However, if we pause and think about the word, do we have a clear understanding of what an insight is—or isn’t? And then, does it even matter if our perceptions of what it means are slightly off or imprecise? I believe it matters. In fact, I think it’s a serious issue that might explain why many organizations haven’t yet achieved major success with their data investments.
You can’t ignore the need for greater insight literacy as more and more businesses offer data literacy training programs to their employees. This starts with a better understanding of what insights are. Let me share my own quest to find a clearer definition of ‘insight’ and explain why I think it’s one of the most important things you can clarify within your organization.
The quest for a better insight definition
Back in late 2019, as I was going through the review process for my book, Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative, and Visuals, a couple of my reviewers mentioned that I should clarify what I meant by the word, insight. I had used the word throughout the book since insights are an integral part of all data stories. Nevertheless, I had not even considered whether the readers shared my understanding of the word. As I thought about it more, I realized even though I used the word regularly, I hadn’t given much thought about how I would define what an insight is. Like most people, when I’m unsure of a definition, I turn to a dictionary. The first definition I found was in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which defines an insight as “the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or seeing intuitively.” Gaining a deeper understanding of something felt a little vague to me and not that different from just observing or learning something new.
Not satisfied, I kept looking and found the Cambridge dictionary defines an insight as “a clear, deep, and sometimes sudden understanding of a complicated problem or situation.” While this definition was somewhat helpful, I still didn’t feel it adequately captured the essence of an insight. Both definitions fail to distinguish between an exceptional finding or discovery—and something less remarkable that might be useful information but not insightful.