • Curiosity
  • Strategizing

36. Fill in the blank: Data analysts use the five analytical skills of curiosity, understanding context, having a technical mindset, data design, and data strategy to make _____ decisions.

  • forward-looking
  • data-driven
  • intuitive
  • more efficient

37. Fill in the blank: Gathering additional information about data to understand the broader picture is an example of understanding _____.

  • data
  • knowledge
  • problems
  • context

38. Data analysts ask, “Why?” five times in order to get to the root cause of a problem.

  • True
  • False

39. Curiosity is an analytical skill that involves which of the following?

  • Seeking out new challenges and experiences
  • Working with facts in an orderly manner
  • Collaborating to solve a problem
  • Using your gut instinct

40. A data analyst works for an appliance manufacturer. Last year, the company’s profits were down. Lower profits can be a result of fewer people buying appliances, higher costs to make appliances, or a combination of both. The analyst recognizes that those are big issues to solve, so they break down the problems into smaller pieces to analyze them in an orderly way. Which analytical skill is the data analyst using?

  • Data strategy
  • A technical mindset
  • Understanding context
  • Curiosity

41. Fill in the blank: Correlation is the observation that there is a _____ between two or more pieces of data.

  • visualization
  • competition
  • choice
  • relationship

42. An airport wants to make its luggage-handling process faster and simpler for travelers. A data analyst examines and evaluates how the process works currently in order to achieve the goal of a more efficient process. What methodology do they use?

  • Strategy
  • Gap analysis
  • Data visualization
  • The five whys

43. Fill in the blank: A data analyst with a technical mindset would break things down into smaller steps or pieces and work with them in an orderly and ______ way.

  • curious
  • clever
  • creative
  • logical

44. As a recently promoted data scientist one of your responsibilities is the implementation of data strategy. What would this responsibility include?

  • Identifying a relationship between two or more pieces of data
  • Evaluating how a process works currently in order to get where you want to be in the future
  • Breaking things down into smaller steps or pieces and working with them in an orderly and logical way
  • Managing the people, processes, and tools involved

45. Fill in the blank: Being able to identify a relationship between two or more pieces of data describes _____.

  • correlation
  • detail-oriented thinking
  • problem-orientation
  • visualization

46. Fill in the blank: _______ is a method examining and evaluating how a process works currently in order to get where you want to be in the future.

  • The five whys
  • Strategy
  • Gap analysis
  • Data visualization

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