The Curse Of Knowledge Might Be Hindering Your Career

Insights to Help You Grow Your Digital Analytics Career

Author

Anil Batra
March 07, 2024

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One Insight You Can Apply Right Away

The Curse Of Knowledge Might Be Hindering Your Career

Do you ever feel that you are doing a great job and providing the required reports and presentations to your stakeholders but nothing is moving forward? Despite great reports and insights, your stakeholders not paying attention to the data.

If you then then the issue might not be in your reports or insights.

The issue might be your cognitive bias.

This bias is called the curse of knowledge.

According to Wikipedia, The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, who is communicating with others, assumes that others have information that is only available to themselves, assuming they all share a background and understanding. This bias is also called by some authors the curse of expertise.

Here is another explanation on 37Signals.com :
Lots of research in economics and psychology shows that when we know something, it becomes hard for us to imagine not knowing it. As a result, we become lousy communicators. Think of a lawyer who can’t give you a straight, comprehensible answer to a legal question. His vast knowledge and experience renders him unable to fathom how little you know. So when he talks to you, he talks in abstractions that you can’t follow. And we’re all like the lawyer in our own domain of expertise.

I have seen many presentations where a Digital Analyst assumes that other people also know what they know because it seems simple. However keep in mind that even metrics such as Users, Active Users, Sessions, and Page views that seem so simple and no-brainer to you are difficult for others to understand.

If the numbers/data/reports that you present to the stakeholders do not provide them what they need in a simple and easy-to-understand format then you will not make progress in your career.

Your stakeholders might look at your reports a few times, find them too complex to understand and move over to other things. If that happens then no matter how good your analysis and insights are, they will stop paying attention.

So do not fall victim to the “Curse of Knowledge”, step in your audiences’ shoes and make your reports simple and actionable. Make sure they understand what each metrics mean and how it applies to their business/.

Three key points to remember when presenting the data, analysis, and insights:"

  1. Understand your audience and their goals

  2. Understand their level of understanding of the subject matter

  3. Customize the data presentation to meet your audience's level of understanding of web analytics and needs. Make it a no-brainer to understand and tie everything back to the business goals

Learn Data Storytelling

Bay Area Times is a great resource for you to learn how to present data. They use data to illustrate news. Check it out.

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I would love to hear your feedback on this newsletter. Please let me know how can I make it better.

Thank you,
Anil Batra, Optizent.com

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