The Do’s and Don’ts of Data Hygiene

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In our latest episode of Test. Learn. Grow., Myles Biggs is joined by Kyle Taljan, Level’s Data Scientist to talk about the Do’s and Don’ts of Data Hygiene.  

Rather listen than read? Learn about Kyle’s background and recommendations for managing data.  

 


What is data hygiene? 

Data science can be a bit of a catch-all phrase with lots of different varieties depending on where you are. No two days look the same. Ultimately, however, data hygiene is having data of sufficient quality to do what you need to do when you need to do it. It is based on what your goals are to reach the right audience. Data hygiene will have different characteristics of data that are good for whatever it is you want to do. There is no one size fits all.  
 
At Level, we are great at using data to serve our clients’ needs, but we want to continue to evolve and build. By better understanding how to collect the data, this will feed into our client’s overall data hygiene and help with storing. 


Data management 

The data you use depends on the situation and industry you are analyzing. Sorting the data helps with determining what you can and cannot apply it towards. Data that is clean and current is more helpful than older data, as it starts to decay. It isn’t static, you must keep addressing it and working on it. Just like personal hygiene, you don’t shower once a year. You continuously take them.  


How to start  

First, start with discovery. Look at the data and get a baseline for measuring it in conjunction with the technical capacity. Know what you are looking for. Understanding your business and the core of it, and then work forward from there. Let your goals lead you to start exploring what new directions are possible. Starting small with a focused direction creates a strong base. Pick the areas you want to really dig into and assess them. You can’t set more particular goals without looking into them thoroughly. Then, use the data you discover to set your goals.  


What do you want to learn from the data? 

Having an exploratory mindset is a great way to see what you have from the findings. From there you can brainstorm what you can do with the data and how hard it would be to make it cleaner. You can go on to build hypotheses and act on what you have learned.  


What does it look like at the end? 

With good data hygiene, you can achieve goals or execute campaigns at critical moments. With good data hygiene, inspection of the data is quick, and it is easy to pinpoint key insights. You can also build advanced models and make predictions sufficiently. Building a modeling platform allows live changes and consumer behavior to be quickly caught and recorded. This is leveraged and makes you perform better for clients. Good data hygiene makes a backbone for the information and has a massive multiplier effect on how effective you can be with the data.  
 
If you would like to discuss how you can achieve a marketing advantage with good data hygiene,  set up a call with Level Agency today to find out more! 

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