Practical Ways to Drive Your Association Using Data

Allen Lloyd and Sandy Spieker, CAEThe Ohio Society of CPAs

What will we cover?

Overview of data Examples of how OSCPA uses data Tools to help you use data Questions

What are you trying to accomplish?

Strategy is vital Balance what you’re looking for with

being open to what you find.

Data are values of qualitative or quantitative variables, belonging to a set of items, or the very pale droid on Star Trek.

What is data?

What is data’s potential?

Deep knowledge Wasted storage space Misinterpretation

Bias awareness Confusion Hidden insights Hunch confirmation

Find and measure those

things your members

MUST HAVE

Balancing data with instinct

VS.

We don’t lie!

How to use data

Gather

Analyze

Story

Gathering data

Ask questions!Use technologyLink answersManage database

Ask questions!

Diversity in the accounting profession

How many collect this data? Race / Language

Added to 2013 membership renewal Deal with questions Track population over time

Analyze data

Inspecting – review and identify outliers, are they errors?

Cleaning – fix anything that is wrong, may have to do more than once!

Evaluating – is the data telling a story or leading to new questions?

Presenting – how can the information be easily digested by others?

Bad data in = Bad information out!

Tell a good story

“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.”

Carly Fiorina, Former CEO of HP

What is a good story?

Goal

P Barrier

Barrier

Barrier

PIU attendance / how old are they?

PIU attendance / where do they work?

What is the story? What did OSCPA change?

Industry members makeup over half the audience The audience is mostly members between 40 and 60 The audience mix has held steady over time

Focus shifting from technical updates to soft skills Format changes to attract younger members Changes being considered to spread events over

entire year or offer as a webcast Will it work? The data will tell us!

Cincinnati event location change

2009

2010

What is the story? What did OSCPA change?

Moving the event didn’t impact attendance Those who attended 2009, but not 2010 were NOT

geographically clustered

Didn’t change anything, but will keep using data to check on impact of changes to events!

Looking at member segments

Indu

stry

Firm

Indu

stry

Firm

What is the story? What did OSCPA change?

Industry members are spread thin across many businesses

Firm members tend to be clustered in Big 4 and regional firms

Taylor programs to the needs of lone financial employees

Reframe discussions and assumptions when discussing the groups

What do our members want to read from us?

High Roads data shows what members click.

Google Analytics

What is the story? What did OSCPA change?

Think social Meet practical needs Write great titles that would make you click

But wait, there’s more!

What is the story? What did OSCPA change?

Give context and value to links Use meaningful, emotional words Keep lists short and easy to scan

Tools to help you use data

Batchgeo PowerViews Wordle

Batchgeo

http://batchgeo.com/ Mapping should be this easy! Copy and paste location data Get map of your data Watch their video

Excel Power View

Data becomes maps

Excel Power View

Data becomes charts

Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/ Creates “word clouds” More of something =

bigger word Paste lists: it counts the

frequency of each word Give each word a

number

Practical applications

What’s a question you need answered?

Google Fusion Tables

Links your data to established datasets

Your members with county info

+Existing map of Ohio

countiesMap of your members

Google “fusion tables”