I wanted to take a step back here and think a little more philosophically about what analysis is, and therefore what it means to be an analyst.
Reading A.C Grayling’s brilliant text The History of Philosophy is rewarding (although dense at times). At around the halfway mark (page 345) when beginning the journey into analytic philosophers of the twentieth century, he shares a breakdown of the different techniques that the word ‘analysis’ denotes.
These are decomposition, reduction, essence-finding, relationship-finding, concept clarification, historical documentation.
The aim of all of these techniques are clarity with the ambition that all problems (for Grayling, all problems in philosophy) can be solved (or perhaps for intractable problems, at least understood). As an analyst, it may be helpful to think about these methods when making a case that a certain problem is worth investing time into, and how that could be done.
Decomposition
Decomposition involves taking a problem apart to interrogate its mechanisms. This may be dismantling a computer to explore how its interior components work together. A more digital example may involve breaking apart software to understand how individual functions and scripts work together to create a valuable program.
Reduction
Reduction means to show that something can be explained in a more basic way. Mathematics offers straightforward examples. 5/10 can be reduced to 1/2. Another example in physics is the explanation that heat reduces to kinetic molecular energy.
Essence-finding
Essence-finding alludes to an idea that something might be explainable in terms of its defining properties. This can involve analysis in the form of all X contains property Y. A practical example might be constructing legal definitions in a contract, or defining key terms in your place of work such as a transaction always involves a sale through your e-commerce platform.
Relationship-finding
Relationship-finding involves placing a concept in comparison with other concepts, to elucidate the original concept. For example, the probability of flipping a coin and landing on heads 3 times has an inverse relationship with the probability of not landing on heads 3 times. If that is too mathematical, it might be explaining the legal concept of ‘balance of probabilities’ in civil cases by comparison to the onus of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ in criminal cases.
Concept clarification
Clarifying concepts requires abstracting a complex idea into a simpler model for easier digestion while not losing important parts of the original idea. Strategy theory provides an abundance of examples, one being the classic 2×2 BCG matrix used to help determine resource allocation or the three horizons framework used to communicate how a business will show future growth.
Historical documentation
Documenting the history of something is an important analytical process, examining evidence to understand the past. Better understanding the past can give guidance on what has worked and not worked for the future.
Analysis typically involves a combination of some or all of these techniques. My hope is that understanding these techniques will make you a more focused analyst who can better identify how to tackle different problems – the most difficult part of any problem.
