JavaScript is not available.

Sep 9, 2021

Today I launched the

to share what I know, and try to learn a lot more, about: - Creating and collecting data - Depicting data with figures - Explaining data with words I hope you'll follow along. Good data matters. Let's get to work.

Introducing the Good Data Project — The Good Data Project

I can’t think of anything more important than data. Good data tells stories that illuminate the world around us. Bad data confuses and obscures. Unfortunately there’s a lot more bad data in the world...

Sep 9

Good data, as shared by legendary French chef

@jacques_pepin

Bar chart titled "Reasons to like France," with a large blue bar representing "the food," no green bar represeting "the people," and a large red bar representing "the wine." The blue bar, missing green bar, and red bar make the shape of the French flag.

read image description

ALT

Show this thread

Sep 6

And now I think about this

@jaywillis

tweet probably once a week.

Quote Tweet

Jay Willis

@jaywillis

May 12

I think about this graphic, which the National Review's media kit uses to describe its audience to prospective advertisers, probably once a week nationalreview.com/wp-content/upl

Show this thread

ClickZ

@ClickZ

Jul 11

Have your say on the state of B2B ad-buying 📢 Share your views to help us understand whether #B2B marketers are getting the desired return on investment when using B2B #adbuying platforms. Survey access 👉 ow.ly/RfSI50JNMch #b2bmarketing #b2bsales #advertising

Out of Proportion: With Guests Damon Lesmeister & Kelly Shue

May 13

Fantastic explanation by

@katy_milkman

about when to think in asbolute numbers, when to think in percentages, and how that choice influences our understanding of a situtation.

schwab.com

Non-proportional thinking, or focusing on absolute numbers rather than percentages, is just one way we get mixed up when we should be carefully calculating and comparing ratios.

Apr 14

And you thought this whole "two companies control most of the world's information and speech" thing couldn't get worse.

Apr 7

And if you want your good data in smaller chunks, follow

and visit

If you're interested in: - Learning how data storytelling changes industries - Examples of companies' most common data mistakes - Explanations of how to fix those mistakes Look no further than my

@siliconallee

#BerlinFoundersFund Good Data masterclass:

The Good Data Masterclass — The Good Data Project

Want lots of detail on best practices for creating, depicting, and explaining data? Look no further.

Bravo

- this week's

is one of your best ever.

And thanks

for pointing out the news I somehow missed: It's not Zendesk's fault because their acquisition of SurveyMonkey fell through.

I've got lots of big corporate clients who can afford premium accounts. But I've also recommended

@SurveyMonkey

to dozens of startups and nonprofits on tiny budgets. For them, SurveyMonkey is now useless.

wanted to make more money. The solution? Eliminate their Basic product, make it paid-only. But they know that "freemium" sells. So rather than kill Basic, they've limited Basic surveys to 10 responses. Which isn't a survey so much as a group interview.

I work with plenty of big companies that can afford professional accounts. But I've also recommended

@SurveyMonkey

to dozens of startups and non-profits on tiny budgets. This is the end of SurveyMonkey for folks like that.

I loved presenting my

@19insights

research on universally accessible digital marketing to the students at

@RutgersBSchool

. Check out the talk and download the free report here:

nineteeninsights.com

Presentation: The Universal Marketing Imperative — Nate Elliott - Nineteen Insights - Market...

Recently I presented my research on universally accessible marketing to students at Rutgers Business School.

Learn more from The

in this free

Masterclass:

Quote Tweet

The rise, fall and potential resurrection of a coffee brewing legend

Mar 11

Want to hear more about how good data drives business success? I'm teaching a masterclass for @siliconallee on March 24 at 11am ET. You can register here: linkedin.com/feed/update/ur

Like coffee? When

first told me the story months ago, I couldn't believe it. He finally got to the bottom of the mess and wrote it up. You should read this:

modernretail.co

Bonavita was one of the first to make a good affordable at-home automatic drip coffee machine. Recent legal battles put its future in limbo.

Paz Segura

@pazsegura

Feb 16

How to make sure your questions and answers work together? Formulate your question and your answer options into sentences, and see if you can imagine people saying them.

@Nate_Elliott

How to make sure your questions and answers work together — The Good Data Project

If your answers don’t match your question, you can’t get good data. But there’s an easy trick to make sure they do.

Mary Schmidt

@maryschmidt

I'd add that the simpler the survey, the more thought needs to go into the planning. It's not "Hey, let's do a survey!" (And, yes, people lie...and have varying levels of reading comprehension.)

Quote Tweet

"If this author had simply taken their own survey, they’d have known this question would never work." twitter.com/GoodDataProjec…

"If this author had simply taken their own survey, they’d have known this question would never work."

Quote Tweet

It's amazing how often we read survey questions that require respondents to lie. The simple but often-overlooked solution: Read your questions and make sure you can answer them honestly and accurately. @nate_elliott explains: gooddataproject.com/blog/2022/2/do

Feb 9

I hate to lie. And I really hate it when surveys give me no other option. The

explains:

Don't make your survey respondents lie — The Good Data Project

I hate to lie. And I really hate it when surveys give me no other option.

Feb 8

We spend half our waking hours lost in thought. And 58% of the time our minds wander we're focused on something negative or neutral. That's why people are happier when they're focused on the present moment than when they're lost in thought. Daily meditation can help.

Quote from Matt Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert: "A wandering mind is an unhappy mind."

read image description

ALT

If you genuinely can't imagine people saying something out loud, don't offer it as an answer to your survey question. For instance, some executives might say their offices ‘never’ or 'sometimes' talk about AI. Can you any office that 'always' talks about AI? 100% of the time?

Quote Tweet

Feb 4

Does *any* workplace *always* talk about... anything? If your survey answers don’t match your question, you can’t get good data. But there’s an easy trick to make sure they do. @nate_elliott explains: gooddataproject.com/blog/2022/2/ho

Feb 3

We can't control what happens, only how we respond. Even if the world broke you into sharp little pieces last time, you can decide to break open into empathy next time. Read more in

@AdreannaLimbach

's wonderful book "Tea and Cake with Demons." #meditation #mindfulness

read image description

ALT

Adreanna Limbach

Feb 1

The first mindfulness I regularly practiced -- before I even knew what to call it -- was recognizing moments of joy, experiencing those moments fully, and feeling grateful. Like lying on the deck of a tall ship, gazing up at the masts and the sails and the bright blue sky.

The mast and mainsail of Sloop Clearwater, looking up from deck level.

read image description

ALT

Sloop Clearwater

Audiense

@AudienseCo

Jan 31

Our highlights from last week? 👇 🎧🎛️ Who sets the beat in the #EDM industry blog post was updated 💻

@beglen

's webinar on #JobsToBeDone & #Insights 👌 Come good stuff by

, among others.

Audiense Weekly Digest -

28.01.2022

Jan 30

It's not always easy to offer the world around us -- or ourselves -- love and compassion and sympathetic joy. But even when we don't feel these emotions, it's useful to state them. As

@sharonsalzberg

says, "The intention is enough." #meditation #mindfulness #lovingkindness

read image description

ALT

Half the proceeds from every class I guide go to my favorite charity:

I've been guiding meditation classes for the past year. If you think of mindfulness as too woo-woo, or maybe too serious, I hope you'll join a session. I make mindfulness accessible by cutting through the typical dogma. Mindfulsailor.com

Quote Tweet

Jan 27

You don’t need to wear robes or light incense to meditate. You don't need to adopt a new religion or buy a fancy cushion. You just need to sit and breathe. Join me: MindfulSailor.com

Small waves on the ocean beneath a pale blue sky

read image description

ALT

If you're looking for the worst one in that thread, surely it's this: twitter.com/spatialanalysi Because that really, definitely is not how pie charts work.

Quote Tweet

James Cheshire

@spatialanalysis

Jan 20

The most expensive pies at UK football clubs: bloomberg.com/news/features/

Show this thread

Jan 26

Related: A thread of pie charts made of pie, inspired by the Sun's awful "chart." Most of these are also terrible, but most at least contain some data.

Quote Tweet

James Cheshire

@spatialanalysis

Jan 20

In honour of the Sun's controversial "pork pie chart"...here's a delicious thread of pie charts made of actual pies.

Show this thread

Jan 26

No surprise that today's lesson in bad data visualization comes from The Sun, Britain’s most-popular but least-trusted daily tabloid: You can’t make a data visualization without actual data. Or at least, you shouldn’t. The

explains:

The Sun's data-free "data visualization" Erodes Confidence In Charts and Graphs — The Good Data...

You can’t make a data visualization with actual data. Or at least, you shouldn’t. The Sun shows us why not.

Show this thread

Audiense

@AudienseCo

Jan 25

A nice one on Social Polls! By

via

Don't test two ideas in one question — The Good Data Project

To get the best survey data, make sure you investigate one idea at a time. Often that means asking two questions rather than one.

Jan 21

Watching Meat Loaf videos this morning because, well, high school. And YouTube has repeatedly promoted "new video from the Lumineers!" ...Is there a lot of overlap in those audiences?

Jan 20

Having a tough day? It's okay; even

@nielsen

sometimes forgets to put a survey question in their survey question. You'll get it right next time, like they did. cc:

Screenshot of a now-deleted Nielsen tweet that offers poll options about the winter Olympics but doesn't include a question.

read image description

ALT

Screenshot of the updated Nielsen tweet that offers poll options about the winter Olympics and does include a question.

read image description

ALT

Jan 19

Lots of social polls try to test two ideas in one question. Only a few disrespect The Royal Tenenbaums. One managed to do both.

explains:

Don't test two ideas in one question — The Good Data Project

To get the best survey data, make sure you investigate one idea at a time. Often that means asking two questions rather than one.

Jan 18

Not sure what's worse: That this badly-written Twitter poll will generate low-quality data. Or that "The Royal Tenenbaums" wasn't on the list. The

can explain at least one of these mistakes:

Don't test two ideas in one question — The Good Data Project

To get the best survey data, make sure you investigate one idea at a time. Often that means asking two questions rather than one.

Jan 13

There are two very good reasons Twitter polls suck,

@TimHarford

: 1. Twitter (and LinkedIn and IG) designed their polls for engagement, not data collection. 2. Most people have no idea how to write poll questions. The

explains: gooddataproject.com/blog/2021/11/w

Quote Tweet

Tim Harford

@TimHarford

Jan 13

Please spread the word about this important Twitter poll for @BBCMoreOrLess. The question is: Are Twitter polls...

Show this poll

Dec 27, 2021

Excellent data visualization. cc

Quote Tweet

Almost halfway through the Christmas holiday - a visual

A frosted Xmas cake decorated with Santa, snowman, reindeers and a merry Xmas sign. Almost half eaten- like a pie chart

read image description

ALT

Dec 22, 2021

Are you accidentally (...or intentionally) buttering your respondents up, or telling them how they *should" answer your questions? Learn how to spot these problems and eliminate them from your surveys.

Quote Tweet

Dec 22, 2021

“We love you! ….Do you love us?” is no way to run a customer satisfaction survey. @nate_elliott explains: gooddataproject.com/blog/2021/12/s