TATA Data Visualisation: Virtual Experience Program
My TATA Experience
Introduction
The TATA visualisation virtual experience program is a self-paced program done in conjunction with Forge company, where students are taught how to gain insights into data by asking relevant business questions. They are taught how to leverage the power of charts and visuals to answer these questions as well as effectively communicate the insights to relevant stakeholders.
When I applied for the TATA visualization program, I thought it was just a regular program where I’ll be given a dataset and asked to work on it. I was not in the least prepared for what I got. The program came fully packed with resources each step of the way. With each task came loads of resources to guide us in resolving it. And guess what the best part was? We also got solutions too after the submission of our tasks so we could go through them and re-evaluate our answers. Isn’t that cool?
The program started with the first task in which we were given an online retain dataset and asked to create a set of four questions that we anticipate a CEO and CMO will ask and want to know the answers to. I must confess this question really got me thinking. I’ve never been in the position of a CEO or CMO before so how on earth will I know what to write? But guess what? TATA’s got me covered. They provided us with lots of resources to read up on how to think like a CEO. One of the resources that particularly stuck out to me was an article by David Grossman “How to think like a CEO: Become a Better Leader”. This article gave a glimpse of what goes on in the brain of a CEO. It listed the top 10 things a CEO cares about which include, he’s focused on his bosses which are the board members, key financial results are essential, he balances his focus on today and the future, He has a sense of urgency and wants that quality in people amongst others.
The second task involved us learning how to choose the right visual for any given scenario. We were provided with several resources to study after which we answered 5 questions bothering on what kind of visuals to use in certain scenarios. It was a very enlightening session and I really learned a lot from it. I learned that before making a visualization, it’s best to ask yourself what the audience really wants to see. It’s important to understand the needs and preferences of your viewers before embarking on your visualization. When choosing the right chart for your viewer it’s best to focus on the best way to convey your message so that it is not misunderstood. There are various charts out there to help you achieve this. From column charts to line charts to boxplots, the list is endless.
The third task involved us creating visuals to answer some business questions. We were asked to use either PowerBi or Tableau to create the visuals. We were also required to clean the data before embarking on creating the visuals. This was where the real work started. I used PowerBi to clean my dataset. My cleaning process was as follows:
· Deleted values <0 in the quantity column
· Deleted negative values in the unit price column
· Deleted all canceled transactions in the invoice column
· Calculated the revenue = unit price * quantity
· Changed data type of customer id from numeric to text
After which I proceeded to answer the following business questions:
Question 1
The CEO of the retail store is interested to view the time series of the revenue data for the year 2011 only. He would like to view granular data by looking into revenue for each month. The CEO is interested in viewing the seasonal trends and wants to dig deeper into why these trends occur. This analysis will be helpful for the CEO to forecast for the next year.
Question 2
The CMO is interested in viewing the top 10 countries which are generating the highest revenue. Additionally, the CMO is also interested in viewing the quantity sold along with the revenue generated. The CMO does not want to have the United Kingdom in this visual.
Question 3
The CMO of the online retail store wants to view the information on the top 10 customers by revenue. He is interested in a visual that shows the greatest revenue-generating customer at the start and gradually declines to the lower revenue-generating customers. The CMO wants to target higher revenue-generating customers and ensure that they remain satisfied with their products.
Question 4
The CEO is looking to gain insights on the demand for their products. He wants to look at all countries and see which regions have the greatest demand for their products. Once the CEO gets an idea of the regions that have high demand, he will initiate an expansion strategy which will allow the company to target these areas and generate more business from these regions. He wants to view the entire data on a single view without the need to scroll or hover over the data points to identify the demand. There is no need to show data for the United Kingdom as the CEO is more interested in viewing the countries that have expansion opportunities.
Lastly, in task 4 we were taught how to communicate our insights and analysis. We learned how to effectively communicate our findings and explain how it relates to each scenario. We were asked to develop a video presenting our findings to the CEO and CMO based on the four questions we analyzed and created visuals on. I also created a dashboard comprising all the charts below:
Some of my insights and recommendations are listed below:
Insights
· Revenue jumped from $661,213.69 to $1,161,817.38 during its steepest incline between June 2011 and November 2011. Thereafter there was a sharp decrease of 55.40% in December.
· Feb, Apr, and December were the lowest revenue-generating months for the year
· Netherlands recorded the highest Revenue of USD285k followed by EIRE USD266K and Germany USD229k
· CustomerID 14646 generated the highest revenue USD280K followed closely by customerID 18102 which generated USD260k.
· Netherlands had the highest quantity of products sold 201k followed by EIRE 141K and Germany 118k
· Belgium had the lowest quantity of products sold USD23k followed closely by Japan USD26k and Spain USD28k
· Europe sold the highest quantity of products followed by Australia.
Recommendations
- Introduce new products or services to expand the market and increase sales.
- Increase marketing activities such as adverts, promos, and discounts to entice customers in regions where low sales were recorded.
- Maximize countries generating high revenue by opening new stores there.
- Run social media adverts targeting countries generating less revenue.
- Improve customer loyalty by celebrating customers and awarding them a customer of the week or month
- Reward loyal customers with exclusive gifts and services
- Request for customer feedback.
- Offer bonuses or rewards to customers who recruit new customers.
In conclusion , my experience throughout the programme was very interesting as well as insightful. I’ll highly recommend the TATA data visualisation virtual experience program for anyone seeking to become a data analyst.
References
- Ahluwalia, H.(2021, September 1). How to choose the Right Chart for Data Visualization.
https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2021/09/how-to-choose-the-right-chart-for-data-visualization/ - Grossman, D.(n.d). How to Think Like a CEO: Become a Better Leader.
https://www.commpro.biz/how-to-think-like-a-ceo-become-a-better-leader/
