Act

- Stage 5: Act - To Interpret Models and Data

Act, turning insights into action. Now that you have evaluated the results from your analysis and generated reports on the potential value of the results, the next stage is to determine what action or actions should be taken, based on the insights gained. 

- To Find Actionable Insights

Remember why we started bringing together the data and analyzing it in the first place? To find actionable insights within all these data sets, to answer questions, or for improving business processes. For example, is there something in your process that should change to remove bottle necks? Is there data that should be added to your application to make it more accurate? Should you segment your population into more well defined groups for more effective targeted marketing? This is the first step in turning insights into action. 

- Figuring Out How To Implement The Action

Now that you've determined what action to take, the next step is figuring out how to implement the action. What is necessary to add this action into your process or application? How should it be automated? The stakeholders need to be identified and become involved in this change. Just as with any process improvement changes, we need to monitor and measure the impact of the action on the process or application. 

- Evaluating Results from The Implemented Action

Assessing the impact leads to an evaluation. Evaluating results from the implemented action will determine your next steps. Is there additional analysis that need to be performed in order to yield even better results? What data should be revisited? Are there additional opportunities that should be explored? For example, let's not forget what big data enables us to do. Real-time actions based on high velocity streaming information. We need to define what part of our business needs real-time action to be able to influence the operations or the interaction with the customer. Once we define these real time actions, we need to make sure that there are automated systems, or processes to perform such actions, and provide failure recovery in case of problems.  

- The Purpose

The last step brings us back to the very first reason we do data science, the purpose. Reporting insights from analysis and determining actions from insights based on the purpose you initially defined is what we refer to as the Act step. In this process, technical skills only are not sufficient. One essential skill you need is to be able to tell a clear and actionable story. If your presentation does not trigger actions in your audience, it means that your communication was not efficient. Remember that you will be presenting to an audience with no technical background, so the way you communicate the message is key.