BIA101 · Data-Driven Decision Making

Categories: Data & BI
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About Course

Learn a simple, repeatable way to turn business questions into decisions backed by data, and to recognize when data is misleading you.

Explore · 4 hours · 4 lessons, a lab, an assessed assignment and a portfolio piece

Who it is for

Owners, managers and team members of small businesses who make everyday decisions on pricing, stock, staffing or marketing.

Prerequisites

No prior experience is needed; basic spreadsheet use (opening a file, sorting, filtering) is helpful.

What you will be able to do

  • Frame a business decision as a clear question with options, criteria and a deadline.
  • Identify which data sources a small business already has and judge their reliability.
  • Spot at least four common reasoning traps, such as survivorship bias and confusing correlation with causation.
  • Produce a one-page decision brief that links evidence to a recommended action.

Lessons

  • Lesson 1 · Why decisions need data (and judgment)
  • Lesson 2 · Finding and checking the data you already have
  • Lesson 3 · Reasoning traps and how to avoid them
  • Lesson 4 · Lab and assignment

Lab: From question to decision brief

You will take a sample sales and expenses file for a neighborhood coffee shop, clean a few obvious problems, summarize it with a pivot table and answer one real decision question. The result is a one-page decision brief that states the question, the evidence, the recommendation and what you would monitor next.

Free tools: Google Sheets (free) or LibreOffice Calc

Assessed assignment

Choose a real or realistic decision for a small business you know (for example, whether to open on Sundays, drop a low-selling product or raise a price). Write a one-page decision brief using the DECIDE frame from this course. Show the data you used, at least one chart or summary table, the trap you checked for, and your recommendation with a clear review date. Keep it understandable to someone who has never seen the data.

Criterion Weight What excellent work looks like
Decision framing 25% The question names the options, the decision criteria, the owner and a deadline; nothing is vague.
Evidence quality 30% Data sources are named, limitations are stated honestly and the summary actually answers the question.
Reasoning 25% At least one reasoning trap is explicitly checked, and the recommendation follows logically from the evidence.
Clarity 20% One page, plain language, one useful visual, and a review date with the metric to watch.

Portfolio piece

A one-page decision brief, with its supporting spreadsheet, that shows how you move from a business question to an evidence-based recommendation.

Self-paced, 12-month access. Questions are answered in writing through the student panel. A completion record is issued when you finish the course.

Next step

Continue with BIA102 · KPIs and Business Metrics That Matter · 4 hours · $28.00

Continue to the next course

Prefer the whole program? Program in Business Intelligence & AI Decision Making · $277.00 (10% less than buying the courses separately)

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What Will You Learn?

  • Frame a business decision as a clear question with options, criteria and a deadline.
  • Identify which data sources a small business already has and judge their reliability.
  • Spot at least four common reasoning traps, such as survivorship bias and confusing correlation with causation.
  • Produce a one-page decision brief that links evidence to a recommended action.

Course Content

BIA101 · Data-Driven Decision Making (4 h)
Learn a simple, repeatable way to turn business questions into decisions backed by data, and to recognize when data is misleading you.

  • Lesson 1 · Why decisions need data (and judgment)
  • Lesson 2 · Finding and checking the data you already have
  • Lesson 3 · Reasoning traps and how to avoid them
  • Lesson 4 · Lab and assignment
  • BIA101 Assessment · Data-Driven Decision Making
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