Preparing for the Q&A

When working on any project, it is important to understand from the beginning what stakeholders expect of you. This reading will be all about preparing questions to ask before planning your data gathering and presentations.

There are many things to consider before you begin asking and answering possible questions – like the objective, stakeholder expectations, and if there are any limitations. Make sure you have everything covered before you begin. The checklist below identifies ten tasks that you should engage in to be well prepared for your Q&A:

Before the presentation

1. Assemble and prepare your questions.
2. Discuss your presentation with your manager, other analysts, or other friendly contacts in your organization.
3. Ask a manager or other analysts what sort of questions were normally asked by your specific audience in the past.
4. Seek comments, feedback, and questions on the deck or the document of your analysis.
5. At least 24 hours ahead of the presentation, try and brainstorm tricky questions or unclear parts you may come across- this helps avoid surprises.
6. It never hurts to practice what you will be presenting, to account for any missing information or simply to calm your nerves.

During the presentation

1. Be prepared to respond to the things that you find and effectively and accurately explain your findings.
2. Address potential questions that may come up.
3. Avoid having a single question derail a presentation and propose following-up offline.
4. Put supplementary visualizations and content in the appendix to help answer questions.

Practice makes perfect

Preparing for a presentation or a meeting doesn’t have to be intimidating. If you invest time into knowing your audience, crafting your notes, doing necessary research and organizing your data, then there is very little reason why your audience will not be engaged, even impressed.

Self-Reflection: Real-world objections

Overview

Now that you have learned about how to handle objections to your data, you can pause for a moment and think about what you are learning. In this self-reflection, you will consider your thoughts about how to respond to objections when giving a presentation and answer brief questions about your approach.

This self-reflection will help you develop insights into your own learning and prepare you to apply your knowledge of handling objections to real-world scenarios. As you answer questions—and come up with questions of your own—you will consider concepts, practices, and principles to help refine your understanding and reinforce your learning. You’ve done the hard work, so make sure to get the most out of it: This reflection will help your knowledge stick!

Respond to a business task

While delivering a presentation to an audience, your primary goal is to respond to a business task. A business task is a question or problem you use data to solve—and a presentation demonstrates how to solve it. Business tasks can have a variety of contexts and scopes, so the details of your presentation will depend on a lot of factors.

Sometimes, you may receive questions or objections about your presentation. This is normal, as your audience wants to understand your presentation as completely as possible. Responding to these questions and objections in a clear, concise, and polite manner is crucial to delivering an effective presentation.

Examples of objections

Consider the following situations where a data analyst delivers a presentation and receives an objection:

1. An analyst is presenting on the sales revenue of their company’s new product: an autonomous vacuum cleaning robot. The analyst shows the steps they took for each part of the analysis. They are confident that they have explained each step very thoroughly, but a stakeholder is confused when the presentation is over. They share a concern that the analysis may be incomplete.
2. An analyst is presenting on the effectiveness of a new drug treatment for heartburn. They use data from an external private company that describes how common heartburn is in the United States. After the presentation, they receive an objection from their stakeholder about the data collected. The stakeholder is concerned that the source of the data may not be reputable, and is unsure about the credentials of the data’s source company.
3. An analyst is presenting on the traffic patterns of a particular highway in their city. After extensive research and analysis, they conclude that Friday is the busiest day for commuters on that highway. One of the stakeholders, who commutes along that highway, disagrees and believes that Monday is the busiest day for traffic.

Reflection

Consider an objection from one of the three previous scenarios:

• If you were the data analyst involved, how would you respond to your stakeholders?
• What would be the impact of not addressing these objections?

Now, write 2-3 sentences (40-60 words) in response to each of these questions. Type your response in the text box below.

Explain: Great work reinforcing your learning with a thoughtful self-reflection! Using the first scenario as an example: If you receive an objection about the completeness of your analysis, you should politely acknowledge the objection. Then, reiterate each step you took in your analysis and explain why you did each one. Finally, promise to investigate your analysis question further so that the analysis is complete or your presentation is more clear.

If you don’t address the objection, your stakeholders may not appreciate or respect the work you’ve done in your analysis. By communicating respectfully with your stakeholders, you establish a positive relationship with them. You also can use their feedback to improve your analytical approach for future presentations.

Test your knowledge on caveats and limitations to data

Question 1

What is the technique that data analysts use to help them anticipate the questions a stakeholder might have during a Q&A?

A. Limitation test

B. Colleague test

C. Stakeholder brainstorm

D. Practice swing

The correct answer is B. Colleague test

Explain: A colleague test is an effective way to anticipate questions a stakeholder might have during a Q&A.

Question 2

You present to your stakeholders, and they express concern about how your results compare to previous results. Which kind of objection are they making?

A. Presentation skills

B. Analysis

C. Findings

D. Data

The correct answer is C. Findings. Explain: This stakeholder is making an objection about your findings.

Question 3

After your presentation, a stakeholder is concerned about whether your data comes from a reputable source. In what ways should you respond? Select all that apply.

• Take steps to investigate the source further
• Question why the stakeholder is concerned
• Acknowledge that the objection is valid
• Follow up with details about the source

Explain: When you receive an objection with merit, the best way to respond is by acknowledging its validity. Then, follow up with details and promise to investigate the matter further.