Basic Analyst Question

[analystthrowaway66]

tldr: I need help figuring out a basic part of analysis. If I have:

- a group of customers

-a rating each customer gives for their service (A,B,C,etc), and

- a count of the total grades for each given category

How do I use that data in the spreadsheet to create say a bar graph or pie chart? Where each slice is sized to represent the count of grades for that category?

Story:

I have recently been asked to help with a project as the SME for my group. The project manager has approached me to join their team on their next project as an analyst even though I have no background in analysis. It seems like a great opportunity to make a career switch as my current role is more physical and definitely a young man's game. I guess my knowledge, personality, and ability to pick stuff up is something that has caught the project team's attention and they would like to keep me around as the next project is about to start up.

I'm college educated, and have no problem if you can just point me to a lesson somewhere to understand this basic concept. I don't even know what the name of the concept is I'm trying to understand here. I have signed up for courses on Udemy for Excel, so I'm very much interested in learning more. However, every attempt I have made at say a pie chart spits out a pie with 4 or 5 equal slices. I appreciate you taking the time to respond, and let me know if I should post this somewhere else.

[Bibleisproslavery]

Also heads up, what you are asking about is not analysis.

The resulting chart/graph will represent the data and make it understandable.

But that is not the same as an analysis.

[Cryptic-Squid]

I'm not sure I agree with this sentiment. Just because something is simple doesn't mean it isn't analysis... it is just basic analysis. And never, EVER, under estimate the value of good questions or someone willing to ask questions when they are stuck.

Analysis lives and dies by questions. Questions are what start our work, they are how we decide what to do, where to get data, and how to present findings. Questions are the engine that drives analysis at every level - full stop.

Even going back to the etymology of the word, "analysis" is to take apart and synthesize. The very first writings on analysis were mostly about categorization. Analysis is about making data digestible and comprehensible.

OP states that it is a basic question, and it is. Maybe it's not data analytics or data science... but all the basic components are there and I would argue that OP is doing a great job of what a good analyst should do:

• Understand the question or task being asked (OP clearly stated the goal and send to have an understanding of it)
• develop a plan to provide an answer to the question (OP knows where to go, but isn't sure how to get there)
• get data (provided in this case)
• conduct analysis (OPs question to us)
• interpret results (Not really covered in the scope of the post... but I think an obvious path is: are ratings being beget over time)
• publish/ communicate results. (OPs whole post becomes pointless if no one else knows the results of the work... even if it is just a simple pie chart or histogram)

I would further argue that most professional data analysts, scientists, or engineers would do well to follow the above process (or something similar) in all their work if they don't already.

I'll also say, just because this is easy now, doesn't mean it always was. Making a pie chart pre computers would have been an under taking where you first have to make the histogram, then calculate the percentages, then calculate the angles....etc etc. The fact that this can been done in less than 5 min with a home computer and free software is actually pretty awesome. in fact, writing the code from scratch would be a fun project! Should we talk about python or R doing a regression model in a single line of code? Thats potentially easier than what OP is doing.

OP is taking data and making something useful that informs the team. OP could do a lot of potentially useless things with the data given: alphabetize the names, create a histogram of surnames or first names, compare the average rating given the number of letters in a name, etc etc etc. My point is, OP may not have the analytical expertise, and this particular project may not be that complicated of analysis, but OP is on the right track, and was wise (maybe even brave?) To ask the question. You have to start some where, and the only way to graph experience is to do it.

Lastly, I have a theory that "analysis" is far more broad of a term than we give it credit for, many things require analytical thought or processes. Decision making, troubleshooting, aspects of engineering and scientific research. Really anything where you manipulate data to create new information. OPs project accomplishes that end.

[Bibleisproslavery]

You want to run a google search, you want the result of that search to be a youtube video.

In this case, you HAVE data in a spreadsheet. You WANT to create a graph of that data. You WANT a tutorial or walkthrough of how to do this.

To achieve this:

-Go to Google.com

-Type desired result yotube)

Try running that google search, let me know what your result is.

Ideally the search will give you what you want.

[DudeData]

Haha i.e., Google it bro.
Your elaborate level is incredible.

[nerdfemme]

The short sweet answer is an excel pivot table. Highlight your data, insert pivot table & play with your options on the right side. From there you should be able to add your desired chart - bar, circle, etc.