Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions (Coursera)

Offered by Google,
Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions (Coursera)

This is the second course in the Google Data Analytics Certificate. These courses will equip you with the skills needed to apply to introductory-level data analyst jobs. You’ll build on your understanding of the topics that were introduced in the first Google Data Analytics Certificate course. The material will help you learn how to ask effective questions to make data-driven decisions, while connecting with stakeholders’ needs. Current Google data analysts will continue to instruct and provide you with hands-on ways to accomplish common data analyst tasks with the best tools and resources.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Learners who complete this certificate program will be equipped to apply for introductory-level jobs as data analysts. No previous experience is necessary.
By the end of this course, you will:

  • Learn about effective questioning techniques that can help guide analysis.
  • Gain an understanding of data-driven decision-making and how data analysts present findings.
  • Explore a variety of real-world business scenarios to support an understanding of questioning and decision-making.
  • Discover how and why spreadsheets are an important tool for data analysts.
  • Examine the key ideas associated with structured thinking and how they can help analysts better understand problems and develop solutions.
  • Learn strategies for managing the expectations of stakeholders while establishing clear communication with a data analytics team to achieve business objectives.

Course 2 of 8 in the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate.

What You Will Learn

  • Explain how each step of the problem-solving road map contributes to common analysis scenarios.
  • Discuss the use of data in the decision-making process.
  • Demonstrate the use of spreadsheets to complete basic tasks of the data analyst including entering and organizing data.
  • Describe the key ideas associated with structured thinking.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Asking effective questions
To do the job of a data analyst, you need to ask questions and problem-solve. In this part of the course, you’ll check out some common analysis problems and how analysts solve them. You will also learn about effective questioning techniques that can help guide your analysis.

WEEK 2
Making data-driven decisions
In analytics, data drives decision making. In this part of the course, you’ll explore data of all kinds and its impact on decision making. You’ll also learn how to share your data through reports and dashboards.

WEEK 3
Learning spreadsheet basics
Spreadsheets are an important data analytics tool. In this part of the course, you will learn both why and how data analysts use spreadsheets in their work. You will also explore how structured thinking can help analysts better understand problems and come up with solutions.

WEEK 4
Always remember the stakeholder
Successful data analysts learn to balance needs and expectations. In this part of the course, you’ll learn strategies for managing the expectations of stakeholders while establishing clear communication with your team to achieve your objectives.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Managing Social and Human Capital (Coursera) Coursera
University of Pennsylvania

Managing Social and Human Capital (Coursera)

Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change the your organization’s architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization.

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Accounting for Decision Making (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Accounting for Decision Making (Coursera)

Through this course, you will start by addressing the two “big questions” of accounting: “What do I have?” and “How did I do over time?” You will see how the two key financial statements – the balance sheet and the income statement - are designed to answer these questions and then move on to consider how individual transactions aggregate to make up these financial statements.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Earth Economics (Coursera) Coursera
Erasmus University Rotterdam

Earth Economics (Coursera)

After this course you will be an Earth Economist that can provide evidence-based advise on the best global policy. As an Earth Economist you will better understand the behavior and advice of economists, have become a better economist yourself and know where to find Earth's data and how to analyze these world observations. Our planet is too important: we need you to get engaged!

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Principles of fMRI 1 (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Principles of fMRI 1 (Coursera)

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is the most widely used technique for investigating the living, functioning human brain as people perform tasks and experience mental states. It is a convergence point for multidisciplinary work from many disciplines. Psychologists, statisticians, physicists, computer scientists, neuroscientists, medical researchers, behavioral scientists, engineers, public health researchers, biologists, and others are coming together to advance our understanding of the human mind and brain. This course covers the design, acquisition, and analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data, including psychological inference, MR Physics, K Space, experimental design, pre-processing of fMRI data, as well as Generalized Linear Models (GLM’s).

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Data Processing Using Python (Coursera) Coursera
Nanjing University

Data Processing Using Python (Coursera)

This course is mainly for non-computer majors. It starts with the basic syntax of Python, to how to acquire data in Python locally and from network, to how to present data, then to how to conduct basic and advanced statistic analysis and visualization of data, and finally to how to design a simple GUI to present and process data, advancing level by level.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Fundamentos de Excel para Negocios (Coursera) Coursera
Universidad Austral

Fundamentos de Excel para Negocios (Coursera)

Cuando finalices este curso habrás logrado un gran número de habilidades como introducir información, ordenarla, manipularla, realizar cálculos de diversa índole (matemáticos, trigonométricos, estadísticos, financieros, ingenieriles, probabilísticos), extraer conclusiones, trabajar con fechas y horas, construir gráficos, imprimir reportes y muchas más.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Habilidades de Excel para el negocio: Conceptos básicos (Coursera) Coursera
Macquarie University

Habilidades de Excel para el negocio: Conceptos básicos (Coursera)

En este primer curso de la especialización de habilidades de Excel para el negocio, aprenderá los conceptos básicos de Microsoft Excel. En seis semanas, podrá navegar, de forma experta, a través de la interfaz de usuario de Excel, realizar cálculos básicos con fórmulas y funciones, dar formato profesional a hojas de cálculo y crear visualizaciones de datos a través de gráficos y cuadros.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Creative Problem Solving (Coursera) Coursera
University of Minnesota

Creative Problem Solving (Coursera)

This course deals directly with your ability for creativity which is a critical skill in any field. It focuses on divergent thinking, the ability to develop multiple ideas and concepts to solve problems. Through a series of creativity building exercises, short lectures, and readings, learners develop both an understanding of creativity and increase their own ability.

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Basic Modeling for Discrete Optimization (Coursera) Coursera
University of Melbourne,The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Basic Modeling for Discrete Optimization (Coursera)

Optimization is a common form of decision making, and is ubiquitous in our society. Its applications range from solving Sudoku puzzles to arranging seating in a wedding banquet. The same technology can schedule planes and their crews, coordinate the production of steel, and organize the transportation of iron ore from the mines to the ports. Good decisions in manpower and material resources management also allow corporations to improve profit by millions of dollars.

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Les partenariats qui changent le monde : alliances innovantes entre entreprises et associations (Coursera) Coursera
ESSEC Business School

Les partenariats qui changent le monde : alliances innovantes entre entreprises et associations (Coursera)

Ce MOOC, crée en partenariat avec Le RAMEAU, a pour vocation de vous aider à mieux appréhender la dynamique des partenariats entre entreprises et associations. Que vous soyez une entreprise responsable, soucieuse d’avoir un impact positif sur votre communauté, une association désireuse d’augmenter votre impact, ou si vous êtes tout simplement curieux de comprendre pourquoi est-ce que secteur privé lucratif et structures d’intérêt général travaillent ensemble, ce MOOC est fait pour vous !

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Research Design: Inquiry and Discovery (Coursera) Coursera
University of North Texas

Research Design: Inquiry and Discovery (Coursera)

The main purpose of this course is to focus on good questions and how to answer them. This is essential to making considered decisions as a leader in any organization or in your life overall. Topics will include the basis of human curiosity, development of questions, connections between questions and approaches to information gathering design, variable measurement, sampling, the differences between experimental and non-experimental designs, data analysis, reporting and the ethics of inquiry projects.

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks