Data-Driven Decision Making: How to Choose and Defend Your Choices

Every day, you are faced with critical choices—from selecting the right candidate for a promotion to allocating team budgets—but relying on gut feeling alone is a risky strategy. Learning how to ground your choices in concrete data is the key to making objective, defensible decisions that stakeholders will respect. This text-only course guides you through the entire lifecycle of data-driven decision making. You will start with foundational data literacy, learn how to frame business questions, analyze simple datasets, and present your findings logically to gain organizational buy-in. What you'll learn: Understand foundational data terminology and the core concepts of statistical thinking; Identify and eliminate common cognitive biases that distort data interpretation; Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to compare competing options objectively; Structure a logical, data-backed argument to defend your final recommendations; Apply modern data literacy frameworks to real-world business scenarios; Interpret basic data visualizations and metrics without needing a technical background. The course begins with essential terminology and the basics of data literacy before moving into practical frameworks for comparing options. You will then practice structuring your arguments and writing clear, data-supported explanations through written exercises. Designed entirely for beginners, this course requires no prior background in math, statistics, or programming. Start reading today to transform the way you make and defend your business decisions.