What Ana does with your question
- Figures out what you mean. She knows your company’s definitions — what counts as a “sale,” when your fiscal quarter starts, which system is the source of truth.
- Does the analyst work. She finds the right data, writes and runs the technical queries, and double-checks the result — narrating her steps as she goes.
- Answers in plain English. You get the number, the context, often a chart — plus the full detail of how she got it, whenever you want to look.
Why her answers are consistent
Behind the scenes, your organization maintains an ontology — think of it as your company’s official dictionary for data. It records exactly what “revenue” means, how “active customer” is calculated, and which numbers are the governed, agreed-upon versions. Because Ana answers from that dictionary:- You and a colleague asking the same question get the same answer.
- The answer matches what finance or analytics would have produced by hand.
- When a definition changes, it changes in one place — and everyone’s answers update with it.
Three habits that make this easy
| Habit | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Ask like you’d ask a person. | Full, natural questions beat keyword fragments. “Which products grew fastest this year?” beats “product growth.” |
| It’s a conversation, not a search box. | Don’t craft one perfect question. Ask, look, then refine: “now just the West region,” “compare to last year.” |
| When unsure, ask about the data itself. | ”What data do you have about customers?” is a perfectly good question — and the best way to discover what’s possible. |