What are analytical skills? Plus tips on how to improve analytical thinking

Analytical skills are important in industries like data management and information technology. But they're also useful in other industries and at all career levels because they help you solve problems. Here's what this article will cover:

• What are analytical skills?
• Why are analytical skills important?
• In which job roles or industries are analytical skills important?
• Examples of analytical skills
• What role do communication skills play in analytical thinking?
• How to improve your analytical skills in the workplace
• Developing analytical skills outside the workplace
• Tools and resources to improve analytical skills
• How to highlight analytical skills on your resume
• Hone your data analysis skills
• FAQs

What are analytical skills?

Analytical skills refer to your ability to gather, interpret, and evaluate information to solve problems and make decisions. Analytical thinkers can break down complex data or ideas into manageable parts, identify patterns, and come up with logical solutions. 

These skills are especially useful when you're faced with a challenge that doesn’t have a clear-cut answer. Analytical thinking helps you look at all angles, ask the right questions, and arrive at well-thought-out conclusions. 

Simply put: analytical skills help you think smarter and work better. 

Why are analytical skills important?

Being an analytical thinker helps you study situations before you arrive at conclusions. This enables you to make better decisions. Analytical skills help you increase workplace efficiency, too. You learn to work smarter by understanding what brings the most value to the business. You can then focus on those areas. You find ways to improve the company's operations by automating manual tasks.

Analytical skills help solve complex problems and create action plans. These skills are also useful in your daily personal life. For example, you use them when deciding how to spend or invest your money. 

Analytical skills can be beneficial to your career. Employers look for applicants who have them. According to the World Economic Forum 2023 report, more companies rank analytical thinking as a core skill than any other skill. It's also one of the most important skills for employees in 2023.

In which job roles or industries are analytical skills important? 

Analytical skills are useful in nearly every industry, but they’re especially critical in the following roles: 

Industry/Role	Why analytical skills matter
Finance and accounting	Analyzing financial reports, forecasting trends, reducing risks.
Information technology	Debugging systems, analyzing user data, improving UX/UI designs.
Marketing	Understanding consumer behavior, interpreting campaign results.
Healthcare	Diagnosing conditions, reviewing lab results, evaluating options.
Engineering	Solving design problems, testing solutions, reviewing data.
Human resources	Analyzing workforce data, resolving employee conflicts
Business analysis	Identifying business needs, improving processes.
Research and development	Conducting experiments, evaluating results.

If you're applying for a role that involves strategy, planning, forecasting, or research – there’s a good chance you’ll need to be a strong analytical thinker.

Examples of analytical skills

Analytical skills are a combination of various abilities. There's a mixture of both hard and soft skills. Here are some examples of analytical skills: 

Problem-solving

Problem-solving means identifying the issue and its cause, coming up with effective solutions, and choosing the best one. Many businesses have limited time and resources. This makes it essential to solve problems quickly using available resources. With problem-solving skills, you can prioritize issues and think of creative solutions. This is especially key when there are urgent or complex problems. 

For example, a manager asks team members to return to the office after working from home for a year. Some are reluctant to make the change for different reasons. The manager organizes a team meeting and listens to their concerns. They offer other flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid work schedules. The manager also gives extra vacation days to team members who return to the office as an incentive.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to question, analyze, and evaluate information. You ask meaningful questions to assess the credibility of the information. This can help you find the root cause of a problem in the workplace. Critical thinking also helps you compare the advantages and disadvantages of each solution.

For example, a criminal investigator uses critical thinking skills to figure out what parts of a crime scene are evidence. After gathering samples and testing them, they analyze their findings and draw logical conclusions. They assess the reliability of eyewitnesses based on various factors. They consider their character and their relationship to the respondent or defendant.

Data analysis

Data analysis is the process of examining data to make conclusions about that information. It can involve cleaning and processing raw data first before you can extract relevant information. You can then present your conclusions to key stakeholders to help them make informed business decisions.

Data science is useful as it helps to reduce risks in the decision-making process. It helps you identify trends, forecast future outcomes, and realize new business opportunities.

The two main types of data analysis are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data analysis involves working with numerical variables. The techniques usually include working with algorithms, mathematical analysis tools, and software.

In qualitative data analysis, you work with nonnumerical information. You use techniques like interviews, focus groups, or participant observation.

Here are some data analysis techniques: 

• Regression analysis: You can estimate how one or more variables impact the dependent variable. It's useful for detecting patterns and trends and for forecasting future trends.
• Factor analysis: Factor analysis reduces a large number of variables to a smaller number of factors. It condenses large data sets into smaller, more manageable samples and enables you to find hidden patterns. It's also useful for exploring concepts that are difficult to measure, such as happiness or customer loyalty. 
• Cluster analysis: Cluster analysis helps you find structures within a data set. Data points within a cluster are similar to each other and dissimilar to data points in another cluster. This technique helps you understand the distribution of data in a data set.
• Content analysis: The purpose of this technique is to identify patterns in various forms of communication. It examines and quantifies the number of words, subjects, and concepts in text, image, video, or audio messages. It can reveal the purpose and effect of specific content. 
• Discourse analysis: This technique involves observing texts, audio, and videos to study the relationships between the information and its context. It helps you understand the opinions that audiences have of a topic and know the reasons they feel that way. 

Data analysis is useful in various fields, such as marketing, finance, health care, and insurance. For instance, insurance firms use cluster analysis to study why certain locations have a high number of claims.  

Another example is that a company in any industry may examine the effectiveness of its social media marketing using regression analysis. It can analyze whether an increase in social media spending causes an increase in sales revenue.  

Here's a list of tools and resources for data analysis:   

• Microsoft Power BI 
• SAP BusinessObjects
• Tableau
• Qlik
• Looker Studio
• Python
• R
• Microsoft Excel
• KNIME
• Apache Spark

Research skills

Research skills refer to the ability to find and evaluate useful information related to a particular topic. It also entails being able to organize and present the information to others. Research skills help you:

• Monitor the company's competitors
• Develop new products
• Understand customer needs
• Keep up with the latest technologies
• Improve business operations

These skills are essential in writing reports, creating surveys, developing new medications, and designing new products.

For example, an economist gathers relevant data about employment trends, wages, and other aspects of the economy to help businesses understand how the current economic situation affects them. They can also present their findings to government agencies, who evaluate data to develop economic policies and other data-driven decision-making. 

Decision-making

Decision-making involves considering potential solutions and choosing the most suitable one. It's a process of identifying the decision, collecting information, assessing alternative solutions, and taking action. It helps you make an informed, rational decision. 

In the workplace, you might use these skills to decide which applicant to hire or what dishes to include on the menu. You can also use it to decide when to launch a marketing campaign or what features to add to a mobile app.

What role do communication skills play in analytical thinking? 

Even the best analytical thinkers won’t get far if you can’t explain your reasoning clearly. That’s where communication skills come in. 

Verbal communication 

You need to explain your findings, opinions, or decisions clearly in meetings, presentations, or discussions. When you have good verbal communication skills, you can translate complex analytical ideas and express them in a way others can easily understand through data storytelling. 

Example: After reviewing project data, you present your recommendations to your team using simple, concise language—without overwhelming them with jargon. 

Nonverbal communication 

Non-verbal communication, such as your tone, body language, and listening skills, also plays a role. Active listening and engaged responses show others that you’re considering their viewpoints – a key part of analytical collaboration. 

Example: In a strategy session, you listen attentively to your manager’s concerns, nod, ask follow-up questions, and adjust your suggestions based on feedback. 

Strong communication helps ensure that your analysis leads to action and data visualization – not confusion. 

How to improve your analytical skills in the workplace

Developing analytical skills comes with practice. Here’s how to strengthen different types of reasoning and thinking: 

Practice inductive reasoning 

Look at specific examples or patterns and form general conclusions from them. 

Try this: Review recent team feedback and look for patterns – are certain processes repeatedly flagged? What general conclusion can you draw? 

Practice abductive reasoning 

Use the best available information to make educated guesses or hypotheses. 

Try this: Imagine a customer suddenly unsubscribes. You don’t have full context, but you explore possible reasons (e.g. pricing, poor service) and test your assumptions with follow-up data. 

Practice deductive reasoning 

To practice deductive reasoning, start with a general rule and apply it to a specific case. 

Try this: If the rule is “High email open rates improve conversions,” you can deduce that improving subject lines might boost your campaign’s performance. 

Practice logical reasoning 

Use clear steps and connections to arrive at conclusions with logical reasoning. 

Try this: Map out a decision tree when faced with a complex work task—what are the if-then scenarios? This helps you stay systematic rather than overwhelmed. 

Practice logical thinking 

Train your brain to spot inconsistencies, fallacies, or weak arguments. 

Try this: When reading articles or listening to discussions, ask: “Is there enough evidence to support this claim?” This builds your habit of questioning and validating. 

Practice creative thinking 

Combine analytical thinking with creativity to find fresh solutions. 

Try this: Set aside time to brainstorm new ways to improve an outdated process or solve a recurring team challenge. Use mind maps, post-its, or even just pen and paper to capture your thoughts. 

Developing analytical skills outside the workplace 

While honing your analytical skills in the workplace is important, there are several ways to improve your analytical skills outside of work. Incorporating analytical abilities into your daily life can help you make continuous progress. Here's some practical advice to become an analytical person: 

Read widely

Reading books helps to keep your mind stimulated and alert, which is an important aspect of analytical thinking. Consider joining a book club or investing in an e-book reader to read more frequently. Getting exposed to new ideas also encourages you to consider different viewpoints. Ask questions, read aloud, or make predictions to better engage with your reading material. 

Play brain games

You can improve your analytical skills in a fun way by playing board games, strategic card games, chess, or Sudoku. You can also solve crossword puzzles, logic games, and riddles. These games challenge you to think deeply and logically.

Do math problems 

Math is highly logical and requires a step-by-step approach to get an answer. As such, doing various math problems can strengthen your analytical skills. Practice complicated math problems to improve your logic and reasoning skills.

Observe your environment

Being observant and attentive to details is a great way to actively engage your senses and sharpen your analytical skills. It helps you make connections and think about the way things work. For example, you could go for a walk in the park and think about the connections between birds, trees, weather patterns, and water. 

Ask questions

Being curious improves your cognitive function. Ask yourself questions about why things are the way they are. "The more curious we are about a subject, the more it engages our cognitive functions, such as attention and memory,"  neuroscientist Aracelli Carmago says. 

Asking others questions also helps you learn about different viewpoints and allows you to compare your ideas with theirs. This helps you develop a better understanding of the world and challenge yourself to think about complex issues. 

Keep a journal

Writing about your daily activities and observations helps you reflect on what happened that day. Think about any mistakes you made and write what you could have done differently. This practice helps you sharpen your analytical thinking skills, which involve trial and error.

Engage with data

You can practice and strengthen your skills by analyzing mock data sets. You can find samples of financial data, sales data, or historical data online or create them yourself by importing data into spreadsheets.  

Experiment with different formulas, ask big questions about the data set, and draw insights. This exercise can help you gain confidence in interpreting data for your organization and encourage data-driven decision-making.  

Tools and resources to improve analytical skills

Reading books about analytical thinking can be useful. Search online for top books on this subject and buy them or borrow them from a nearby library. Here are resources you may find useful: 

• "Logical Thinking" by Charles Phillips: This book contains 50 brain-training puzzles to boost your analytical skills. It has logic puzzles and other exercises. They help train your mind to think logically and improve your focus. 
• "Logic: A Complete Introduction" by Siu-Fan Lee: This book covers topics such as arguments, fallacies, truth tables, syllogisms, and modal logic. It takes you step by step through difficult concepts. It also has many exercises to help you solidify your learning at every stage.
• "Critical Thinking" by Christ Lewis: There are 50 strategies in this book to help you strengthen your analytical and critical thinking skills. The strategies focus on developing a hypothesis and testing it against known facts. 

How to highlight strong analytical skills on your resume

The job ad may state that analytical skills are essential for the role. You can incorporate these skills throughout your resume to emphasize your abilities. Review these useful steps: 

Adding analytical skills to the skills section

First, read the job description to understand what skills the employer is looking for. They may need someone with knowledge of data analytics tools or programming languages like SQL or Python. Tailor your resumé according to the job description by including the keywords. 

Create two sections under the skills section. Under hard or technical skills, include examples like data analytics tools, programming languages, and software. Skills like attention to detail, project management, organization, observation, and creativity can go in the soft skills section.

Incorporating analytical skills in your work experience section

Showcase your analytical skills in concise bullet points in your work experience section. Use action verbs, such as identified, optimized, organized, overhauled, developed, or designed. Share how your analytical skills have helped your company. Quantify your accomplishments wherever you can. Here are some examples: 

• Increased sales revenue by 20% by identifying a new target market and launching a social media campaign to reach them.
• Improved production speed by 15% by eliminating redundant steps and automating tasks. 

Showcasing analytical skills in your summary or objective section

The professional summary is your opportunity to impress the hiring manager. It can persuade them to continue reading the rest of your resume. Limit the resume summary to two to four sentences. Feature your experience and accomplishments that are related to analytical skills. Here's an example:

• Data analyst with over 10 years of experience in providing consulting services for pharmaceutical companies. Led a team to find solutions that increased a company's sales by 15%. Proficient in Python, R, Tableau, and SAS.

A career objective describes your long-term career goals and outlines your professional aspirations. It helps the employer understand your career direction and assess if you're a good fit. Here's an example of how you can show your analytical skills in this section: 

• Seeking a position that allows me to apply my strong critical thinking, data analysis, and problem-solving skills to improve the functionality of existing products and make them more user-friendly. 

Hone your data analysis skills

Analytical skills consist of decision-making, problem-solving, data analysis, and research skills. They can help you find the underlying causes of problems and develop creative solutions. With strong analytical skills, you can help improve workplace efficiency. 

Enhance these skills by reading, playing brain games, and developing a curious mindset. You can also read career advice articles to learn how to improve your skill set. Review your resume and think about how to highlight your analytical skills. It can help you attract the attention of hiring managers.

FAQs

1. Why are communication skills important in analytical work?
   ⁠Analytical work can involve writing reports. This makes it essential to know how to express your findings clearly in writing. You may also need to present your insights during presentations to your team or clients. Communication skills enable others to understand your insights. They can then use your ideas to improve business operations.  
2. Why are collaboration skills important in analytical work?
   ⁠⁠Your colleague could notice something that you missed in a data set. Through collaboration, you learn how to look out for such mistakes. You can learn how to use data analytics tools and methods from team members. Collaborating with others also exposes you to different viewpoints. This helps you consider various possibilities.
3. Why is creativity important in analytical work?
   ⁠⁠Creativity helps you identify any gaps or loopholes. With creative thinking, you consider various angles to a problem. It can enable you to come up with innovative solutions. 
4. Why is emotional intelligence important in analytical work?
   ⁠⁠Emotional intelligence is especially important when using qualitative research methods. These methods involve interviewing or observing people. This makes it key to know how to perceive the emotions of others. It's also useful when working in a team to analyze a problem.
5. Why is continuous learning important in analytical work?
   ⁠⁠Data analytics methods and tools are evolving. So, it's essential to stay up to date with the latest developments. This may mean learning how to use new software or programming languages. Continuous learning also helps to keep your mind active and sharp. This is essential for strengthening your analytical thinking skills.