A lot of the talk around big data analytics focuses on the sheer amount of data, the speed of inputs and the glitzy visualizations that can result from analysis. But if you focus on all those bells and whistles before really thinking through the problems you need to solve, you\u2019re putting the cart before the horse, according to two business users of the technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about putting the business question first. In marketing, where my experience is, it\u2019s clear if you\u2019re driving program success by leveraging vast volumes of data, having the correct problem and \u2026 then having an answer that can show why you did what you did,\u201d Mohan Namboodiri, VP of customer analytics at Williams-Sonoma<\/a>, told attendees of\u00a0GigaOM\u2019s Structure Data event<\/a>\u00a0in New York.<\/p>\n John Sothan, \u00a0VP of finance for BuildDirect,<\/a> agreed. \u201cThe way to turn data into insight is to squash the notion that big data is a silver bullet. We preach that data and analytics is important but then we empower people to be curious and ask questions and get involved in big data analytics.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to teach users to cut into the data and be curious \u2014 that helps validate the data and without that people have a hard time trusting it,\u201d\u00a0Sothan\u00a0added.<\/p>\n Both speakers said analytics help optimize their supply chain and better target their marketing, with the hopeful end result being more business going to existing customers and attracting new customers.<\/p>\n Ensuring that people are involved in the data and analytics process has been a recurring theme<\/a> at Structure Data, with speaker after speaker talking about the need to incorporate human expertise into the whole process.<\/p>\n Check out the rest of our Structure:Data 2013 live coverage here, and a video embed of the session follows below:<\/p>\n