Market Research
📊 Data Analysis & Reporting
Two different kinds of data need two different kinds of thinking.
~6 min read
Data that cannot be counted, measured, or given a numerical value. Form: text, audio, images. Analysis: content analysis, categorizing, similarities. Learning: why, how. Goal: formulate hypotheses and build understanding — open to interpretation.
Data that can be counted, measured, or given a numerical value (e.g. strongly agree → strongly disagree). Form: represented numerically. Analysis: math, statistics. Learning: correlations, cause-effect, how many/much/often. Goal: draw factual conclusions.
"How many pages of apps do you have on your iPhone home screen?" turns individual answers into a distribution — 1 page ×3, 2 pages ×2, 3 pages ×3, 5 pages ×1, 6 pages ×1 — that lets you spot a pattern instead of reading ten separate anecdotes.