From the course: Analytical Thinking to Drive Insights

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Step 4.2: Identify patterns

Step 4.2: Identify patterns

From the course: Analytical Thinking to Drive Insights

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Step 4.2: Identify patterns

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- Analyzing data to uncover patterns and trends feels like a treasure hunt, sometimes you don't even know what you're looking for, but you recognize it when you see it. Well, analyzing your data and continuing to tap into your analytical mindset, step four of the six step process also involves identifying patterns. As you analyze your data, you should keep an eye out for three things, trends, correlations, and anomalies. This will help you start to shape an understanding of what may be happening. "Trends refer to the direction or tendency that your data seems to follow." Is it increasing or decreasing over time? Do you notice a recurring cycle or pattern? For example, clothing retailers usually experience cyclical trends in sales throughout a year, but hopefully experience an overall positive trend in sales when comparing year over year. "Correlations refer to relationships between two or more elements." For example, temperature and ice cream sales have a positive linear correlation…

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