Sometimes clients ask us to conduct statistical analyses, for example of a questionnaire, but what they really need when the analysis is finished is ”for someone to tell us what that actually means”.

This often happens when a questionnaire was developed without a clear set of high-level research questions. In these cases, we sit with clients to see what really interests them and how we can answer their questions and concerns with the data available. This is part of the report is usually more exciting than a more mechanical statistical analysis which deals with a questionnaire question-by-question or section-by-section.